SIL Translator’s Notes on Luke 6:36

6:36

Be merciful:
The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as merciful means “to show concern or compassion toward someone in a difficult situation.” In context, this concern/compassion must be shown even to those who have wronged you.

Some other ways to translate this are:

Show mercy (New Century Version)
-or-
You must be compassionate (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
Have pity on others (Contemporary English Version)

just as your Father is merciful: The phrase just as your Father is merciful means “in the same way that God is merciful/compassionate to people.” God shows compassion to everyone, even to wicked people.

your Father: The word Father here refers to God. It emphasizes the disciples’ relationship with God. If people do not understand that Father refers to God, translate it this way:

your ⌊heavenly⌋ Father
-or-
your Father ⌊God

God was the heavenly Father of Jesus as well as of the disciples. In some languages, it may therefore be necessary to translate this phrase as:

our(incl) Father

© 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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