People from his home town rejected him because they could not accept who he claimed to be (image)

“Only qualified, trained leaders know the dharma (truth) yet Jesus made claims that threatened the establishment. He is being chased out of the temple because his people thought him merely a carpenter. They intended to throw him down the cliff but he just passed by.”

Drawing by Sawai Chinnawong who employs northern and central Thailand’s popular distinctive artistic style originally used to depict Buddhist moral principles and other religious themes; explanation by Paul DeNeui. From That Man Who Came to Save Us by Sawai Chinnawong and Paul H. DeNeui, William Carey Library, 2010.

For more images by Sawai Chinnawong in TIPs see here.

complete verse (Luke 4:19)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 4:19:

  • Noongar: “and saying, ‘The day has come when the Lord will save his people’.'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “He commanded me to spread his news, that the time has come for the Lord to show his love to hispeople.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “I am also sent here to spread-word that the year has arrived when God will save his people.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “He also sent Me so that I might tell that this is the year that He will show His kindness to mankind.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “And also so that I will make-known to the many-people that the time has arrived when-God -will-show his mercy/favor.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “and to make clear the saving/freeing which God will do.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Lord

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The Hebrew adonai in the Old Testament typically refers to God. The shorter adon (and in two cases in the book of Daniel the Aramaic mare [מָרֵא]) is also used to refer to God but more often for concepts like “master,” “owner,” etc. In English Bible translations all of those are translated with “Lord” if they refer to God.

In English Old Testament translations, as in Old Testament translations in many other languages, the use of Lord (or an equivalent term in other languages) is not to be confused with Lord (or the equivalent term with a different typographical display for other languages). While the former translates adonai, adon and mare, the latter is a translation for the tetragrammaton (YHWH) or the Name of God. See tetragrammaton (YHWH) and the article by Andy Warren-Rothlin in Noss / Houser, p. 618ff. for more information.

In the New Testament, the Greek term kurios has at least four different kinds of use:

  • referring to “God,” especially in Old Testament quotations,
  • meaning “master” or “owner,” especially in parables, etc.,
  • as a form of address (see for instance John 4:11: “Sir, you have no bucket”),
  • or, most often, referring to Jesus

In the first and fourth case, it is also translated as “Lord” in English.

Most languages naturally don’t have one word that covers all these meanings. According to Bratcher / Nida, “the alternatives are usually (1) a term which is an honorific title of respect for a high-ranking person and (2) a word meaning ‘boss’, ‘master’, or ‘chief.’ (…) and on the whole it has generally seemed better to employ a word of the second category, in order to emphasize the immediate personal relationship, and then by context to build into the word the prestigeful character, since its very association with Jesus Christ will tend to accomplish this purpose.”

When looking at the following list of back-translations of the terms that translators in the different languages have used for both kurios and adonai to refer to God and Jesus respectively, it might be helpful for English readers to recall the etymology of the English “Lord.” While this term might have gained an exalted meaning in the understanding of many, it actually comes from hlaford or “loaf-ward,” referring to the lord of the castle who was the keeper of the bread (source: Rosin 1956, p. 121).

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Following are some of the solutions that don’t rely on a different typographical display (see above):

  • Navajo (Dinė): “the one who has charge”
  • Mossi: “the one who has the head” (the leader)
  • Uduk: “chief”
  • Guerrero Amuzgo: “the one who commands”
  • Kpelle: “person-owner” (a term which may be applied to a chief)
  • Central Pame: “the one who owns us” (or “commands us”)
  • Piro: “the big one” (used commonly of one in authority)
  • San Blas Kuna: “the great one over all” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Guhu-Samane: Soopara (“our Supervisor”) (source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.)
  • Balinese: “Venerated-one” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Yanesha’: “the one who carries us” (source: Nida 1952, p. 159)
  • Northern Emberá: Dadjirã Boro (“our Head”)
  • Rarotongan: Atu (“master or owner of a property”)
  • Gilbertese: Uea (“a person of high status invested with authority to rule the people”)
  • Rotuman: Gagaja (“village chief”)
  • Samoan: Ali’i (“an important word in the native culture, it derives from the Samoan understanding of lordship based on the local traditions”)
  • Tahitian: Fatu (“owner,” “master”)
  • Tuvalu: Te Aliki (“chief”)
  • Fijian: Liuliu (“leader”) (source for this and six above: Joseph Hong in The Bible Translator 1994, p. 329ff. )
  • Bacama: Həmə miye: “owner of people” (source: David Frank in this blog post )
  • Hopi: “Controller” (source: Walls 2000, p. 139)
  • Iyansi: Mwol. Mwol is traditionally used for the “chief of a group of communities and villages” with legal, temporal, and spiritual authority (versus the “mfum [the term used in other Bantu languages] which is used for the chief of one community of people in one village”). Mwol is also used for twins who are “treated as special children, highly honored, and taken care of like kings and queens.” (Source: Kividi Kikama in Greed / Kruger, p. 396ff.)
  • Ghomala’: Cyəpɔ (“he who is above everyone,” consisting of the verb cyə — to surpass or go beyond — and pɔ — referring to people. No human can claim this attribute, no matter what his or her social status or prestige.” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn )
  • Binumarien: Karaambaia: “fight-leader” (Source: Oates 1995, p. 255)
  • Warlpiri: Warlaljamarri (owner or possessor of something — for more information tap or click here)

    We have come to rely on another term which emphasizes God’s essential nature as YHWH, namely jukurrarnu (see tetragrammaton (YHWH)). This word is built on the same root jukurr– as is jukurrpa, ‘dreaming.’ Its basic meaning is ‘timelessness’ and it is used to describe physical features of the land which are viewed as always being there. Some speakers view jukurrarnu in terms of ‘history.’ In all Genesis references to YHWH we have used Kaatu Jukurrarnu. In all Mark passages where kurios refers to God and not specifically to Christ we have also used Kaatu Jukurrarnu.

    New Testament references to Christ as kurios are handled differently. At one stage we experimented with the term Watirirririrri which refers to a ceremonial boss of highest rank who has the authority to instigate ceremonies. While adequately conveying the sense of Christ’s authority, there remained potential negative connotations relating to Warlpiri ceremonial life of which we might be unaware.

    Here it is that the Holy Spirit led us to make a chance discovery. Transcribing the personal testimony of the local Warlpiri pastor, I noticed that he described how ‘my Warlaljamarri called and embraced me (to the faith)’. Warlaljamarri is based on the root warlalja which means variously ‘family, possessions, belongingness’. A warlaljamarri is the ‘owner’ or ‘possessor’ of something. While previously being aware of the ‘ownership’ aspect of warlaljamarri, this was the first time I had heard it applied spontaneously and naturally in a fashion which did justice to the entire concept of ‘Lordship’. Thus references to Christ as kurios are now being handled by Warlaljamarri.” (Source: Stephen Swartz, The Bible Translator 1985, p. 415ff. )

  • Mairasi: Onggoao Nem (“Throated One” — “Leader,” “Elder”) or Enggavot Nan (“Above-One”) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Obolo: Okaan̄-ene (“Owner of person(s)”) (source: Enene Enene)
  • Angami Naga: Niepu (“master,” “owner”)
  • Lotha Naga: Opvui (“owner of house / field / cattle”) — since both “Lord” and YHWH are translated as Opvui there is an understanding that “Opvui Jesus is the same as the Opvui of the Old Testament”
  • Ao Naga: Kibuba (“human master,” “teacher,” “owner of property,” etc.) (source for this and two above: Nitoy Achumi in The Bible Translator 1992 p. 438ff. )
  • Seediq: Tholang, loan word from Min Nan Chinese (the majority language in Taiwan) thâu-lâng (頭儂): “Master” (source: Covell 1998, p. 248)
  • Thai: phra’ phu pen cao (พระผู้เป็นเจ้า) (divine person who is lord) or ong(kh) cao nay (องค์เจ้านาย) (<divine classifier>-lord-boss) (source: Stephen Pattemore)
  • Arabic often uses different terms for adonai or kurios referring to God (al-rabb الرب) and kurios referring to Jesus (al-sayyid الـسـيـد). Al-rabb is also the term traditionally used in Arabic Christian-idiom translations for YHWH, and al-sayyid is an honorary term, similar to English “lord” or “sir” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin).
  • Tamil also uses different terms for adonai/kurios when referring to God and kurios when referring to Jesus. The former is Karttar கர்த்தர், a Sanskrit-derived term with the original meaning of “creator,” and the latter in Āṇṭavar ஆண்டவர், a Tamil term originally meaning “govern” or “reign” (source: Natarajan Subramani).
  • Burunge: Looimoo: “owner who owns everything” (in the Burunge Bible translation, this term is only used as a reference to Jesus and was originally used to refer to the traditional highest deity — source: Michael Endl in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 48)
  • Yagaria: Souve, originally “war lord” (source: Renck, p. 94)
  • Aguacateco: Ajcaw ske’j: “the one to whom we belong and who is above us” (source: Rita Peterson in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 49)
  • Konkomba: Tidindaan: “He who is the owner of the land and reigns over the people” (source: Lidorio 2007, p. 66)
  • Chichewa: Ambuye Ambuye comes from the singular form Mbuye which is used to refer to: (1) someone who is a guardian or protector of someone or group of people — a grandparent who has founded a community or village; (2) someone who is a boss or master over a group of people or servants and has absolute control over them; (3) owner of something, be it a property, animals and people who are bound under his/her rule — for people this was mostly commonly used in the context of slaves and their owner. In short, Mbuye is someone who has some authorities over those who call him/her their “Mbuye.” Now, when the form Ambuye is used it will either be for honorific when used for singular or plural when referring to more than one person. When this term is used in reference to God, it is for respect to God as he is acknowledged as a guardian, protector, and ruler of everything. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation).
  • Hdi uses rveri (“lion”) as a title of respect and as such it regularly translates adon in the Old Testament. As an address, it’s most often with a possessive pronoun as in rvera ɗa (“my lion” = “my lord” or “sir”). So, for example, Genesis 15:2 (“O Lord God”) is Rvera ɗa Yawe (“My lion Yahweh”) or Ruth to Boaz in Ruth 2:13: “May I find your grace [lit. good-stomach] my lion.” This ties in nicely with the imagery of the Lord roaring like a lion (Hosea 11:10; Amos 3:8; Joel 3:16). Better still, this makes passages like Revelation 5:5 even richer when we read about rveri ma taba məndəra la Yuda, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah”. In Revelation 19:16, Jesus is rveri ta ghəŋa rveriha “the lion above lions” (“lord of lords”). (Source: Drew Maust)

Law (2013, p. 97) writes about how the Ancient Greek Septuagint‘s translation of the Hebrew adonai was used by the New Testament writers as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments: “Another case is the use of kurios referring to Jesus. For Yahweh (in English Bibles: ‘the Lord‘), the Septuagint uses kurios. Although the term kurios usually has to do with one’s authority over others, when the New Testament authors use this word from the Septuagint to refer to Jesus, they are making an extraordinary claim: Jesus of Nazareth is to be identified with Yahweh.”

See also Father / Lord.

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Luke 4:16-30)

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 4:16-30:

Jesus — now a grown man — returned one day
to his hometown of Nazareth,
       where he attended synagogue on a Sabbath.
He was handed a Bible and instructed to read from Isaiah:

       The Spirit of the Lord has descended upon me
       and has chosen me to proclaim great news for the poor,
              to set prisoners free, to heal blindness and suffering,
              and to announce this is the Lord’s chosen time.
Jesus closed the Bible and handed it to the leader,
then sat down, and with everyone staring at him, said,
       “These words have all come true today.”

Though completely amazed at the teaching of Jesus,
the entire congregation was puzzled and questioned,
       “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?”

So Jesus responded:

       “You think I’m really the one in need of help,
       and you challenge me to work in my own hometown
              the same miracles you heard I worked in Capernaum.
       Need I remind you — prophets are rejected at home!

       “During the time of Elijah the prophet,
       there was a drought for three years,
              and people were starving everywhere.
       But God sent Elijah to help only a foreign widow.

       “During the time of Elisha the prophet,
       many men in our nation suffered from leprosy,
              but God healed only Naaman, who lived in Syria.”

At this, everyone in the synagogue became furious.
They threw Jesus out of their town,
       dragged him to the edge of a cliff,
       and started to throw him down from there.
But Jesus slipped through the crowd and disappeared.

Translation commentary on Luke 4:18 – 4:19

Exegesis:

pneuma kuriou ep’ eme ‘the Spirit of the Lord is upon me,’ cf. on 2.25. The Spirit is the Spirit of prophetic inspiration, cf. Hos. 9.7; Micah 3.8; Ezek. 2.2; 3.24; 11.5.

hou heineken echrisen me ‘because he has anointed me.’

hou heineken lit. ‘because of the fact that,’ with the implication that the purpose of echrisen me ‘he anointed me’ is to bring about what the main clause refers to, as often in the Septuagint. heineken (here and 18.29), heneken (9.24; 21.12) or heneka (6.22) ‘because of,’ ‘on account of.’

chriō ‘to anoint,’ in the New Testament only in figurative meaning. In view of the fulfilment to which v. 21 refers it appears that Jesus understands the descending of the Spirit upon him (3.22) as his being anointed with the Spirit.

euaggelisasthai ptōchois ‘to preach good news to poor people.’ For euaggelizomai cf. on 1.19. The phrase, which is dependent upon echrisen, serves to indicate God’s commission implied in the anointing with the Spirit.

ptōchos lit. ‘begging,’ hence ‘poor.’ Here as often in the Old Testament it does not denote people who are only economically poor but people who have little or nothing to expect from the circumstances which determine their life and are therefore dependent upon God. The omission of the article before ptōchois (as before the other nouns in this verse) shows that the reference is not to one specific group but to people who are in this situation generally.

apestalken me ‘he has sent me’ cf. on 1.19. On this clause depend the subsequent infinitives kēruxai (twice) and aposteilai.

kēruxai aichmalōtois aphesin kai tuphlois anablepsin ‘to proclaim release for captives and recovery of sight for blind.’ For kērussō cf. on 3.3; for aphesis cf. on 1.77.

aichmalōtos ‘captive,’ refers in Is. 61.1 perhaps to people who have been sold as slaves because of their debts and who were set free in the year of jubilee (see below), and may be taken here as referring to all people who are in some form of slavery, including that of sin.

tuphlos ‘blind,’ here refers to blind people as socially weak and personally unhappy, cf. 14.13, 21. They are among the specific objects of Jesus’ Messianic ministry of healing (cf. 7.21, 22 where also the ptōchoi are mentioned as those who receive the good news!).

anablepsis ‘recovery of sight,’ or, with a shift from the abstract to the concrete, “new eyes” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation).

aposteilai tethrausmenous en aphesei ‘to let go, or to send away, the down-trodden in liberty.’ Here apostellō is used in a weaker meaning (‘to let go’ without indication of purpose or commission). en aphesei does not refer (as does aphesin above) to the release of prisoners but to a freedom in a social and religious sense which is the opposite of the state to which tethrausmenous (see below) refers.

tethrausmenous, from thrauō ‘to break,’ lit. ‘the broken ones,’ fig. ‘the oppressed,’ ‘the down-trodden,’ socially and religiously.

(V. 19) kēruxai eniauton kuriou dekton ‘to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour,’ or ‘the acceptable year of the Lord,’ dependent upon the interpretation of dekton. eniautos.

dektos (also v. 24) (1) ‘acceptable,’ ‘welcome’ or (2) ‘favourable.’ In v. 24 only the former meaning is possible (see below), but here both may apply: (1) ‘the acceptable, or agreeable year of the Lord’ (Revised Standard Version, Nieuwe Vertaling, Zürcher Bibel, Rengstorf) must be understood as agreeable to men; (2) ‘the favourable year of the Lord’ i.e. the year of the Lord’s favour, i.e. the year in which the Lord bestows his favour. The latter is preferable.

Translation:

Here, again the use of honorific requires attention. In order to make the right choice the translator should carefully envisage the situation to which the quotation refers, i.e. that of a messenger of God who tells the people what God has done to him and what he himself is going to do. The position of the messenger is such that he may be taken to address the people in non-honorific language.

The lines (a) and (b) may have to be co-ordinated, e.g. ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; for that purpose he has anointed me. He did so in order that I may preach…,’ or, ‘The Lord has anointed me. Now his Spirit is upon me. This happens in order that I may preach….’

The Spirit of the Lord The relationship between ‘the Lord’ or ‘God’ and ‘his Spirit’ is not the same as that between ‘man’ and ‘his heart/mind/soul.’ To avoid misunderstanding one may have to say, ‘the Spirit from God,’ ‘the Spirit that God gives/sends’; in languages that distinguish between alienable and inalienable possessives, the first may be obligatory. For Lord see on 1.6, sub (c).

He has anointed me. For the verb, here used in a figurative sense. The words refer to Jesus’ experience described in 3.22; hence in Foe the past tense referring to what happened before the day of speaking has to be used, and the aspect which indicates that the speaker describes something that he can see going on.

To preach good news, see on 3.18.

The poor (also in 6.20; 7.22; 14.13, 21; 16.20, 22; 18.22; 19.8; 21.2f), or, ‘those who have very little’; or if such terms are too exclusively economic, ‘the wretched/miserable’ (Balinese), ‘the pitiable.’

To proclaim release to the captives, or avoiding the verbal noun, ‘to announce to the captives that they will be released’ (Sranan Tongo), or, “You shall be (set) free!” In making his choice between possible restructurings the translator should take into account the parallelism with the next phrase, which makes the use of identical constructions preferable. — To proclaim, i.e. to make widely known with authority, has been rendered, ‘to cause-to-be heard-here-and-there’ (Trukese), ‘to spread by saying’ (Tzeltal); cf. also on “to preach” in 3.3. Where more than one term is available one should select the one that is most widely applicable and can also be used metaphorically. Some of the expressions used are ‘the tied-up ones’ (Pohnpeian, Ekari), ‘men that are-imprisoned’ (Javanese), ‘those taken and carried away’ (Marathi), ‘those who have become booty (lit. what-is-taken-as-plunder)’ (Balinese).

And recovering of sight to the blind. For shifts that may be necessary in the syntactic structure, see above. To recover sight, or, ‘to regain (one’s) sight,’ ‘to be able to see again.’ For blind one says, ‘(having) eyes dark/night’ in Ekari, ‘having no eyes’ in Zarma, ‘not seeing’ in honorific Balinese. Some languages have distinctive terms for congenital and non-congenital blindness, the latter to be used here.

Lines (e) and (f) are dependent on “he has sent me” in line (c), which clause has to be repeated in some languages before (e) (as done in Sranan Tongo), and maybe also before (f).

To set at liberty, or, ‘to set free,’ ‘to deliver.’ It may be necessary to add a reference to that which they were delivered from, e.g. ‘to deliver the oppressed from their enemies,’ ‘to help the oppressed against (or, to overcome) what oppresses them.’

Those who are oppressed, or, ‘maltreated,’ ‘defeated.’

(V. 19) The structure of to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, preferably, ‘the favourable year of the Lord’ (see Exegesis), usually will have to be changed, e.g. ‘to proclaim that the favourable year of the Lord has come’ (cf. Sranan Tongo), or, ‘that this is the year of the Lord’s favour,’ “In this year the Lord will show his favour (towards man!)” — For ‘favour’ see references on 1.30.

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 4:19

4:19

This verse tells the fourth thing that God had sent the Messiah to proclaim. In some languages it may be necessary to repeat the verb “sent” from 4:18c. For example:

⌊He has sent me⌋ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor: The phrase to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor means “to announce that this is the year of the Lord’s favor.”

This phrase certainly reminded people of the Old Testament year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:10). This was a special year of freedom and forgiveness for Israelites. The year of Jubilee foreshadowed the time when the Messiah would proclaim God’s forgiveness of people.

to proclaim: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as proclaim is the same verb as in 4:18c. It means “to announce, to tell, to send out news about something.”

the year of the Lord’s favor: There are two ways to interpret the phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the year of the Lord’s favor:

(1) It means the year when the Lord will show his favor to people. For example:

the time when the Lord will show his kindness (New Century Version)

(New Jerusalem Bible, Good News Translation, New Century Version; and probably Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, New Revised Standard Version, New Living Translation (2004), God’s Word, Revised English Bible)

(2) It means the year that the Lord has favored, that is, the year that the Lord has chosen, or the year that is acceptable to him. For example:

This is the year the Lord has chosen (Contemporary English Version)

(King James Version, Contemporary English Version, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English, Revised Standard Version)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1).

year: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as year has a general meaning here. It refers to a period of time. In this context it refers to the time of the Messiah’s ministry when the Lord will show his favor. It probably does not refer specifically to a literal calendar year. For this reason, it is good to translate the word in a general way. For example:

to announce the time when the Lord will show his kindness (New Century Version)

the Lord’s favor: The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the Lord’s favor refers to the Lord’s kindness. God will show his kindness or show that he is kind. For example:

the Lord will show his kindness (New Century Version)

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