complete verse (Luke 21:1)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 21:1:

  • Noongar: “Jesus watched everything, and he saw rich people. They were bringing their money and putting the money putting into the money box at the Temple,” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “In the House of God, Yesus saw rich people putting money into the box for putting-in worship-offering money.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Then Isa looked and he saw the rich people dropping the money they were giving to God into the container there in the temple.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus saw the rich people dropping their offerings in the offering holder,” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Then Jesus looked-up and he saw rich-people putting their money in the place-for-inserting money in the Temple.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “While Jesus was still there in the Templo, looking around, he saw the rich dropping into the dropping-place the money which they were giving to the Templo.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Luke 21:1

Exegesis:

anablepsas ‘looking up,’ or ‘looking closely,’ preferably the latter; it suggests an attentive look.

eiden tous … plousious ‘he saw the rich.’ plousious is stressed by its position at the end of the participial phrase that goes with it (see below).

ballontas eis to gazophulakion ta dōra autōn ‘dropping their gifts into the treasury,’ participial phrase going syntactically with tous … plousious. ballō eis may mean ‘to drop into,’ or ‘to put into,’ here preferably the former.

gazophulakion ‘treasury,’ ‘contribution box.’

dōron (also v. 4) ‘present,’ ‘gift.’

Translation:

Saw the rich putting, or, ‘saw the rich (who) put.’ The aspect is iterative: Jesus saw that again and again one of the rich came to bring a gift.

Gifts, or, ‘offerings,’ ‘the money they offered’ (Balinese). To use a term for ‘alms’ is not advisable.

Treasury, or ‘box (for) gifts’ (Balinese), ‘money-box of the church/temple’ (Sranan Tongo), ‘place/box where people put in the money.’

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 21:1

Section 21:1–4

Jesus praised a widow because she gave all her money to God

In this section, a poor widow gave all the money that she had as an offering to God. Jesus praised her for doing that. He contrasted her gift with the gifts that the rich people gave. They gave greater amounts of money, but the widow gave God all the money that she had.

Jesus praised the widow on the same day that he criticized the scribes in the preceding section. In 20:47 Jesus said that the scribes “devour widow’s houses.” Most of the scribes were rich people. There is a strong contrast between the scribes and the widow. The scribes served God in order to impress other people, but the widow served him sincerely.

It is good to translate this section before you decide on a heading for it. Examples of other headings for this section are:

A poor widow gave a generous gift to/for the temple
-or-
Jesus compared the gifts given to God by the rich to the gift given by a poor widow
-or-
The widow’s gift/offering

There is a parallel passage for this section in Mark 12:41–44.

Paragraph 21:1–4

21:1a–b

The events in this paragraph occurred soon after the events in the previous section. Jesus was still in the temple courtyard with his disciples. The parallel verse in Mark 12:41 makes the context explicit.

In some languages, it may be natural to begin this paragraph with a time word or phrase. For example:

A little later
-or-
Soon after that

In other languages it may be natural to begin the paragraph with a statement that makes the context more explicit. For example:

Then while Jesus and His disciples were still in the temple courtyards (Translator’s Reference Translation)

Then Jesus looked up and saw the rich: The verb looked up probably indicates that Jesus looked toward the place where people were giving their offerings. It does not imply here that Jesus looked toward the sky. The parallel verse in Mark 12:41 indicates that Jesus was sitting in the temple courtyard. Another way to translate this clause is:

Jesus looked around and saw rich people (Good News Translation)

In some languages, it may be more natural to translate the verbs looked up and saw as one action. For example:

While Jesus was in the Temple, he watched the rich people (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
Then Jesus saw some rich people

putting their gifts into the treasury: The treasury was a place in the temple where money was kept. This money was used to benefit the temple and priests in various ways. This money came from gifts that people gave to God for the temple.

In one part of the temple, there were wooden boxes where the people put their gifts of money. The boxes had an opening at the top, and people dropped coins into them.

Some ways to translate putting their gifts into the treasury are:

• Use a general term to refer to money for the temple. For example:

giving money for the temple
-or-
giving gifts to God for the temple

• Use a specific term to refer to the boxes where people put their gifts. For example:

dropping their gifts into the temple offering box (God’s Word)
-or-
Putting their offerings into containers where people put/gave money for God

You may want to include a footnote that explains more about this. For example:

In the temple, there were thirteen boxes where people gave coins as gifts to God. There was also a place in the temple where this money was stored. Then it was used as needed to benefit the temple.

putting…into: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates here as putting…into refers to the action of “placing” coins into the boxes. Some other ways to translate this word are:

dropping (Good News Translation)
-or-
placing

In some languages there may be an idiom to refer to giving gifts to God.

gifts: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as gifts refers here to money. This money was in the form of coins. Some of the coins were very valuable. Other ways to translate gifts are:

money
-or-
coins
-or-
gift of coins/money

In some languages a word like “coins” may imply that the gifts were not valuable. If that is true in your language, you should use a more general word.

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