Translation commentary on Luke 23:4

Exegesis:

pros tous archiereis kai tous ochlous ‘to the chief priests and the crowds.’ tous archiereis refers back to, and stands for, those who had brought Jesus before Pilate, i.e. those mentioned in 22.66. tous ochlous is added as if the gathering of the crowds before Pilate’s palace (a natural thing to happen in the present situation) had been mentioned before.

ouden heuriskō aition ‘I find no guilt,’ i.e. no reason to condemn, or, no ground for a charge.

en tō anthrōpō toutō ‘in this man,’ i.e. in the case of this man, not, in his heart, or, inner being.

Translation:

For chief priests see on “high-priesthood” in 3.2.

I find no crime in this man, or, “I do not find this person guilty” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation), ‘I do not discover anything for which this man should be punished’; or with a syntactic shift, ‘what I find/see, this person has no guilt’ (Balinese). The concept ‘guilt’ is sometimes rendered by such an idiom as, ‘something connected with a person (as though tied by a string)’ (Navajo, in James 2.10), cf. ‘to have deed on your neck’ (Uduk).

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.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments