complete verse (Luke 10:28)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 10:28:

  • Noongar: “‘You speak the truth,’ Jesus said. ‘Do this and you will live.'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “Yesus said: ‘Your (sing.) answer is right/true. Do like that, you (sing.) will get/attain good life.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “‘Your answer is right,’ said Isa. ‘Do that and you will be given everlasting life.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then Jesus said to him, ‘What you said is true. If you do that, you will be given life without end.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘Your (sing.) answer is correct,’ Jesus said. ‘If you (sing.) do that, you (sing.) will have life that has no ending.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “‘Really true is what you answered there,’ said Jesus. ‘Provided you always obey those, this life will be yours.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Luke 10:25-37)

Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Luke 10:25-37:

A biblical scholar once questioned Jesus,
       “Teacher, what must I do to have eternal life?”

“What do you think the Bible teaches about this?”
       asked Jesus in return.

The scholar answered, “It commands us
to love God with all our heart
       and to love others as much as we love ourselves.”

“That’s right,” answered Jesus
       “Now do this, and you’ll have eternal life.”

The man wanted to show off somewhat and inquired,
       “Who are these others you’re talking about?”

Jesus explained with a story:

       “A Jewish man was on his way to worship in Jerusalem,
              when he was brutally robbed and left for dead.
       Along came a theologian, but he didn’t pause to help,
       then a parishioner praised for his piety passed right by,
              too fearful of being defiled and unable to worship God.

       “Finally, an Arab came along, and when he saw the man,
              he stopped and ministered first aid.
       Then he put the Jewish man on his own donkey
              and took him to the nearest motel.

       “Next morning, he gave the motel manager his credit card
       and said, ‘Give him the best treatment possible,
              and charge it all to my account’.”

Then Jesus asked the biblical scholar,
       “Which one of these people truly cared for the injured man?”

To this the scholar replied, “The one who showed mercy.”
“Go and do the same!” was the answer Jesus gave.

Honorary "are" construct denoting God ("say")

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Luke 10:28

Exegesis:

orthōs apekrithēs ‘you have answered correctly,’ cf. 7.43.

touto poiei kai zēsē ‘do that, and you will live.’ The imperative has the force of a conditional clause, ‘if you do that, you will live.’ The present tense of poiei points to a continued attitude. In the present context zēsē refers to zōē aiōnios ‘eternal life.’

Translation:

You have answered right, or another idiomatic expression of approval, cf. “you are right” (An American Translation), “quite right” (Phillips); and cf. on 7.43.

You will live, or ‘you will have/acquire eternal life.’

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.

SIL Translator’s Notes on Luke 10:28

10:28a

You have answered correctly: Some other ways to translate this clause are:

You are right (Good News Translation)
-or-
That is the right answer (Revised English Bible)

Jesus said: The Greek clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Jesus said is literally “he said to him.” The Berean Standard Bible has made Jesus explicit to make it clear who is speaking. In Greek, this clause occurs before “You have answered correctly.” You should use a natural order in your language.

10:28b

Do this: The clause Do this means, “Keep these commandments.” Jesus told the law expert to obey the commandments that he had just quoted in 10:27a–c.

Do: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Do is in the present tense. It refers to doing something regularly or continually. It does not refer to doing something one time.

and you will live: This is a result clause. Someone who acts in a way that shows that he truly loves God and his neighbors will live forever with God. It refers back to the expert’s question in 10:25, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Some other ways to translate this are:

then you will ⌊receive⌋ ⌊eternal⌋ life
-or-
and life will be yours (God’s Word)

General Comment on 10:28b

In some languages it may be necessary to make explicit that the two clauses that the Berean Standard Bible connects with and are a condition and a result. For example:

If you do this, you will have eternal life. (Contemporary English Version)

© 2009, 2010, 2013 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.