complete verse (Luke 19:24)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 19:24:

  • Noongar: “Then the king told those who were standing there, ‘Take his coin and give it to the servant who has ten coins’.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “After that, he also said to the people standing beside him: ‘Take that man’s money and give it to the one who has ten.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Then the king said to those standing by, ‘Take the gold-coin from him and give it to the one who earned the ten.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then the king said to the people who were standing nearby, ‘Take the money from him and give it to the one who increased his money ten times!'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘Then he said to those who were standing there, ‘Take his money in order to then give it to the one who has ten moneys.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “And then he ordered those there, saying, ‘Go ahead, get that money of mine from him and add it to that one who got a profit of ten times as much.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Luke 19:24

Exegesis:

kai tois parestōsin eipen ‘and to those standing by he said.’ tois parestōsin refers to those who were standing by in attendance, i.e. attendants.

arate ap’ autou tēn mnan ‘take the mina from him,’ implying that he is still standing before his master with the money in his hand.

Translation:

Those who stood by, or, ‘those waiting upon him,’ ‘his attendants/servants’; cf. also on “stand in the presence of” in 1.19.

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 19:24

19:24a

Then he told those standing by: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as those standing by refers to other people who were standing nearby as the king was talking to his servants. These people probably also served the king, since he gave them a command in 19:24b. A king usually had servants near him at all times. The text does not mention a specific category of servants. Some other ways to translate the phrase are:

some other servants standing there (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
his attendants (NET Bible)
-or-
his men (God’s Word)
-or-
those who were standing there (Good News Translation)

19:24b

Take the mina from him: In this clause the king told men to take the servant’s mina from him. The word mina refers to the valuable coin that the master had entrusted to his servant. It actually still belonged to the master. Here is another way to translate this:

Take the money from this servant (New Living Translation (2004))

and give it to the one who has ten minas: Here the king told the men to give the coin to the servant who earned ten coins (19:16). That servant would probably use it, along with the other ten coins, to make more money for the king.

General Comment on 19:24a–b

In some languages it may be more natural to translate the command in this verse as indirect speech. For example:

24aThen he ordered his men 24bto take the coin away from that servant and give it to the servant who had ten coins.

© 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.