complete verse (Luke 19:21)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 19:21:

  • Noongar: “I am scared of you. You are a hard man. You take what you do not own and you harvest what you do not plant’.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “I was afraid of the King, because I knew you (sing.) were harsh. You (sing.) harvest what is not your (sing.) planted-thing, you (sing.) take what you (sing.) did not work-hard-for.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “I was afraid of you for you don’t have pity/mercy on people. You take what is not yours and you reap what you have not worked for.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “because I was afraid of you, because what you say, you see that it really happens. And you expect an increase from what you give your companions to keep, and it’s the same way with what you cause to be planted, because you always expect a harvest.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “because I am afraid of you (sing.), because you (sing.) are emphatically an easily-angered person. You (sing.) get what you (sing.) didn’t work-for (lit. tire-for) and you (sing.) also harvest what you (sing.) didn’t plant.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For I am afraid of you because you are strict. You collect-money/take-payment when it wasn’t you who deposited it and you harvest what it wasn’t you who labored over.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing his disciples and common people

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 Translator 2002, 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 his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.

In Nepali translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and other people with the medium honorific pronoun timīlē (तिमीले) or timīlēharū (तिमीलेहरू). This disciples respond with a high honorific pronoun. (Source: Chitra Chhetri in The Bible Translator 2009, p. 73ff. )

In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.

See also formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese).

2nd person pronoun with high register (Japanese)

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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, the more venerable anata-sama (あなた様) is used, which combines anata with the with a formal title -sama.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also formal 2nd person pronoun (Spanish) and the formal vs. the informal pronoun in the Gospels in Tuvan.

Honorary "rare" construct denoting God ("take")

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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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, to-rare-ru (取られる) or “take” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Luke 19:20 – 19:21

Exegesis:

kai ho heteros ēlthen ‘and the other came,’ as if there were only three instead of ten (v. 13). But the first two and the third represent the two different attitudes of diligence and negligence respectively.

idou hē mna sou ‘behold your mina,’ i.e. ‘here is your mina.’

hēn eichon apokeimenēn en soudariō ‘which I kept put away in a facecloth.’ eichon is durative imperfect.

apokeimai ‘to be put away,’ ‘to be stored up.’

soudarion ‘face-cloth.’ ephoboumēn gar se ‘for I was afraid of you,’ durative imperfect.

hoti anthrōpos austēros ei ‘because you are an exacting man.’ This statement is illustrated by the subsequent asyndetic sentence.

austēros (also v. 22) ‘hard,’ ‘severe,’ ‘exacting.’

aireis ho ouk ethēkas ‘you take away what you did not put down,’ a proverbial saying, which refers probably to taking away from the threshing floor corn which one had not brought in and put down for threshing, cf. parallels quoted by Creed. Here it is used in the more general meaning of taking what one has not laboured for, cf. Phillips. This is in accordance with therizeis ho ouk espeiras (cf. on 12.24) ‘you reap what you did not sow.’ In both clauses the present tense is habitual.

Translation:

Another, or, ‘yet another’ (Javanese); or, “the next” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation), “the third” (New English Bible). To use a term that expresses not serial but qualitative differentiation is not advisable.

Which I kept laid away in a napkin, often better rendered as a new sentence, e.g. ‘I kept it put away in a napkin,’ ‘I wrapped it up in a face-cloth and (so) kept it safe.’ — Napkin, or, ‘face-cloth,’ ‘handkerchief,’ often simply ‘piece of cloth.’

(V. 21) I was afraid of you. The phrase of you is sometimes omitted, as virtually redundant.

You are a severe man, or, ‘your character (lit. the you-ness) is severe’ (Tae’). Some renderings of severe basically mean ‘hard’ (Batak Toba), ‘hard hearted’ (Ekari), ‘hard-livered’ (Bahasa Indonesia), ‘rigid’ (Toraja-Sa’dan), ‘stinging’ (Tae’).

You take up what you did not lay down, or to stress the illustrative character of the sentence, ‘you are (like) a man who takes up what he did not lay down, or, what is not his’ (cf. Good News Translation). Other pairs of contrastive terms used are, “draw out—put in” (New English Bible), ‘claim back—deposit’ (Willibrord). An equivalent English saying is, “getting something for nothing” (Phillips).

For to reap and to sow see on 12.24 and 8.5, and references.

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 19:21

19:21a

For: In this verse the servant explained the reason why he did not invest the money. He said that he hid it because he was afraid of his master. In Greek this reason is introduced with a conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as For. Other versions, such as the New International Version, Contemporary English Version, God’s Word, and New Living Translation (2004), do not translate this conjunction. Express the reason in a natural way in your language. Another way to do this in English is:

I did this because I was afraid of you

I was afraid of you, because you are a harsh man: Here the servant told his reason for fearing his master. He thought that his master was a harsh man. In some languages it may be more natural to change the order of the clauses in 19:21a. For example:

You are a hard man, and I was afraid of you. (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
You are very severe, so I feared you.

I was afraid of you: Here this clause implies that the servant was afraid that his master would be angry or punish him if he lost the coin. In some languages it may be necessary to make that explicit. For example:

I was afraid that you would be angry with me ⌊if I lost it⌋ (Translator’s Reference Translation)

you are a harsh man: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as harsh means “severe” or “strict.” Here it implies that the master demanded that his servants work hard and do the work exactly as he wanted them to. It may also imply that the master would punish them severely if they did not do the work properly. The servant thought that his master was a difficult man to serve. Here is another way to translate this:

you are a severe man (Revised Standard Version)

In some languages there is an idiom to describe this sort of person.

19:21b–c

The two statements in 19:21b and 19:21c explain what the servant meant by saying that his master was a “hard man.” The statements are figurative and were used as proverbs.

The two statements have the same basic meaning. They refer to a person who takes profit that he does not deserve. He gets this profit from work that other people did. The servant implied that his master was greedy and unjust.

You withdraw what you did not deposit: The Greek proverb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as You withdraw what you did not deposit describes someone who wants to gain or take more than he deserves. It often refers specifically to financial profit. If a literal translation is not clear in your language, you may translate the meaning more explicitly. For example:

You take out what you did not put in (New International Version)
-or-
You even take money that you didn’t earn (New Century Version)

If you have a proverb in your language that has the same meaning, you may be able to use it here.

and reap what you did not sow: This statement literally means “you harvest the crops that other people planted.” It refers to someone receiving the benefits from the hard work that other people have done.

In some languages it may be necessary to refer to a specific type of crop. Some ways to do that are:

• Supply a general word such as “grain.”

• Supply a specific grain if you do not have a suitable general word. It is good to use a grain grown in Israel, such as wheat or barley, if possible. If these are not known in your area, substitute a local crop.

If the meaning of the proverb would not be understood in your language, you may need to supply the meaning:

⌊You profit from the work done by someone else,⌋ like someone who harvests grain that he did not plant.

General Comment on 19:20–21

In some languages it may be helpful to put the reason for the slave’s actions in 19:21 before his conclusion in 19:20. For example:

21Another servant came and said, “Sir, you are a hard man. What you did not put in, you go and take out, and what you did not plant you go and reap. 20Because that is how you behave/are, I was afraid of you. So, I wrapped up the money you gave me in a piece of cloth and put it away. Here it is.”

If you decide to change the order of the verses in this way, you may combine the verse numbers. For example:

20–21Another…

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