Translation commentary on Luke 1:49

Exegesis:

hoti, parallel to hoti in the first clause of v. 48.

epoiēsen … megala ‘has done great things.’ The aorist tense epoiēsen points to the parallelism between this clause and the first clause of v. 48 (where epeblepsen also in the aorist). Both refer to the visit and the prophecy of the angel (vv. 26-38).

moi ‘for me,’ but also ‘to me,’ if necessary, preferably the latter, cf. New English Bible.

ho dunatos ‘the mighty one.’

dunatos ‘powerful,’ here used with the article and referring to God in accordance with Old Testament usage (cf. Ps. 45.3, in LXX 44.4).

kai hagion to onoma autou ‘and holy is his name,’ a well known Old Testament liturgical phrase, cf. e.g. Ps. 111.9. Syntactically the clause is best understood as a case of Hebrew co-ordination and hence to be interpreted as a continuation of ho dunatos, cf. ‘he whose name is holy’ (Brouwer).

hagios ‘holy,’ here denoting what is of God as opposed to everything created.

onoma ‘name,’ here of God, a well known Old Testament expression for the personal ruling and acting of God in his revelation to man.

Translation:

He who is mighty, or, “the Almighty” (An American Translation, and several others), ‘he-who-has-great-strength’ (Navajo), ‘the-One who-has-power-over all-that-exists’ (Toraja-Sa’dan); or, ‘the (al)mighty (or, powerful) God.’ For ‘might,’ ‘power’ see above on v. 35.

He has done great things to me, or, ‘has-caused-to-be (i.e. has brought about) for me great deeds’ (Bahasa Indonesia, similarly in Marathi), ‘has brought-to-light great works to my-person’ (Toraja-Sa’dan); with a syntactic shift, ‘amazing his-work to-me’ (Tboli); or with a more specific verb, ‘he has help me greatly.’ For great things, or “wonders” (An American Translation, also in Javanese), ‘amazing things’ (Sundanese).

Holy is his name. The use of “name” in the sense discussed in Exegesis is not foreign to some receptor languages, and seems to have been assimilated without too great difficulty in others. Not in all, however; hence, ‘he is the Holy One,’ or, ‘he is holy’ (Lahu, where a literal rendering would have been misleading).

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.

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