unmarked grave

The Greek that is translated as “unmarked grave” in English is translated in Elhomwe as “forgotten grave.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

complete verse (Luke 11:44)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 11:44:

  • Noongar: “Very terrible for you! You are like graves without names and people tread them without knowing.'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “Disaster to you, because you are like graves that are not visible, that do not have a marker. People step on that grave, but they do not know that there is something rotten inside. You are good on the outside, but evil in your hearts.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “‘You are to be pitied. Because you are figuratively like a grave which is leveled/unmarked already, so the people walk over it and they don’t know that it defiles them.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Pity you Pharisees because you’re like graves that are marked, which people accidentally walk on. Because, as for people, they think that it does them good to follow you, but this really harms them because they find themselves imitating your evil doings.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘Pitiful are you, because you are like burial-places of the dead that can’t be distinguished, so people step-on them, but they don’t know that that’s what they are stepping on.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Really very hard is what is in store for you, for what you are like is a grave with no marker. That’s why people can trespass by walking on it for they have no awareness of it. Well like that indeed, people can become implicated/involved in the evil in your minds, for they mistakenly-thought you are righteous/straight in the sight of God.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing religious leaders

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

Here, Jesus is addressing religious leaders with the formal pronoun, showing respect. Compare that with the typical address with the informal pronoun of the religious leaders.

The only two exceptions to this are Luke 7:40/43 and 10:26 where Jesus uses the informal pronoun as a response to the sycophantic use of the formal pronoun by the religious leaders (see formal pronoun: religious leaders addressing Jesus).

In most Dutch translations, the same distinctions are made, with the exception of Luke 10:26 where Jesus is using the formal pronoun. In Afrikaans and Western Frisian the informal pronoun is used throughout.

second person pronoun with low register

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 show different degree of politeness is through the choice of a second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.

In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also first person pronoun with low register and third person pronoun with low register.

Translation commentary on Luke 11:44

Exegesis:

este hōs ta mnēmeia ta adēla ‘you are like unmarked graves.’ The article ta is generic. Since contact with graves makes ritually unclean, graves used to be whitewashed so as to be conspicuous (cf. Mt. 23.27).

adēlos ‘not clear,’ ‘unseen,’ ‘unmarked.’

hoi anthrōpoi [hoi] peripatountes epanō ‘the people who walked over,’ scil. the graves.

ouk oidasin ‘do not know,’ scil. that they walk over graves.

Translation:

To bring out that the comparison is between the hidden uncleanness of graves and the unknown evil in the hearts of the Pharisees one may specify the object of the last verb, e.g. ‘without knowing how bad/unclean/filthy they (i.e. the graves) are inside,’ choosing for the adjective a term that can be used both of ritual and of moral badness. Further explanation, if required, can better go into a footnote referring to Mt. 23.27f, where the simile is elaborated.

Graves which are not seen, or, ‘are unmarked’; or, ‘graves which people cannot see (for what they are), or, have not marked (as such).’ For grave one may have to use a descriptive rendering, e.g. ‘hole in the ground where a corpse is buried/put,’ or a locative derivation of ‘to inter/inhume’ (Toraja-Sa’dan). In Bali the place where a corpse is buried (either permanently or awaiting cremation) is marked by mounds that rise a few inches above ground level; therefore the phrase has been rendered, ‘mounds that have become flat.’

And men walk over them without knowing it, or, ‘and men who walk over (or, tread upon) them do not know it’; and cf. above. The clause is resultative.

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 11:44

11:44a

Woe to you!:
Woe to you is the same phrase that was used in 11:43a. Jesus was still referring to the Pharisees. Consider if you need to make the Pharisees explicit here.

11:44b

For: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as For is the same conjunction as in 11:42b and 11:43b, where the Berean Standard Bible did not translate it. This conjunction introduces another reason why God was going to punish the Pharisees. Some English versions do not translate this conjunction. In some languages it may be natural to introduce this reason without using an explicit conjunction.

you are like unmarked graves: The clause you are like unmarked graves is a figure of speech called a simile. In this simile, Jesus compared the Pharisees to unmarked graves.

Unmarked graves looked like ordinary ground on the outside, so people did not realize that they contained rotting bodies inside. In the same way, the Pharisees appeared to be righteous and religious in their outward behavior. People did not suspect that their unseen inner thoughts and motives were full of evil.

In some languages it will be necessary to make one or more of the points of comparison explicit. For example:

because you ⌊have unseen/hidden filthiness/rottenness inside you⌋ like an unmarked grave
-or-
because you are like hidden graves ⌊that contain rotting/contaminating corpses⌋

unmarked graves: The Greek expression that the Berean Standard Bible translates as unmarked graves refers to graves that were not evident or identifiable as graves. Generally, tombs or graves were painted white so that people knew where they were located. Jesus was referring to places that had not been marked in this way. They looked normal on the outside, but inside they contained dead bodies. Their location was not hidden from view, but it was not obvious that corpses were buried there. Some other ways to translate this expression are:

graves with no marker
-or-
graves that people cannot distinguish

11:44c

which men walk over without even noticing: Sometimes, people walked across or stepped on such graves and did not realize that there were dead people underneath. When they did this, they became ceremonially unclean without knowing it.

The Pharisees were like these graves because they caused other people to become morally unclean. The ordinary people admired them and were influenced by them. But without realizing it, they learned evil ways of thinking and acting from the Pharisees.

men: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as men here refers to people in general.

noticing: There is more than one implied object of noticing. The word can refer to:

(a) noticing that the graves contain rotting bodies

(b) noticing that they have become defiled/unclean

You may need to make some of this implied information explicit in a footnote or in your translation. For example:

which people can step on ⌊and become unclean⌋ without knowing it
-or-
If a person walks over ⌊the surface of a grave like this⌋, he will not know ⌊that there is something rotten/filthy inside that has made him unclean⌋.

A suggested footnote is:

A Jewish person who touched a grave became ceremonially/ritually unclean for seven days. See Numbers 19:16.

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