The Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Greek that is usually translated into English as “peace,” when referring to one’s inner peace, is (back-) translated with a variety of idioms and phrases:
“rest the heart” (Central Mazahua) / “rest within” (Lacandon) (source: Nida 1952, p. 40 and 128ff.) / “wait well in your heart” (Yatzachi Zapotec) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
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 10:1-12:
Later the Lord chose seventy-two other followers
and sent them out two by two to every town and village
that he intended to visit. He said to them:
“So many crops in the field, and so few workers!
Pray for the Lord of the harvest to send more workers.
Now go, and remember I’m sending you out
like lambs among hungry wolves.
Take only the clothes you absolutely need,
and don’t waste time just hanging loose!
Ask God’s blessing upon every home
where you are welcomed,
but withhold it where you are rejected.
Stay with the first family that invites you,
eating and drinking whatever they provide,
without moving from place to place.
Remember you are worth what you receive,
if you work really hard.
“When a town welcomes you, heal their sick and say,
‘The Ultimate Kingdom will soon be here!’
But when a town rejects you,
stand on the top of a soap box and shout,
‘This is your final warning!
The Ultimate Kingdom will soon be here!’
“My followers, I tell you now
that no town will be judged more harshly
than those that reject you!”
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 10:5:
Noongar: “When you go into a house, first say, ‘Let peace rest on this home’.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “‘When you enter into a house, immediately you say: ‘Goodness from the Lord arrives to you houseowners!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “And when you go up into a house, say first, ‘May God give peace to all in this house.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And whichever house you go up into, you greet the people there. You say, ‘You who live here, may God bless you.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “If you enter a house, say first, ‘May it be that God will bless you in this household.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Whichever house you go into, first say, ‘Hopefully peace/protection of mind/inner-being which God gives will be yours (pl.).'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
eis hēn d’ an eiselthēte oikian lit. ‘into whatever house you go,’ but the relative hēn is not taken up in the main clause.
prōton legete ‘say first,’ i.e. before bringing your message.
eirēnē tō oikō toutō ‘peace to this house,’ a well known Hebrew greeting (cf. e.g. Judges 19.20). Here it refers to the peace that characterizes the Messianic kingdom.
Translation:
Whatever house you enter, or, ‘when you go into (or, set foot in) a house’ (cf. New English Bible, Sranan Tongo).
Peace be to this house, or, ‘may peace be given to this house,’ ‘may (the people in) this house receive peace,’ ‘may God give peace to (all of) you who are in this house’; or, since wishing peace is a form of blessing, ‘may God give you blessing, this whole household’ (Tzeltal), cf. also Tae’ 1933, lit. ‘pray-for those people that their life be well (a term for blessing).’ Where the optative mood can be expressed by position (as here in the Greek), or by an optative verbal form or particle, one may prepose a phrase like, ‘I want/wish that.’ For peace, here used with positive aspect, see on 1.79. — Renderings in the line of those just mentioned will have to be used even in the considerable number of languages where the expression concerned does not function as, or even resemble, a formula of salutation, but it may be possible then to hint at the functional meaning, e.g. by rendering the introductory “first say” by, ‘first say by way of greeting.’
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.
Whatever house you enter: The clause Whatever house you enter introduces a general instruction. It applies to any time when the disciples arrived in a town and went to a particular house where they hoped to stay as guests.
In some languages it may be necessary to make explicit some of the implied information. For example:
Whenever you enter someone’s home (New Living Translation (2004)) -or-
Whenever ⌊someone invites⌋ you to stay at their house -or-
Whenever you ⌊arrive in a town and you⌋ go to a particular house to stay
10:5b
begin by saying: Jesus’ command begin by saying indicates that he wanted the disciples to speak a blessing on those in the household before they said or did anything else. Other ways to translate this command are:
As soon as you enter a home, say (Contemporary English Version) -or-
greet the family right away with the words (God’s Word)
Peace to this house: The clause Peace to this house was a normal way for a Jew to greet people when he entered their home. The greeting implied that the speaker was asking God to bless the people in the house by giving them peace. Some other ways to translate this are:
May God give peace to ⌊all/you(plur)⌋ in this home -or-
May God bless/prosper this family
In some languages it may be more natural to translate 10:5b as indirect speech. For example:
the first thing you should do is to ask God aloud to bless everyone in the household with peace
Peace: The Jewish concept of Peace includes both an absence of war or conflict and a state of well-being, safety, health, and prosperity. All this comes from God for those who are in a relationship with him.
Some languages will have one word to describe the absence of war or conflict and a different word to describe well-being in general. Choose a word that includes as many different senses of the word “peace” as possible. If you must choose a specific sense, a word that means “well-being” fits this context better than a word that means “absence of conflict.”
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