The Greek that is translated as “woe to you” or similar in English is translated in Martu Wangka as “you sit as sorry ones” (source: Carl Gross). Toraja-Sa’dan has two expressions that can be used: upu’ allomu or “to-their-end are your days” and sumpu sumandakmu or “finished is what-is-measured-out to you.” In the case of Luke 10:13, where “woe” is doubled, both are used for stylistic, non-repetitive purposes (see Reiling / Swellengrebel).
In Matumbi it is translated as Wakibona or “You will see” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext) and in the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) with a phrase containing tsoka, a word to describe something bad that happens (or may happen) to a person because of doing something against established traditions in a community (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation).
In Hebrew it is translated as oy (אוֹי) and in Yiddish as oy (אוי) or vey (וֵויי). Note that oy vey in combination is also commonly used in Yiddish as an interjection of dismay and vey is derived from the GermanWehe (which in turn has the same root than the English woe). (Source: Jost Zetzsche)
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 11:47:
Noongar: “‘Very terrible for you! You make beautiful graves for the Prophets, but truly, your ancestors, they killed these Prophets.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “Disaster to you! How fancily you fix -up the graves of the long-ago prophets, while it was your own ancestors who killed those prophets.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “‘You are really to be pitied. For you make the graves of the prophets nice – the prophets whom your forefathers killed.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Pity you also in the future because you decorate the tombs, the burial places of the former prophets of God, but you are also the descendants of those who murdered them.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “‘Pitiful are you, because you make-beautiful burial-monuments -for the prophets long ago whom your ancestors were-killing.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Really very hard is what is in store for you. For elaborate memorials are what you cause to be built at the graves of the prophets who were all killed by your ancestors.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Eugene Nida wrote the following about the translation of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek terms that are typically translated with “prophet” in English:
“The tendency in many translations is to use ‘to foretell the future’ for ‘prophesy,’ and ‘one who foretells the future’ for ‘prophet.’ This is not always a recommended usage, particularly if such expressions denote certain special native practices of spirit contact and control. It is true, of course, that prophets of the Bible did foretell the future, but this was not always their principal function. One essential significance of the Greek word prophētēs is ‘one who speaks forth,’ principally, of course, as a forth-teller of the Divine will. A translation such as ‘spokesman for God’ may often be employed profitably.” (1947, p. 234f.)
Following is a list of (back-) translations from other languages (click or tap for details):
Ayutla Mixtec: “one who talks as God’s representative”
Isthmus Mixe: “speaker for God” (source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Mezquital Otomi / Paasaal: “God’s messenger” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff. and Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Noongar: Warda Marridjiny or “News Traveling” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Kutu: mtula ndagu or “one who gives the prediction of the past and the future” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ebira: ọnịsẹ, a neologism that combines the prefix ọn for “a person” with ịsẹ for “prediction” (source: Scholz /Scholz 2015, p. 49)
French 1985 translation by Chouraqui: inspiré or “inspired one” (“someone in whom God has breathed [Latin: in + spiro]) (source: Watson 2023, p. 45)
Cherokee: adolehosgi (ᎠᏙᎴᎰᏍᎩ) or “discoverer of things,” a “term that was was traditionally applied to Cherokee medicine men or women who used divining.” (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 49)
In Ixcatlán Mazatec a term is used that specifically includes women. (Source: Robert Bascom)
“In some instances these spiritual terms result from adaptations reflecting the native life and culture. Among the Northern Grebo people of Liberia, a missionary wanted some adequate term for ‘prophet,’ and she was fully aware that the native word for ‘soothsayer’ or ‘diviner’ was no equivalent for the Biblical prophet who spoke forth for God. Of course, much of what the prophets said referred to the future, and though this was an essential part of much of their ministry, it was by no means all. The right word for the Gbeapo people would have to include something which would not only mean the foretelling of important events but the proclamation of truth as God’s representative among the people. At last the right word came; it was ‘God’s town-crier.’ Every morning and evening the official representative of the chief goes through the village crying out the news, delivering the orders of the chief, and announcing important coming events. ‘God’s town-crier’ would be the official representative of God, announcing to the people God’s doings, His commands, and His pronouncements for their salvation and well-being. For the Northern Grebo people the prophet is no weird person from forgotten times; he is as real as the human, moving message of the plowman Amos, who became God’s town-crier to a calloused people.” (source: Nida 1952, p. 20)
In British Sign Language it is is translated with a sign that depicts a message coming from God to a person (the upright finger) and then being passed on to others. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Prophet” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
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 Translator2002, 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.
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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 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. )
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®).
hoti oikodomeite ta mnēmeia tōn prophētōn ‘for you build the tombs of the prophets.’ The present tense of oikodomeite is best understood as habitual. mnēmeion means here ‘tomb,’ ‘memorial,’ elsewhere in Luke (e.g. v. 44) ‘grave.’
Translation:
Build the tombs of the prophets, or, ‘build tombs for the prophets.’ Where ‘tombs’ in the sense of ‘sepulchral monuments’ are unknown, one may say ‘make beautiful the graves of…’ (Sranan Tongo), ‘erect/make a building (or, put high stones) where the prophets have been buried.’
Whom your fathers killed, or better to bring out the contrast, “the very prophets your ancestors murdered” (Good News Translation).
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.
In 11:47–48 Jesus criticized the law experts for building tombs to honor the dead prophets. The logic of Jesus’ statement is difficult to follow because:
(a) Normally, building tombs to honor someone is a good thing to do.
(b) If the law experts built tombs for prophets whom their forefathers had killed, people would think they were trying to atone for the sins of their fathers. That too would normally be a good thing to do.
Jesus’ logic was something like this:
(a) The only real way to honor the prophets would be to follow and obey their message.
(b) But the law experts did not obey the message of the prophets. So they were not honoring the prophets.
(c) If they were not honoring the prophets’ lives, then by building tombs they were honoring their deaths.
(d) This was the same as agreeing with what their ancestors did.
See the General Comment on 11:47–48 at the end of 11:48b for some possible ways to clarify 11:47–48.
11:47a
Woe to you!: This phrase is the same as in 11:43a.
11:47b
You build tombs for the prophets: The law experts were apparently in the habit of building fine tombs or memorials to honor the prophets of Old Testament days.
build tombs: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates here as tombs probably refers to stone monuments. These monuments were built at the site of the grave. They served to decorate the grave. Other ways to translate the phrase build tombs are:
make fancy grave markers -or-
build monuments (Contemporary English Version) -or-
make/erect memorials -or-
set up beautiful stones to decorate the graves
prophets: The word prophets describes men and women who spoke on behalf of God. They told people what God revealed to them. Some ways to translate prophets are:
spokesmen for God -or-
men who speaks God’s words -or-
God’s message-speakers
The word prophets also occurs at 10:24a. See also prophet in the Glossary.
11:47c
your fathers: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates literally as fathers figuratively means “ancestors.” Many English versions translate it that way. Another way to translate this is:
your forefathers (New International Version)
killed: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as killed can also be translated as “murdered” here. The ancestors of the law experts had killed the prophets unlawfully because they had hated the prophets and their message.
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