13:15–16

The commands in 13:15–16 mean that a person should not delay at all. He should not take the time to enter his house to pick up his belongings. He must escape to the mountains at once. To show that the commands apply to the moments before running away, it may be helpful to begin 13:15 in this way:

There must be no delay.
-or-
Do
(plur) not dawdle.

13:15a

Let no one on the housetop: In some languages it may be more natural to translate this in a positive way, as the Revised English Bible has done:

If anyone is on the roof of his house, [he must not….]

If you have used a plural form in 13:14d, it may be more natural to continue to use plural forms here. For example:

If you(plur) are on the roof of your house, [you must not….]

on the housetop: Jewish houses had flat roofs. People often would sit on their roof in the cool evening and talk with neighbors who also were on their roofs. There were steps outside the house, leading to the flat roof.

It may be helpful to put a picture or a footnote here in your translation to show that Jewish houses had flat roofs.

Here are some other ways to express this:

on the flat roof of his house
-or-
on his flat housetop
-or-
on the upstairs porch/verandah of your(plur) house

13:15b

go back inside: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as go back inside here means “go down into the house.” The man would have to go down from the roof by means of the outside stairway in order to flee. Jesus warned him not to waste time by going inside the house.

to retrieve anything from his house: A person might want to take his valuable possessions out of the house. Jesus emphasized that he must not delay in order to pick up his belongings. He must escape immediately.

General Comment on 13:15a–b

In some languages the command in this part of the verse may be difficult to understand because of the implied information about rooftops and outside stairways. It may also be awkward to make this implied information explicit in the text. If that is true in your language, you may want to use a more general statement. For example:

The person who is outside his house must not delay by entering the house to get his belongings.

If you use this option, you may want to add the literal translation in a footnote, along with an explanation about rooftops.

General Comment on 13:15a–b

In 13:15a–b Jesus told the disciples what they should not do. In some languages it may be necessary to add what they should do. For example:

you must just flee

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
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