Exegesis:

akousas de peri tou Iēsou ‘when he heard about Jesus,’ or ‘since he had heard about Jesus’ (cf. Willibrord, Brouwer, Zürcher Bibel), preferably the former. akousas is used without object but this is implied in peri tou Iēsou, i.e. what he had done to sick people.

apesteilen … erōtōn ‘he sent (i.e. Jewish elders), asking,’ implying that his request is transmitted by the people he sent (cf. New English Bible). erōtōn is singular.

presbuterous tōn Ioudaiōn ‘elders of the Jews,’ without article; hence “some elders” (cf. among others Phillips).

presbuteros ‘elder,’ i.e. member of a local religious and administrative council or of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, cf. IDB II, 73.

hopōs elthōn diasōsē ton doulon autou ‘that he would come and save his slave.’ The participle elthōn denotes an event which has to precede the event to which the main verb diasōsē refers.

diasōzō ‘to save,’ i.e. to save the life (cf. New English Bible), or, ‘to heal’ (cf. Revised Standard Version), preferably the former.

Translation:

Heard of, or, ‘heard the news about’ (Javanese, Batak Toba), ‘heard what people said about’ (cf. Bible de Jérusalem).

He sent…, asking him to come, or, making explicit the implied direct discourse, ‘he sent … (to Jesus), saying (or, and said), “Go and ask (the Lord), ‘Please (or, we beg you to) come and heal the centurion’s slave’ ” .’

Elders of the Jews, or, ‘Jewish elders.’ Elders. Often a term for ‘old men’ implies a leading position in the community; Marathi uses a compound with collective meaning to indicate that official elders rather than old men are meant. Elsewhere one must say ‘important men,’ e.g. in Sranan Tongo (lit. ‘big men’), Medumba (lit. ‘those who take precedence’). For Jews the language may possess a traditional designation already. Where that is not the case one should build the rendering on the name Yehuda, using the form or phrase the receptor language employs for names of tribes called after a common ancestor, cf. e.g. Yahudi (Arabic, used also in some Indonesian languages).

Heal, preferably, ‘save the life of’ (Marathi), ‘cause to remain living’ (Sranan Tongo), or simply, ‘save’ (in the non-religious meaning), cf. on 1.47 and references.

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.