complete verse (Luke 23:4)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 23:4:

  • Noongar: “Pilate said to the Chief Priests and all the people, ‘I can’t see a wrong thing in this man to punish him.'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “From there, Pilatus said to the leading priests and to the people: ‘I do not find any fault/wrong of this person.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Pilatus said to the chief priests and to the crowds, ‘I do not find any sin in this person.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then Pilate said to the chief priests and the people, he said, ‘I haven’t found anything worthy of punishing this person,’ he said.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Then Pilato said to the leaders of the priests and the many-people, ‘I know of no sin of his.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “When Pilate heard, he said to those chiefs of the priests and the people with them, ‘I can’t find any sin which this person has done.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Luke 23:1-5)

Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Luke 23:1-5:

The self-appointed committee of inquisitors
       then took Jesus to Governor Pilate of Judea
and started making accusations, “This man is a terrorist!
He’s telling our people not to pay taxes to Rome,
       and he claims to be king of our nation!”

“Are you their king?” asked Pilate.

“Those are your words,” Jesus replied.

“Not guilty!” declared Pilate in front of everyone.

But they kept objecting,
       “He’s been causing trouble all over Judea,
              ever since he came here from Galilee.”

Translation commentary on Luke 23:4

Exegesis:

pros tous archiereis kai tous ochlous ‘to the chief priests and the crowds.’ tous archiereis refers back to, and stands for, those who had brought Jesus before Pilate, i.e. those mentioned in 22.66. tous ochlous is added as if the gathering of the crowds before Pilate’s palace (a natural thing to happen in the present situation) had been mentioned before.

ouden heuriskō aition ‘I find no guilt,’ i.e. no reason to condemn, or, no ground for a charge.

en tō anthrōpō toutō ‘in this man,’ i.e. in the case of this man, not, in his heart, or, inner being.

Translation:

For chief priests see on “high-priesthood” in 3.2.

I find no crime in this man, or, “I do not find this person guilty” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation), ‘I do not discover anything for which this man should be punished’; or with a syntactic shift, ‘what I find/see, this person has no guilt’ (Balinese). The concept ‘guilt’ is sometimes rendered by such an idiom as, ‘something connected with a person (as though tied by a string)’ (Navajo, in James 2.10), cf. ‘to have deed on your neck’ (Uduk).

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 23:4

Paragraph 23:4–5

23:4a

Then: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Then can be translated in several ways, including “then,” “and,” or “but.” The context implies that some time passed between 23:3 and 23:4. During this time, Pilate probably asked Jesus more questions. In some languages it may be necessary to indicate that some time passed. For example:

After that
-or-
When ⌊Pilate finished asking Jesus questions⌋

Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds: This clause introduces what Pilate decided after he questioned Jesus. Pilate told this decision publicly to all the people who were gathered there.

Another way to introduce his words are:

Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd (New International Version)

the chief priests and the crowds: The chief priests and the crowds are mentioned here for the first time in this chapter. The chief priests were important members of the Jewish council. The phrase the crowds probably implies that many people had gathered there to see what was happening. Introduce them here in a natural way in your language. Some ways to do that in English are:

the chief priests and all the many other people ⌊who had gathered there⌋
-or-
the leading priests ⌊and other Jewish council members⌋ and to the many other people who had come. He said

Introduce the statement in a natural way in your language.

chief priests: The term chief priests occurred in 22:66. You should translate it in the same way here. For more information and translation advice, see the note at 19:47b–d.

23:4b

I find no basis for a charge against this man: In Greek this clause is more literally, “I find no cause/basis in this man.” It indicates that Pilate did not discover any reason to condemn Jesus. Pilate had questioned Jesus and decided that Jesus was not guilty.

Some other ways to translate the clause are:

I find no reason to condemn this man. (Good News Translation)
-or-
I find no basis for an accusation against this man. (NET Bible)

The word no is emphasized in the clause. It indicates that there was no basis at all for a charge against Jesus. Another way to emphasize it in English is:

There is no cause that I have heard/seen to charge this man.

Emphasize Pilate’s conclusion in a natural way in your language.

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