Translation commentary on Luke 8:45

Exegesis:

tis ho hapsamenos mou ‘who (was it) that touched me,’ nominal clause in which the participle with article serves as predicate.

arnoumenōn de pantōn ‘and when all denied,’ scil. having touched Jesus.

arneomai ‘to refuse,’ ‘to deny.’

epistata ‘master,’ cf. on 5.5.

hoi ochloi sunechousin se kai apothlibousin ‘the crowds are hemming you in and pressing upon you,’ answering Jesus’ question by stating implicitly that no answer is possible.

sunechō (also 19.43) ‘to crowd,’ ‘to hem in,’ ‘to surround.’

apothlibō ‘to press upon (somebody),’ stronger than sunechō.

Translation:

Who was it that touched me?, or, placing the participle clause first, ‘someone touched me, who is it?.’

All denied it, or, ‘there was no-one that admitted (it)’ (Balinese, Bahasa Indonesia RC), ‘they said all it was not they’ (Sranan Tongo), ‘everyone said, “It was not I who did so, or, who touched you” .’

The multitudes surround you and press upon you, implying astonishment, which may be indicated by the exclamatory form of the sentence, or, more explicitly, by preposing some such phrase as, ‘how can you ask that!’ The two verbs form a closely knit unit (as is shown by the fact that the object is only expressed with the first); hence renderings by one verb or verbal expression, e.g. ‘push your person’ (Sundanese), ‘are rubbing-themselves-against you’ (Toraja-Sa’dan), or by one verb to which the other is subordinated, cf. e.g. “you are surrounded by people jostling you” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation, similarly Bahasa Indonesia RC). Such verbs or phrases are virtually synonymous with “pressed round him” in v. 42b.

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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