complete verse (Luke 24:10)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 24:10:

  • Noongar: “Those women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. They and the other women with them told all these things to the disciples.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “Those women [were] Maria Magdalena, Yohana, and Maria the mother of Yakobus, and the other women who were with them. They told all that had happened to the disciples of Yesus.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “These women were Mariyam the woman from Magdala, Jo’anna and Mariyam also the mother of Yakub and there were other women who were their companions. They were the ones who told the disciples whom Isa had commissioned what they had seen.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The names of those women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna and also Mary the mother of James, and there were some other women companions with them. They were the ones who told the apostles what had happened to them.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The names of these women were Maria Magdalena, Joanna, and Maria the mother of Santiago. They and still other women were the ones who went and told the apostles what had happened.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “It was Maria Magdalena, Juana and Maria who was the mother of Santiago, and there were some other women who were companions of theirs too who went to tell the disciples.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Luke 24:1-12)

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 24:1-12:

Before Sunday dawned, the women rushed to the tomb,
       carrying spices they had prepared.
The stone had been rolled away from the entrance,
       and they rushed right in.
Where was the body of the Lord Jesus?
It was nowhere to be seen,
       and they didn’t know what to think.

Two men there in shining white garments!
Where did they come from?

Shocked, the women fell to the ground, but the men said:

       “The living don’t dwell in tombs of the dead!
       Jesus has been raised to life,
              and now he’s long gone.
       While you were still in Galilee, don’t you remember
       he told you he’d be arrested, then executed on a cross,
              but three days later he’d rise to life?”

At that very moment, the women recalled
       what Jesus had said to them.

Quite a crowd of women had gone to the tomb,
among them: Mary Magdalene, Joanna,
       and Mary the mother of James.
They hurried off and informed others,
including the closest followers of Jesus,
       who refused to believe such nonsense.

However, Peter raced to the tomb,
but after stooping and looking carefully inside,
       he saw only burial clothes.
Still confused, he returned to the others.

Translation commentary on Luke 24:10

Exegesis:

ēsan de hē Magdalēnē Maria kai Iōanna kai Maria hē Iakōbou ‘they were Mary of Magdala and Joanna and Mary the mother of James.’ For Magdalēnē cf. on 8.2.

kai hai loipai sun autais elegon … tauta ‘and the other women with them also told these things.’ sun autais may go with elegon, or with hai loipai, preferably the latter. This somewhat redundant phrase implies that the preceding clause does not mean that the three women named were the only ones who went to the grave. tauta takes up tauta panta in v. 9.

pros tous apostolous ‘to the apostles,’ cf. on 6.13.

Translation:

Now it was, preferably, “the women concerned were” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation), ‘they, or, the(se) women were’ (cf. Exegesis).

… and the other women with them … told, preferably a new sentence, ‘the other women with them also told.’ The other women with them, or, ‘the other women, who were with, or, had gone with them, or, had accompanied them.’

The apostles, see on 6.13.

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 24:10

24:10a

It was: The phrase It was introduces the list of the women who told Jesus’ followers what happened at the tomb. Introduce this list in a natural way in your language.

Mary Magdalene: The phrase Mary Magdalene means “Mary who came from Magdala.” The name Mary was common in New Testament times. The term Magdalene distinguished this Mary from other women who had the same name. This name was also mentioned in 8:2. Other ways to translate the phrase are:

Mary from Magdala (God’s Word)
-or-
Mary of Magdala (New Jerusalem Bible)

Joanna: The name Joanna also occurs in 8:3.

Mary the mother of James: This Mary was the mother of a man named James, whom the disciples knew. She was probably the same woman who was mentioned in Mark 15:40.

24:10b

the other women with them: The phrase the other women with them refers to other women who went to the tomb with the two Marys and Joanna.

24:10c

who told this to the apostles: The form of the Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as told suggests that the women probably told the apostles many things about what had happened. The word this refers back to the phrase “all the things” in 24:9b.

apostles: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as apostles occurred in 17:5. In this context it refers to the same people as the phrase “the Eleven” in 24:9b. Refer back to them in a natural way in your language.

For more information and translation suggestions for the word apostles, see the note on 17:5.

General Comment on 24:9–10

In some languages it may be natural to reorder these verses in order to put the names of the women earlier in the account. For example:

10When Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women with them 9acame back from the tomb, 9bthey told all these things to the eleven apostles and the others.

If you reorder the verses like this, you may want to put both verse numbers at the beginning of the verses. For example:

9–10Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and some other women were the ones who had gone to the tomb. When they returned, they told the eleven apostles and the others what had happened. (Contemporary English Version)

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