complete verse (Luke 21:34)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 21:34:

  • Noongar: “‘Watch out! Don’t just think about eating and drinking and everything of this World. That Day can quickly come and trap you!” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “‘Be-on-the-watch, don’t be busy always partying and getting drunk, or always thinking about your life in the world, with the result that you are lax on the day of my arrival. For I will come suddenly.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “‘You should be watching,’ said Isa. ‘Perhaps that is what you are always thinking about having fun and drinking and your troubles about your livelihood. And then suddenly the day of my return will come and you are caught/found at foolishness.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus said, ‘Be on your guard so you won’t end up having a good time and drinking and just looking for the worldly things that you need, because if you’re not on your guard you will be suddenly overtaken by God’s day of punishment for mankind. And you’ll be just like a trapped rat” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Jesus continued to say, ‘Be careful so you don’t get-sidetracked by drunkenness or other foolish behavior and you don’t become burdened by your means-of-livelihood lest you be startled-speechless by my coming.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Do be careful not to be overly fascinated with celebrations/having-happy-times and going drinking. And be careful that it isn’t the things of this life which are dominant in your mind, they being what you are always/often thinking about. For as long as it’s like that, it’s certain that you really will panic when I arrive, for you won’t be ready.” (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 most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (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 formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

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

Translation commentary on Luke 21:34

Exegesis:

prosechete de heautois ‘be on your guard,’ cf. on 12.1, here followed by mēpote and subjunctive to indicate that against which one has to be on one’s guard.

mēpote barēthōsin humōn hai kardiai ‘lest your hearts be weighed down.’ For mēpote cf. on 4.11. For bareō cf. on 9.32; here it is used in the sense of being no longer sensitive to what is happening. The meaning kardia has here is ‘mind.’

en kraipalē kai methē kai merimnais biōtikais ‘by dissipation and drunkenness and anxieties of this life.’ For merimna cf. on 8.14.

kraipalē ‘intoxication’; ‘dissipation,’ ‘carousing.’

methē ‘drunkenness.’

biōtikos ‘belonging to daily life.’

kai epistē eph’ humas aiphnidios hē hēmera ekeinē ‘and (lest) that day come upon you suddenly,’ still dependent upon mēpote. The clause indicates what may be the consequences of the attitude described in the preceding clause. For ephistamai epi with accusative cf. on 2.9; here its meaning is almost ‘to set upon,’ ‘to catch.’ hē hēmera ekeinē is the day of the coming of the Son of man, cf. 17.30f.

aiphnidios ‘sudden.’ Here it goes with the predicate and means, ‘as a sudden one,’ hence to be rendered emphatically.

Translation:

Take heed to yourselves lest …, or, ‘take care that … not…,’ or in two sentences, ‘be on your guard; do not let…,’ and cf. on v. 8.

Lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, or, taking the nouns as subjects, ‘lest dissipation, etc. weigh down your hearts’ (cf. Sranan Tongo). A further shift to verbal clauses may lead to, ‘that you are not dissipated, etc.; if you do that (or, if you are so), your hearts will be weighed down.’ The phrase your hearts (are) weighed down contrasts with “look up and raise your heads” in v. 28; so occupied that they are not on the look-out for the coming of the Son of man; hence, ‘your hearts … closed for anything else,’ “your minds … dulled” (New English Bible, Translator’s New Testament), “yourselves … occupied” (Good News Translation), ‘your hearts die’ (Kele), ‘your hearts … made unfeeling’ (Shona 1966); or with a syntactic shift, ‘making-fiesta … has gone-to-your-hearts’ (Tzeltal, using an idiom for being engrossed in something, usually with unfavourable connotation). Some renderings used for dissipation, i.e. intemperate, or loose living (cf. on 15.13), are, ‘much-eating’ (Shona 1963, using an intensive form of the verb), ‘feasting’ (Balinese, similarly Tzeltal, see above), ‘fullness of bellies’ (Zarma, using an idiom for satisfying all kinds of physical desires). For drunkenness see 12.45. Cares of this life, i.e. excessive care for the daily necessities of life; hence, ‘worries/anxiety for your livelihood.’ ‘much-thinking (intensive verbal form) about what is of this life’ (Shona 1966), ‘worrying/fretting over what you have to live on.’ Cf. also on 8.14 and 12.22.

That day, or less generically, ‘that awful day’; or quite explicitly, ‘the day the Son of man comes.’

Come upon you suddenly, or, “takes you by surprise” (An American Translation). In the receptor language a ‘day’ may not ‘come,’ however, but ‘break,’ ‘dawn,’ etc., or a personal subject may be required, e.g. ‘you shall see the day dawn.’ Suddenly, or, ‘quite unexpectedly,’ ‘when you do not expect it at all.’

Like a snare, see v. 35.

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.