Exegesis:
anthrōpos tis epoiei deipnon mega ‘a man was giving a big dinner.’ The imperfect tense of epoiei as contrasted with the aorists ekalesen and apesteilen (v. 17), is durative and refers to both the preparations and the actual giving of the dinner. For poiein deipnon cf. on v. 12.
kai ekalesen pollous ‘and invited many people.’ The clause refers to a first invitation, to be followed by a second call when the appointed time had come. It is possible to render ekalesen ‘he had invited’ as expressing an act prior to that denoted by apesteilen in v. 17.
(V. 17) kai apesteilen ton doulon autou … eipein tois keklēmenois ‘and he sent his servant … to say to those who had been invited.’ For apostellō with following infinitive cf. on 1.19.
tē hōra tou deipnou ‘at the time of the dinner.’
erchesthe, hoti ēdē hetoima estin ‘come, for things are (or, it is) ready now.’ ēdē is used without emphasis. The subject of hetoima estin is not stated but refers to the preparations for the dinner.
Translation:
He, i.e., Jesus.
Gave a great banquet, or, since the banquet is not yet begun, ‘made-preparations-for a big meal’ (Tae’), ‘was-to entertain on-a-big-scale’ (Balinese).
Invited many, i.e. ‘many people/guests.’ Batak Toba possesses a verb implying that those invited have been requested to remain at home on the day of the feast awaiting the announcement that everything is ready, which fits this context admirably.
(V. 17) At the time for the banquet, or, ‘shortly-before the banquet’ (Bahasa Indonesia 1968), ‘when the feast was about to begin,’ ‘at the time they were-to sit-down’ (Balinese).
Sent his servant to say to those who …, or ‘sent his servant to those who … with the message.’ In honorific languages it may be the status of the master, who causes the message to be sent, rather than that of the servant, who actually conveys it, that is decisive for the level of language to be chosen. The former probably requires a polite form of address, as would be used towards equals one wishes to honour, whereas in the latter case the servant would address his master’s guests as his superiors, using reverent honorifics. To those who … The plural is basically distributive, ‘to say to each of those who…’; cf. also An American Translation‘s less explicit “he sent around … to say to those who…”.
Come. A form of request may be preferable, e.g. “please come” (New English Bible, similarly Bahasa Indonesia RC), ‘be so kind as to come along.’
All is now ready, or, ‘everything is just waiting’ (Shona 1966), ‘the food has now been prepared’ (Shona 1963); in Yao the idiom is, ‘things are matured.’
Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.