Section 14:1–6
Jesus healed a sick man on the Sabbath
In this section Jesus healed a man whose arms and legs were swollen. He performed this miracle on a Sabbath day in the house of a Pharisee. This event did not necessarily happen after the events of the previous section. It occurs only in Luke.
Another possible heading for this section is:
Jesus Heals a Sick Man (Good News Translation)
The next two sections, 14:7–14 and 14:15–24, also occur in the house of the Pharisee. English versions have divided 14:1–24 into sections in different ways. For example:
• The God’s Word has one section for 14:1–24. The section heading is:
Jesus attends a banquet
• The New International Version has two sections. They are:
Jesus at a Pharisee’s House (14:1–14)
The Parable of the Great Banquet (14:15–24)
It is good to read these sections before you decide where to make the section breaks. You should divide the sections in a way that will be appropriate in your language.
Paragraph 14:1–3
14:1a
In the Greek text this section begins with a phrase that often introduces a new event. Many modern English translations do not translate this phrase explicitly (Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation). If it is natural in your language, you may translate it with a phrase that introduces a new incident. For example:
Now it happened that (New Jerusalem Bible)
One Sabbath: The phrase One Sabbath gives the time setting for this incident. Use a natural way in your language to introduce this background information. For example:
On a certain rest day
In some languages it may be more natural to use a general expression at the beginning of the sentence and specify later that it was the Sabbath day. This would connect the information that it was the Sabbath more closely to the statement in 14:1b that Jesus was being watched. For example:
On one occasion, when Jesus…to eat a meal on the sabbath (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
One day, Jesus went…. It was the day for resting.
Sabbath: The word Sabbath is the name of the seventh and last day of the week for the Jews. This was the special day in the week when they rested and worshiped God. Some ways to translate Sabbath are:
the ⌊Jewish⌋ rest day
-or-
the day for resting
-or-
the day to rest and worship God
If the word Sabbath is already known in your area, you may write it according to the sounds of your language. You may also want to include a phrase to explain the meaning. For example:
the Sabat, the ⌊Jews’⌋ rest day
The word Sabbath also occurs in 13:10.
Jesus went to eat: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as to eat is literally “to eat bread.” Bread was the main food that was eaten at meals in that culture. Another way to translate this is:
to eat a meal (Good News Translation)
The context implies that Jesus was invited to this meal along with other guests. In some languages it may be natural to make this information explicit here. For example:
a leader of the Pharisees invited Jesus to eat ⌊with others⌋ at his home
in the home of a leading Pharisee: There are two ways to interpret the Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as a leading Pharisee:
(1) It refers to a leader of other Pharisees or an important person among them. For example:
a leader of the Pharisees (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
an important Pharisee (Contemporary English Version)
(Berean Standard Bible, New Living Translation (2004), New International Version, Good News Translation, King James Version, New Century Version, Contemporary English Version, God’s Word, NET Bible, Revised English Bible, New Revised Standard Version, New Jerusalem Bible)
(2) It refers to a Pharisee who was a leader of the Jews. For example:
a ruler who belonged to the Pharisees (Revised Standard Version)
(Revised Standard Version)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), along with the majority of English versions.
Pharisee: A Pharisee was a member of the Pharisee party, a religious group that emphasized obeying the Law of Moses. Here are some ways to translate this word:
• Transliterate the word Pharisee according to the sounds of your language and indicate that it refers to a person. For example:
Farisi member
-or-
Parise adherent
• Transliterate the word Pharisee and indicate that it refers to a group of people with certain beliefs. For example:
person belonging to the Farise religious sect/group
-or-
member of the religious group called the Farasi
See how you translated Pharisee in 11:37a. The word first occurs in Luke in 5:17b.
14:1b
those in attendance were watching Him closely: In Greek, the phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as those in attendance were watching Him closely is literally “they were watching him closely.” The word “they” is an indefinite pronoun. If your language would not use an indefinite pronoun in this way, you may:
• Translate this as a passive verbal phrase. For example:
he was being carefully watched (New International Version)
• Supply a general subject, as the Berean Standard Bible does: those in attendance. For example:
the other people present closely watched him
-or-
Jesus’ enemies observed him carefully
• Use a specific subject from 14:3a. For example:
the Pharisees and the law experts watched him carefully
In this context, the Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as were watching Him closely implies that the other people who came to the dinner were watching Jesus suspiciously or with hostility. The other people at the dinner included Pharisees and experts in the Jewish religious laws (see 14:3). They wanted to be able to accuse Jesus of breaking one of these laws.
In some languages there may be idioms that suggest a hostile reason for watching someone. One English idiom that expresses this is:
they had their eyes on him
© 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.