Translation commentary on Luke 13:6

Exegesis:

elegen de tautēn tēn parabolēn ‘and he told this (i.e. the following) parable.’ The parable states that, unless the repentance to which vv. 3 and 5 call comes shortly, it will be too late. For parabolē cf. on 4.23.

sukēn eichen tis pephuteumenēn lit. ‘a certain man had a fig tree planted,’ or “had a fig tree growing” (An American Translation). sukēn (also 21.29) is emphatic by position. The past participle pephuteumenēn going with sukēn refers to a prevailing situation, not to an act or event of the past.

en tō ampelōni autou ‘in his vineyard.’

ampelōn ‘vineyard,’ in Palestine not exclusively a plantation of grape vines, but including also other kinds of fruit-trees, cf. Strack-Billerbeck I, 873.

kai ēlthen zētōn karpon en autē ‘and he came seeking fruit on it,’ i.e. ‘he came and sought,’ rather than ‘he came to seek.’ The participle zētōn denotes the main act and the verb ēlthen leads up to the main act.

kai ouch heuren ‘and he found none,’ lit. ‘and he did not find (any).’

Translation:

Parable, see 8.4.

A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, or, to show that the tree is in focus, ‘there was a fig tree, which stood planted (or, was growing) in someone’s vineyard, or, which someone had growing in his vineyard’; in some cases it is better to render the relative clause as a co-ordinate sentence. With a further shift one may say, ‘there was a fig tree that stood planted in a vineyard. Once its owner came….’ In some languages the reference to being planted is better omitted; hence, ‘there-was(-standing)’ (Malay, similarly in Shona 1966, Toraja-Sa’dan). For fig tree see 6.44. The term chosen should refer to a tree with edible fruits, which is taken care of in some manner or other. For vineyard see 20.9. In this context, however, it is acceptable to use a more generic term, e.g. ‘garden,’ ‘field,’ since the specific concept ‘vine(yard)’ plays no role in what follows.

He came seeking fruit on it, or, ‘for its fruit,’ ‘for fruit(s) on the/his tree’; or, ‘he came and looked whether there was fruit on it, or, whether it had (or, had borne) fruit.’ For the generic fruit one may substitute the specific, i.e. the name of the fruit of the tree in question.

Found none. For the verb see 2.12.

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 13:6

Section 13:6–9

Jesus told people a parable about a tree that did not bear fruit

In the preceding section Jesus had told the people that if they did not turn from their sins, they would die. In this section he told them a parable that was also related to the need for repentance and the certainty of God’s judgment. The parable was about a fig tree that did not bear fruit. The owner of the fig tree told the gardener that if the tree did not bear fruit within another year, he would have to cut it down.

While the Berean Standard Bible has a separate section here, some other versions do not. Those versions include this parable as part of 13:1–9. You will need to decide which of these options is more appropriate in your language.

This parable occurs only in Luke.

Paragraph 13:6–9

13:6a

Then Jesus told this parable: This verse begins with a Greek conjunction that many English versions translate as “and.” The Berean Standard Bible translates as Then to show that it introduces something further that Jesus told the people. Jesus continued to speak from 13:5.

parable: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as parable is a general word that describes different types of wise speech. This includes symbolic stories, metaphors, proverbs, illustrations, and wise sayings. Here the word refers to a story that illustrated that people need to repent.

Some other ways to translate parable in this context are:

illustration (God’s Word)
-or-
story (New Living Translation (2004))

The word parable first occurs in Luke at 5:36a. It also occurs at 12:16a.

13:6b

A man had a fig tree: The fig tree was a common tree in Israel that normally produced small, edible fruit called “figs.” If speakers of your language are not familiar with the fig tree, here are some other ways to translate it:

tree with a fruit called “fig”
-or-
fruit tree

that was planted in his vineyard: A vineyard is a farm where grape vines grow and produce grapes. The man who owned this grape farm also had a fig tree planted there. Other ways to refer to vineyard are:

grape farm
-or-
field of grape vines

If your language does not have a term for “vineyard” or for “grape,” a good option may be to use a more general term for “vineyard.” For example:

farm
-or-
land

The focus of this story is on the fig tree. Nothing else is mentioned about the vineyard, so a long descriptive term for “vineyard” may distract the readers from the main point.

13:6c

He went to look for fruit on it: It is implied that it was the season when fig trees normally bore fruit. In some languages it may be necessary to make this explicit. For example:

⌊When it was time for the tree to bear fruit,⌋ he went to look…

It is also implied from 3:7b that he had been going to that tree to look for fruit for three years already. In some languages it may be good discourse style to make explicit some of this meaning here in 3:6c. For example:

came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it (New Living Translation (2004))

fruit: In some languages it may be more natural to use the more specific term for fruit from a fig tree. For example:

He went looking for figs on it (Good News Translation)

13:6d

but did not find any: The reason the man did not find any figs is that there were none there. In some languages it may be natural to make this explicit:

but there were none there

© 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.