SIL Translator’s Notes on Luke 22:40

22:40a

When He came to the place: the place probably refers to the place on the Mount of Olives where Jesus and his disciples slept at night on the days before the Passover feast. Judas knew where to find him because Jesus usually went to that place. Some other ways to translate When He came to the place are:

On reaching the place (New International Version)
-or-
There (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
And when they arrived there

He told them: This phrase introduces what Jesus said to his disciples.

22:40b

Pray: In Greek the verb Pray probably implies the meaning “be praying” or “pray continuously.” It does not imply here that the disciples should pray only once. For more information and translation advice, see the notes on 18:1b–c. The context there also emphasizes persistent prayer, so it may be helpful to read all the notes on that verse.

that you will not enter into temptation: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as enter into temptation is literally “come into temptation.” The phrase is a figure of speech. It means “yield to temptation.” It implies here that the disciples will be enticed to do something wrong or sinful. They should pray that they will not agree to do what they are tempted to do. Some other ways to say this are:

so that you do not agree/yield when you are tempted
-or-
so that you will be able to resist temptation

In some languages it may be necessary to use an active verb and make the subject explicit. There are many things, situations, people, spirits, and attitudes that tempt people. In 22:31 Jesus had already mentioned that Satan would tempt them. If it is necessary to supply a subject here in your language, you may supply “Satan” as the subject (as in 22:31) or use a more indefinite subject. For example:

so that when ⌊Satan⌋ tempts you, you will not agree/sin
-or-
so that you will not agree to sin, when ⌊anything/anyone⌋ entices you to do wrong
-or-
so that you will refuse when ⌊anything/anyone⌋ tries to deceive/lure you into sinning

temptation: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as temptation refers to something that causes a person to want to sin or do wrong. In this context Jesus referred specifically to temptations to be unfaithful to Jesus. Jesus knew that the disciples would soon be in danger and afraid. Terrible things would happen that they did not expect. They would feel anguish and sorrow. Any of these things could influence (tempt) the disciples to stop trusting Jesus. Jesus also knew that Satan would try to influence them to stop trusting him.

In some languages it is necessary to say what the disciples would be tempted to do. If that is true in your language, you should supply a phrase that fits with how you translated 22:31–32. For example:

when you are tempted ⌊to be unfaithful
-or-
when ⌊anything/Satan⌋ tries to influence/trick you ⌊to stop trusting me

The word temptation also occurred in 4:13 and 11:4. See how you translated it there. You may also want to refer to the parallel verse in Mark 14:38.

© 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.

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