Translation commentary on Luke 2:51

Exegesis:

kai katebē met’ autōn ‘and he went down with them.’

katabainō ‘to come down,’ ‘to go down,’ here used of going away from Jerusalem (cf. 10.30, 31; Acts 24.1; 25.7), as contrasted with anabainō (cf. vv. 4 and 42), and implying going back home.

kai ēn hupotassomenos autois ‘and he was obedient to them.’ The imperfect tense is durative.

hupotassō ‘to subject,’ in the passive ‘to become subject,’ ‘to obey’; here the participle is virtually equivalent to an adjective meaning ‘obedient.’

kai hē mētēr autou dietērei panta ta rēmata ‘and his mother kept everything.’ The definite article ta here makes panta ta rēmata a summary of the events told in the preceding narrative.

diatēreō ‘to keep,’ ‘to treasure,’ synonymous with suntēreō, used in a similar phrase in v. 19.

Translation:

He (or, the boy Jesus) went down with them and came to Nazareth, or, ‘came and-arrived in N.’ (Kituba). Some versions contract the two clauses into one, e.g. “he went back with them to N.” (An American Translation). Went down. For movement to a lower, or a higher, level cf. on “went up” in 2.4. With them, or specifying the pronoun, ‘with his parents,’ ‘with the-two-of-them’ (Malay); Balinese has ‘returned together,’ leaving the persons in whose company he returned to be inferred from the context.

And was obedient to them. From the change of aspect it follows that this clause is not a mere continuance of the preceding pair of clauses; hence some versions prefer a major break and an explicit reference to the agent, cf. .’..; and he was submissive to them’ (Bible de Jérusalem). The phrase may be interpreted as the description of Jesus’ behaviour (i.e. he willingly did as he was ordered), or of the situation in which he found himself, cf. ‘was under their authority’ (cf. New English Bible). Where a rendering covering both possibilities is not available, the second one can best be chosen. — Obedient. The concept of ‘obedience’ may be described by ‘to do what a person says,’ ‘to accept orders,’ ‘to follow (in a person’s steps)’ (Malay), ‘to have an ear that listens’ (Kipsigis), ‘to hear a person’s mouth’ (Uduk). In some other languages one term covers ‘to believe’ and ‘to obey’ (Tepeuxila Cuicatec, Tzeltal), or ‘to hear/listen’ and ‘to obey’ (Bahasa Indonesia), or, ‘to listen,’ ‘to believe’ and ‘to obey’ (Thai).

Kept all these things in her heart, cf. on v. 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 2:51

Paragraph 2:51–52

2:51a

Then He went down to Nazareth with them: The town of Nazareth was lower in the hills than Jerusalem. So anyone traveling from Jerusalem to Nazareth had to walk down the hill to a place that was lower in elevation.

In some languages, it is important to say whether people go up or down when they travel. In other languages, this will be unusual or may be confusing. If it is confusing in your language, you may use a more general word or phrase. For example:

Jesus went with them to Nazareth (New Century Version)
-or-
Then he returned to Nazareth with them (New Living Translation (2004))

2:51b

and was obedient to them: The clause was obedient to them means that Jesus obeyed his parents. It does not imply that he did not obey them before. If this is not clear, you could say:

he continued to obey them

In this verse part, Luke made it clear that Jesus obeyed his parents as he grew to be a mature man.

2:51c

But: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible here translates as But is often translated as “and.” There is no strong contrast between 2:51c and 2:51b. This word simply indicates that the story continues. So here some versions translate this word as “and.” For example:

and his mother kept all these things in her heart (Revised Standard Version)

Other versions start a new sentence here and leave this word untranslated. For example:

His mother treasured all these things in her heart. (Good News Translation)

You should connect 2:51c to 2:51b in a way that is natural in your language.

His mother treasured up all these things in her heart: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as treasured means “kept” (as in the Revised Standard Version). Mary kept all these things in her heart. This means that she remembered them. She did not allow herself to forget these things.

This word has a meaning that is similar to a different word in 2:19 that the Berean Standard Bible translates as “treasured up.”

Other ways to translate this are:

kept all these things in mind and pondered them
-or-
remembered all these things and thought about them often
-or-
kept thinking about all these things

His mother: The phrase His mother refers to Jesus’ mother Mary.

all these things: The phrase all these things refers to all the events that happened in 2:41–50. It may also refer to events that had happened in the earlier part of Jesus’ life.

in her heart: The word heart is figurative here. The Jews often spoke of the heart as the part of a person in which thoughts and feelings occur. In some languages, it may not be natural to use an expression like “in the heart.” If that is true in your language, here are other ways to translate this part of the verse:

• Use a specific expression that people in your culture use to refer to the part of a person in which thoughts and feelings occur. For example:

Mary treasured all these things and turned them over in her mind.

• Use a general expression without mentioning a specific part of a person. For example:

Mary treasured these things and continued to think about them.
-or-
His mother kept on thinking about all that had happened. (Contemporary English Version)

This same phrase occurs in 2:19.

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