SIL Translator’s Notes on Luke 7:14

7:14a

He went up: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as He went up means “he came/went toward.” It indicates that Jesus came near the coffin.

touched the coffin: Jesus put his hand on the coffin because he wanted the people who were carrying it to stand still, as the context indicates.

coffin: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as coffin probably refers to a stretcher or a plank. People used this stretcher to carry a dead person to where they would bury him. It was probably not a wooden box. Use an appropriate word in your language to describe what is used for this purpose. For example:

bier (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
stretcher (Contemporary English Version)

7:14b

and those carrying it stood still: The men who were carrying the stretcher stopped walking when Jesus came up and touched the bier. In some languages there may be a special word for people who carry corpses to be buried. For example:

pallbearers

carrying it: In some languages it may be necessary to make explicit how the men were carrying the stretcher. They were probably carrying it on poles over their shoulders.

7:14c

Young man: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Young man normally refers to a male who is beyond the age of puberty but not yet married. Consider the natural way to address such a person when his name is not known. For example:

Son
-or-
Friend
-or-
Little brother

In some languages, it is not natural to use such a term as part of Jesus’ command. If that is true in your language, you may be able to translate it as you introduce the command. For example:

He said to the young man, “I say to you, get up!”
-or-
He spoke to the ⌊dead⌋ young man, saying, “I tell you, get up!”

I tell you, get up: Jesus introduced his command to the dead person with the words I tell you. He could have just said get up. But the words I tell you emphasize what he commanded. The command was powerful and brought the dead person back to life.

The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as get up is literally “arise.” It has two meanings:

(1) It can refer to sitting or standing after lying flat.

(2) It can refer to returning to life after being dead.

In this context the man came back to life and sat up. The action of sitting up implies that he first came back to life. Some other ways to translate I tell you, get up are:

I say to you, rise! (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
I’m telling you to come back to life! (God’s Word)
-or-
I command you to get up ⌊and live again⌋!

© 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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