The Greek that is transliterated as “Herod (Antipas)” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the sign for king and and a sign depicting cutting off the head (of John the Baptist), referring to Matthew 14:10 et al. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
The Greek that is a transliteration of the Hebrew Pərūšīm and is typically transliterated into English as “Pharisee” is transliterated in Mandarin Chinese as Fǎlìsài (法利賽 / 法利赛) (Protestant) or Fǎlìsāi (法利塞) (Catholic). In Chinese, transliterations can typically be done with a great number of different and identical-sounding characters. Often the meaning of the characters are not relevant, unless they are chosen carefully as in these cases. The Protestant Fǎlìsài can mean something like “Competition for the profit of the law” and the Catholic Fǎlìsāi “Stuffed by/with the profit of the law.” (Source: Zetzsche 1996, p. 51)
In Finnish Sign Language it is translated with the sign signifying “prayer shawl”. (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023) translates it into English as Observant. He explains (p. 302): “Pharisee has become a public, universal pejorative term for a hypocrite. Pharisees were observant of the interpretation of the Covenant Code called the ‘tradition of the elders.’ They conformed their behaviors to the interpretation. Among the various groups of Jews at the time of Jesus, they were perhaps closest to Jesus in their overall concern to make a radical commitment to the will of God (as they understood it).”
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, religious leaders or their representatives are addressing Jesus with the formal pronoun, showing respect. Compare that with the typical address with the informal pronoun of the religious leaders. Voinov gives two reasons for the outliers. One is a “pretense of respect. These occasions are usually marked by their use of titles of respect such as ‘teacher.'” The other reason is sincere respect, such as in the case of the lawyer in Mark 12 or Nicodemus in John 3.
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 13:31:
Noongar: “Now that day, a few Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, ‘You must leave this place and go to another place because Herod wants to kill you.'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “At that time also, several Parisi people arrived at Yesus and said to him: ‘Go away from here, because King Herodes wants to kill you (sing.).'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Then there were some Pariseo arriving and they said to Isa, ‘Proceed now, for they say that Sultan Herod wants to kill you.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “On that same day there were some Pharisee people who came to Jesus and they said, ‘You keep right on going and don’t you stop in here, in our place, because they say that King Herod wants to kill you.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Right when Jesus had said that, some Pharisees arrived, and they said to Jesus, ‘It would be good if you (sing.) left here, because Herod reportedly wants to have you (sing.) killed.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “And then some Pariseo arrived. They said to Jesus, ‘Leave this place for Herodes is going to cause you to be killed.'” (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®).
en autē tē hōra ‘at that very hour,’ ‘just then,’ indicating that the events of vv. 31-35 follow immediately upon Jesus’ words of vv. 24-30.
tines Pharisaioi ‘some Pharisees,’ cf. on 5.17.
exelthe kai poreuou enteuthen ‘go away from here and continue your journey.’ enteuthen (also 4.9) goes with both verbs. exelthe (aorist) denotes the punctiliar event of Jesus’ going away from that region; poreuou (present) refers to the continuing of Jesus’ journey.
Hērōdēs thelei se apokteinai ‘Herod wants to kill you.’ thelei refers to a purpose.
Translation:
Get away from here. The imperative may better be rendered not as a command but as a friendly advice, ‘you had better…’ (cf. The Four Gospels – a New Translation).
Wants to kill you, or, ‘wants/intends to have you killed,’ since Herod is the initiator, not the direct agent.
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 this section Jesus spoke about how he would die in Jerusalem, as many other prophets had. He mourned that the people of Jerusalem would not turn to him so that he could save them from the coming destruction.
Some other headings for this section are:
Jesus’ Sorrow for Jerusalem (New International Version) -or-
Jesus’ Love for the Residents of Jerusalem
There is a parallel passage for this section in Matthew 23:37–39.
Paragraph 13:31–33
In this paragraph some Pharisees warned Jesus that Herod wanted to kill him. Jesus replied that he intended to finish the work he was doing, even though that meant that he would die in Jerusalem.
13:31a
At that very hour: The Greek expression that the Berean Standard Bible translates literally as At that very hour means that the Pharisees came to Jesus immediately after he taught in 13:24–30. One way to express this is:
Right when Jesus said that
some Pharisees:Pharisees were members of a Jewish religious group or party. It was very important to them to obey all of the Jewish religious laws. They were generally opposed to Jesus. These particular Pharisees may have been sincere in warning Jesus about the danger he was in or they may have simply wanted him to leave the area.
Here are some ways to translate the word Pharisees:
• Transliterate the word according to the sounds of your language and indicate that it refers to a person. For example:
Farisi members -or-
Parise adherents
• Transliterate the word Pharisees and indicate that it refers to a group of people with certain beliefs. For example:
people belonging to the Farise religious sect/group -or-
members of the religious group called the Farasi
This word first occurs in 5:17b.
13:31b
Leave this place and get away: In some languages it may be more natural to combine these two clauses into one, as the Revised Standard Version has done:
Get away from here.
Notice that the Pharisees were advising Jesus about how he could keep himself safe. The Berean Standard Bible has translated this verse part as a command, as do other versions such as the Revised Standard Version, but you should consider how a courteous warning is normally expressed in your language. In some languages it may be more natural to say:
We advise you to leave here and go to a different place.
13:31c
because: In Greek, 13:31c begins with a conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as because. It introduces the reason for the advice in the previous verse part. Another way to translate this is:
for (Revised Standard Version)
Herod: The Pharisees were referring here to Herod Antipas, the governor/ruler of Galilee. See the note on 9:7a. In some languages it may be necessary to specify who Herod was. For example:
Herod Antipas (New Living Translation (2004)) -or-
Governor Herod
However, when the Pharisees spoke to Jesus, there was no confusion about which Herod they meant. In some translations it may be better to put this information in a footnote or include a cross-reference to 9:7.
wants to kill You: This phrase means “desires/intends/plans to have you killed.”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.