complete verse (Luke 14:21)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 14:21:

  • Noongar: “The servant went back home and told his boss everything. The boss became very angry and told his servant, ‘Hurry! Go to the big roads and the little paths of this town and get many people, poor people and disabled and blind and lame.'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “That servant returned going back to the owner of the feast bringing-back their words. No kidding the anger of the owner of the feast, he said to his servant: ‘Hurry going to the main-road and to the intersections in the town. Encourage to come the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ The servant did go to follow the command of the owner of the feast.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Then the servant went home and told it to his master. His master was very angry when he heard that and he said to his servant, ‘Listen, go quickly to the roads and to all the trails here in this place and bring the poor people here and the deformed, the blind and the lame.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then the servant of the one who is giving the feast returned home, and he told his master all of these excuses the people he’d been sent to gave him. And then that master of his became very angry, and he said to his servant, ‘Go into the village, go up and down the streets and paths, and bring along with you the poor people, the crippled people, the lame and the blind.’ And then that servant went out.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘That being so, that-aforementioned servant then returned and reported everything to his master. Extreme was the anger of that master of his and he said to his servant, ‘All-right then, hurry to go to the street and market-place of the town to go invite the poor, cripples, blind and lame so they will come and join-in-eating.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Without anything further, that messenger returned who had been sent. That (preceeding) is what he told to his master. Well what else but he got angry. He said next to that messenger of his, ‘Go ahead, set out again. Go to the streets of this city and the ones you are to bring with you are the poor, those who have defects in their body, the blind and the lame.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Luke 14:21

Exegesis:

paragenomenos, lit. ‘after coming,’ i.e. ‘when he came,’ here in the sense of, ‘when he came back to his master.’ For paraginomai cf. on 7.4.

ho doulos apēggeilen tō kuriō autou tauta ‘the servant reported this to his master.’ For apaggellō cf. on 7.18. tauta refers to vv. 18-20 and presumably to similar answers from the other invited people.

tote orgistheis ho oikodespotēs eipen ‘then the master of the house became angry and said.’ tote means ‘when he heard that.’ For oikodespotēs cf. on 12.39.

orgizomai (also 15.28) ‘to be angry,’ in both places ingressive aorist, ‘became angry.’

exelthe tacheōs eis tas plateias kai rumas tēs poleōs ‘go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town.’ Note that the article tas goes with both plateias and rumas. Hence also the genitive tēs poleōs refers to both preceding substantives. For plateia cf. on 10.10. tacheōs also 16.6.

rumē ‘narrow street,’ ‘lane,’ ‘alley.’

kai tous ptōchous kai anapeirous kai tuphlous kai chōlous eisagage hōde ‘and bring in here the poor, the cripple, the blind and the lame.’ Note that the article tous goes with all four substantives. This suggests that they are to be considered as one group. For the poor, etc. cf. on v. 13.

Translation:

For master, and for “sir” in v. 22, cf. the note on “Lord” in 1.6, sub (a). For householder see 12.39; in this context ‘host’ is also possible.

In anger, or, ‘becoming angry,’ ‘became angry and.’

Quickly is often rendered by a verb, e.g. ‘do-quick/make-haste’ (Balinese), ‘hurry,’ ‘run along.’

To the streets and lanes of the city, or ‘to market places and streets (or, to streets and slums, or to streets and narrow-passages) of the town’ (Kituba, Sranan Tongo, Shona 1966). In non-urbanized areas one may have to use, ‘into the village, on the roads big and small’ (Tae’), ‘to wide and narrow places/passages between the houses (or, past all the houses and hovels) of this city/settlement.’ For street see 10.10.

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 14:21

Paragraph 14:21–24

14:21a–b

his master…the owner of the house: The two phrases his master and the owner of the house refer to the same person, the man who was planning the big feast in 14:16. If a literal translation does not make this clear, you may make it explicit in some way. For example:

The servant came back and reported this to his master, the owner of the house, who became very angry. He ordered the servant…

You may also use the same term or a very similar term in both places, as many English versions have done. For example:

his master…the master (New Century Version)
-or-
his master…the master of the house (God’s Word)

14:21a

This verse introduces what the servant did after the invited guests told him their excuses. In Greek, it begins with a conjunction. Several English versions translate it as “So.” Some versions translate it as “And,” Others, such as the Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, Good News Translation, and New Jerusalem Bible, do not explicitly translate this conjunction. It can also be translated as a time clause. For example:

When the servant came back he reported this… (Revised English Bible)

Use a natural way in your language for connecting these events.

The servant returned and reported all this to his master: In some languages it may be more natural to connect the phrase to his master directly to the first verb, returned. For example:

The servant came back to his master and reported this to him.

servant: The word servant also occurs in 14:17b.

returned: Use the most natural way in your language to translate the servant’s return to his master. Other ways to translate it in English are:

went back (Good News Translation)
-or-
came back (New International Version)

reported all this to his master: The words all this refer here to what the guests told the servant. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

told his master what they had said (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
told his master what had happened (New Century Version)

his master: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as master refers here to the person who had authority over the slave. See lord, Context 1e, in the Glossary. The word last occurred in this context in 12:47.

14:21b

Then the owner of the house: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as owner of the house is literally “house-master.” See the note above on 14:21a–b for translation suggestions.

became angry: The owner of the house was angry at the guests he had invited, because they had refused his invitation. He was not angry at the servant. In some languages it may be necessary to make some of this explicit:

the owner of the house became angry ⌊with them⌋
-or-
the owner of the house was furious ⌊because of these answers/excuses⌋

and said to his servant: The verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates literally as said introduces a command. Use a word that is natural in your language. For example:

and ordered his servant (New International Version)

14:21c

Go out quickly: When the master replied to his servant, he did not mention what the servant had said. He immediately gave a command that told the servant what to do about it. In some languages it may be more natural to include a connection to the servant’s report. For example:

All right then, hurry

In some languages it may be more natural to express the master’s words as an indirect quote. See the second example for 14:21c in the Display.

the streets and alleys of the city: The word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as streets refers to the main streets of a town. The word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as alleys refers to smaller, narrow streets. Together these terms refer to public areas in the town where beggars were likely to be found. In your translation you may use expressions that refer to such areas. For example:

streets and markets of the town
-or-
the roads and trails/paths in this town
-or-
main streets and side/narrow streets

14:21d

bring in: The verb bring in in this context means “invite to come right away.” The master wanted his servant to tell these other people to accompany him back to the feast at once.

the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame: These are the same four types of people as in 14:13. See the notes at 14:13b and 14:13c.

© 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.