Paragraph 10:30–35
Jesus told the story in this paragraph in order to teach people what the Law meant by the command to love our neighbors. Most scholars think that this story probably did not really happen. If you must distinguish in your language between events that actually happened and fictional stories, you can indicate that it is a fictional story.
10:30a
Jesus took up this question and said: The Greek that the Berean Standard Bible translates as took up reflects the idiomatic language used in the Greek. It means that Jesus responded to the question. Jesus answered the question in 10:29b by telling the parable in 10:30–35. In some languages it may be helpful to make this explicit. For example:
Jesus replied with a story (New Living Translation (2004))
10:30b
A man: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as A man is more literally “A certain man.” This is a way to introduce a new person into a story, as well as to introduce a new story itself. Consider what is a natural way to introduce a new story and a new person in the story in your language. For example:
There was once a man (Good News Translation)
-or-
One day, a certain man
The people who heard this story may have assumed that the man was Jewish. However, Jesus did not specify what ethnic group the man was from.
going down from Jerusalem: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as going down indicates that the man traveled down a hill. The city of Jerusalem was built on a hill. So anyone leaving the city had to walk down the hill to a place that was lower in elevation.
In some languages, it is important to say whether people go up or down when they travel. In other languages, this will be unusual or may be confusing. If it is not natural in your language, you may use a more general expression. For example:
left Jerusalem and traveled
-or-
was going from Jerusalem
If you do not include the information that the man went downhill¸ you may want to add a footnote with this information. For example:
Jericho was located about 27 kilometers (17 miles) from Jerusalem. It was about 1000 meters (3300 feet) lower in altitude. The road was steep. It passed through isolated, rocky places where it was easy for bandits to hide and attack people
to Jericho: Jericho was a town near the Jordan River. It was about twenty-seven kilometers east of Jerusalem.
10:30c
he fell into the hands of robbers: The Greek expression that the Berean Standard Bible translates as he fell into the hands of robbers is an idiom. It indicates here that some robbers attacked the man and overcame him. It does not mean that the man stumbled and fell. It also does not imply that the man was planning to meet these robbers. The robbers were looking for a traveler to attack. Here is another way to say this:
some robbers attacked him (New Century Version)
robbers: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as robbers refers to men who attacked people who were traveling from one place to another. The robbers would beat the people and steal from them and sometimes kill them. Other ways to translate the word are:
brigands
-or-
highwaymen
-or-
bandits/brigands
-or-
violent thieves
10:30d
They stripped him: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as stripped indicates here that the robbers took the man’s clothes off his body. This probably also implies that they took his money and everything else that he had with him. So you may wish to translate this as:
They stripped him ⌊of everything he had⌋
-or-
They removed his clothes ⌊and took them,⌋ ⌊along with everything he had with him⌋
10:30e
beat him: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as beat him means “hit him.” The text does not say with what the robbers hit the man, but it was probably with sticks or clubs.
leaving him half dead: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as half dead means “severely hurt” or “only just alive.” Some other ways to say this are:
almost dead (New Century Version)
-or-
he was near death
Apparently, the robbers beat the man until he was unconscious and then went away. In some languages there may be an idiomatic way to say this.
© 2009, 2010, 2013 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.