Translation commentary on Luke 18:6

Exegesis:

eipen de ho kurios ‘then the Lord said,’ introducing Jesus’ application of the parable. For ho kurios cf. on 1.6.

akousate ti ho kritēs tēs adikias legei ‘hear what the unrighteous judge says,’ pointing to what has been said, not, as usually to what will be said. In ho kritēs tēs adikias the genitive tēs adikias is qualifying and equivalent to an adjective.

Translation:

Hear asks for the audience’s attention; the rendering should not suggest advice to imitate the judge’s example!

Unrighteous, or, ‘unjust,’ ‘violating justice.’ In several languages the basic meaning of words for ‘unjust’ or ‘dishonest’ is ‘crooked,’ ‘not straight,’ the Toraja-Sa’dan rendering, however, basically means ‘not-exactly-spherical,’ also said e.g. of a coconut that has a protuberance.

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 18:6

Paragraph 18:6–8

In this paragraph Jesus told his disciples what he wanted them to learn from the parable in 18:1–5. Jesus contrasted God and his people with the judge and the widow. God is not like the unfair judge. God loves to help his people. The judge helped the widow because she asked him many times. God will certainly be much more willing to help his people get justice when they continue to pray to him. He will quickly help them.

18:6a

And the Lord said: The phrase And the Lord said introduces what Jesus told his disciples about the meaning of the parable. It indicates that Jesus had finished quoting what the judge in the parable said to himself. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

Then the Lord said (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
And the Lord continued (Good News Translation)

the Lord: The word Lord here refers to Jesus. In some languages you may need to refer to him more explicitly here. For example:

the Lord Jesus
-or-
our Lord

18:6b

Listen to the words of the unjust judge: The phrase Listen to in this context means “think about.” Jesus wanted his disciples to learn something from how the judge responded to the widow’s constant requests. Some other ways to translate this clause are:

Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
This judge was ⌊usually⌋ unjust, but pay attention to what he decided to do ⌊for the widow⌋.
-or-
Think about this. ⌊Even⌋ the bad judge decided ⌊to help the widow⌋….

the words of the unjust judge: The phrase the words of the unjust judge refers to what the judge said in 18:4c–5. He decided to help the widow get justice. This was a good decision, but usually he made unjust decisions. Some ways to make this clear are:

what this judge, who was usually so unfair, decided
-or-
this judge said this, though he was habitually unjust

unjust judge: The word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as unjust can also be translated as “unrighteous.” It refers to the character of this judge and to the way he usually acted. He usually did not judge fairly. When he settled disputes, he did not base his decisions on what was right. Other ways to say this are:

the dishonest judge (God’s Word)
-or-
that corrupt judge (Good News Translation)
-or-
the unfair judge (New Century Version)
-or-
this elder who was usually unfair in judging ⌊cases⌋

© 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.