Exegesis:
apokritheis ‘answering,’ i.e. to their question of v. 20.
tuphloi anablepousin ‘blind people are regaining sight.’ The present tense is repetitive and refers to what happens regularly. This applies also to the subsequent clauses of v. 22. The fact that several of them reflect Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messianic age is the implicit answer to John’s question whether Jesus was ‘the coming one.’
anablepō ‘to look up,’ here, ‘to gain or, regain sight,’ preferably the latter.
chōloi peripatousin ‘lame people are walking.’ For peripateō cf. on 5.23.
chōlos ‘lame,’ ‘crippled,’ ‘limping.’
leproi katharizontai ‘lepers are cleansed,’ cf. on 4.27.
kai kōphoi akouousin ‘deaf people are hearing (again).’ kai is best understood as being inserted for stylistic reasons, i.e. in order to interrupt the series of asyndetic clauses.
nekroi egeirontai ‘dead people are raised,’ cf. on v. 14.
ptōchoi euaggelizontai ‘to poor people the good news is being brought.’ For ptōchoi cf. on 4.18 and 6.20. euaggelizomai ‘to proclaim good news’ (cf. on 1.19 and 2.10) is used here in the passive with a personal subject indicating the person to whom the good news is brought.
Translation:
Go, or, ‘go back’ (Javanese, Balinese).
What you have seen and heard. In Shona 1966 the so-called applied form of verbs is used, giving the shade of meaning, ‘what you have seen for yourselves and heard for yourselves.’
The blind receive their sight, or, ‘can see (again),’ or, ‘become seeing (again),’ or, ‘see now’ (Kekchi, ‘now’ indicating the change of former circumstances). For ‘to see,’ when used intransitively in the sense of ‘to have the faculty of sight,’ some languages have a specific form, e.g. Batak Toba; elsewhere the transitive verb can be used in this sense when a generic object, ‘space,’ is added (Tzeltal).
The lame walk, or, ‘the crippled/limping walk properly’ (Bahasa Indonesia, Sundanese). The term for lame may lit. mean ‘foot-dead’ (Trukese); or, ‘having just one foot/leg.’
Lepers are cleansed, or, ‘lepers become clean,’ and see on 4.27.
The deaf, or, ‘those who can’t hear’; the Chuukeseterm lit. means ‘ear-closed.’
To hear, in the sense of, ‘to have the faculty of hearing’ is, again, expressed by a specific verbal form in e.g. Batak Toba, and by ‘to hear space’ and ‘to hear the air (i.e. all that is in the air, or, in a person’s surroundings)’ in Tzeltal and Tae.’
The dead are raised up, or, ‘dead people arise, or, come to life (again), or, live again’ (Sranan Tongo, Tae’ 1933).
The poor have good news preached to them, or again, ‘the poor receive/can hear the good news,’ ‘someone preaches the good news to the poor.’ For to preach good news see on 3.18.
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.