14Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, translators typically select the exclusive form (excluding John).
Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 3:14:
Noongar: “Soldiers also asked him, ‘What about us? What must we do?’ John said to them, ‘ Don’t hurt people and steal their money, and don’t tell lies about people. You must be happy with the money the bosses give you.'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “Soldiers also came to ask him, they said: ‘What about us (excl.)? What must we (excl.) do?’ He said to them: ‘Do not rob the possessions of others, and do not frighten the people so that they give you money. However much your salary is, receive it with glad hearts.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “There were also soldiers asking him they said, ‘Na, we, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Don’t frighten (people) or accuse them falsely in order to be given money. And be content (lit. give thanks for) with your wages.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then there were some soldiers who asked John, they said, ‘As for us, what does God want us to do?’ And John answered, ‘You stop threatening people, and stop blackmailing them to get their money. Your salary should be enough for you; you must be satisfied with it.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “There were also soldiers who went to inquire of him saying, ‘As-for us as-well now what should we (excl.) do?’ Juan said, ‘Don’t threaten (lit. cause-to-be-frightened) or say-bad-things-about even any person in order to thus get his money. You must moreover be satisfied with your wages.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “There were also soldiers who questioned Juan. They said, ‘Well, what about us, what would be good for us to do?’ Juan replied to them, ‘Don’t be overbearing with anyone or give evidence which isn’t true just so that you can make money. Rather, what is good to make it your habit is, be pleased with your pay.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
kai strateuomenoi ‘also people in military service, or soldiers.’
ti poiēsōmen kai hēmeis ‘and we, what are we to do.’ kai is best understood as ‘even,’ and the clause appears to imply that the soldiers were not Jewish, and that they asked John’s advice as people who were, as it were, not entitled to it.
mēdena diaseisēte mēde sukophantēsēte ‘rob no one by violence nor blackmail.’ In view of the fact that in the next clause John urges the soldiers to be content with their proper pay it is reasonable to suppose that both verbs used in the present clause refer to the obtaining of money by unlawful means.
diaseiō ‘to shake,’ hence ‘to use force in order to obtain something valuable,’ or ‘to extort by violence.’ The idiom is the same as that of the English slang expression ‘to shake somebody down for his money.’
sukophanteō (also 19.8) either ‘to accuse falsely,’ or ‘to extort.’ Here it is used with a personal object and this requires the rendering ‘to blackmail’; thus diaseiō and sukophanteō denote two different ways of robbing people of their possessions, i.e. by violence and by blackmail.
arkeisthe tois opsōniois humōn ‘be content with your pay.’
arkeomai ‘to be content,’ or ‘satisfied.’
opsōnion ‘money paid to a soldier.’
Translation:
And we, what shall we do. The emphatic position ‘we’ has in this verse may lead to a rendering that is formally rather dissimilar from the phrase used in vv. 10 and 12, e.g. ‘how about us (lit. what is ours)’ (Manobo).
Rob no one by violence or by false accusation, or “don’t take money from anyone by force or by false charges” (Good News Translation). To rob by violence, or ‘to press/squeeze’ (Bahasa Indonesia RC), ‘to corner’ (Uab Meto). Some descriptive renderings used are, ‘to browbeat (lit. cause-to-fear) and over-threaten’ (Kele). ‘to rob like an arrogant man (would do)’ (Trukese), ‘to force people to give money’ (Manobo), ‘to take away from another forcibly’ (Tzeltal). By false accusation, or, ‘by accusation-without-reason’ (Trukese); or, shifting to a verbal construction, ‘by accusing people deceitfully/treacherously,’ ‘by saying, “He has done wrong”, though he didn’t’; cf. on “accuse” in 6.7.
Be content with your wages may be rendered by, ‘do not want (or, try to get) more than your wages,’ ‘your wages must be enough for you’ (cf. Sranan Tongo). Your wages, or, ‘what you get for your work’ (Ekari), ‘the money for which you work’ (Sranan Tongo), ‘what they pay you (for your work),’ ‘your pay.’
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.
soldiers: It is not clear whether these soldiers were Jewish or Roman or Samaritan. But they were able to take money from people wrongly.
And what should we do?: In the Greek text this question emphasizes the pronoun we. One way to show this in translation might be to say:
And us—what should we do?
3:14b
Do not take money by force or false accusation: This part of the verse indicates that the soldiers should not get money from people by violence or by accusing them falsely. Some ways to translate this are:
Take money from no one by violence or by false accusation (NET Bible) -or-
Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation (New Revised Standard Version)
Do not take money by force: The Greek clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Do not take money by force is literally “Do not shake violently.” John was telling the soldiers that they should not use violence or intimidate people in order to get money from them. Some ways to translate this are:
Do not intimidate people to give you their money. -or-
Do not threaten people with violence so that they will give you money not to harm them. -or-
Don’t take money from anyone by force (Good News Translation)
or false accusation: In this context the phrase or false accusation refers to trying to get money from someone by saying that he committed a crime that he did not commit. When the court charged the innocent person money for that crime, the soldier who accused him would get part of the money.
Some ways to translate this are:
and you must not try to get money by charging any person with a crime he did not commit -or-
Do not ⌊try to get money by⌋ lying about people
In some translations it may be helpful to include a footnote about this. For example, the NET Bible has this note:
…someone could bring charges against an individual and be paid a part of the fine imposed by the court. Soldiers could do this to supplement their pay, and would thus be tempted to make false accusations.
he said: The Berean Standard Bible has placed the words he said in the middle of what John told the soldiers. Place these words where it is natural in your language.
3:14c
In this part of the verse John told soldiers what they should do, after telling them what not to do in 3:14b. Some versions start a new sentence or clause here, including the Berean Standard Bible. Other versions, such as the New International Version, connect 3:14c to 3:14b with a dash. Do what is natural in your language for this context.
Be content with your wages: The phrase Be content with your wages means “be satisfied with what you are paid.” The word wages refers to money that the government gave to a soldier to buy food and other necessities. Soldiers were not paid very much money. John told them to be content with that amount.
Some other ways to translate this are:
Be satisfied with your pay (God’s Word) -or-
Consider your wages to be adequate -or-
Do not desire to be paid more than ⌊the government⌋ pays you
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