Translation commentary on Luke 4:3

Exegesis:

eipen de autō ho diabolos ‘the devil said to him.’ de is connective and the clause implies that the devil had been present during the preceding 40 days.

ei huios ei tou theou ‘if you are the Son of God,’ a supposition, not a recognition. The clause does not imply doubt concerning Jesus being the Son of God but a challenge to Jesus to prove that he really is the Son of God. huios is separated from its complement tou theou by ei; this serves to emphasize huios as expression of the relationship between Jesus and God.

eipe tō lithō toutō hina genētai artos ‘tell this stone to become bread.’ eipe means here ‘command,’ ‘order.’ tō lithō toutō ‘this stone,’ as if pointed at by finger (cf. Willibrord, ‘that stone there’), because no previous identification of the stone occurs.

hina genētai artos lit. ‘that he become bread,’ but hina has lost its final meaning and the construction substitutes an infinitive that supplements a verb meaning ‘to order.’

artos ‘bread,’ ‘loaf of bread,’ ‘food.’

Translation:

This dialogue between Jesus and the devil poses a problem for a translator in honorific languages, since he cannot find a model in the social scene. It is to be understood, therefore, that the solutions chosen may differ. In some languages both Jesus and the devil use honorifics, which suggests a certain recognition of each other’s position; conversely in Shona honorifics are deliberately not used in this dialogue. Elsewhere the devil is represented as holding a decidedly lower rank than Jesus has, e.g. in Sinhala, Marathi, Balinese, Javanese. In the last mentioned language the devil uses middle-class honorifics, expressing politeness but not reverence, as people do in ordinary life when addressing a stranger whose rank is unknown. In some cases existing myths or tales can be found that describe comparable situations. The translator should certainly study such material, but the chances are that the model which emerges from it may be unacceptable from the Christian point of view.

If you are, or, emphasizing the challenge, ‘if it is a fact that you are’; or, if a conditional clause would be too strongly dubitative, ‘you say that you are.’

The verb to command (also in 4.36; 5.14; 8.25, 29, 31; 9.21; 14.22; 17.9f; 18.40; 19.15) may have to be rendered analytically, using indirect or direct discourse, e.g. ‘tell this stone to become (or, that it must become) bread,’ or, ‘tell this stone, “Become bread” ’ (Marathi).

Become bread, or, ‘change into bread’ (cf. An American Translation, Bible de Jérusalem, Trukese), or, ‘become (or, change into) a loaf’ (cf. The Four Gospels – a New Translation, Pohnpeian). For the rendering of bread, or, ‘loaf (of bread),’ by a generic term, e.g. ‘food,’ ‘lump/piece of food,’ or by the term for a local equivalent.

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 4:3

Paragraph 4:3–4

This paragraph is about one way that the devil tempted Jesus. The devil tempted him to show that he was the Son of God by performing a miracle in order to feed himself.

The events in this paragraph occur after the events in 4:1–2. In some languages, it may be natural to begin this paragraph with a time word or phrase. That would reflect a connecting word that is in the Greek. For example:

Then (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
After this

4:3a

If You are the Son of God: Satan said the words If You are the Son of God to challenge Jesus to prove that he really was the Son of God. Another way to translate this is:

If you really are the Son of God (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)

the Son of God: This is the second time that the phrase the Son of God occurs in Luke. It also occurs in 1:35c. Translate it the same way in both places.

The Bible uses the title Son of God to express the fact that Jesus has the same nature as God. This title also indicates that the relationship between God and Jesus, his Son, is similar in some way to the relationship of human fathers and sons. God does not have a physical body, and he did not create/produce Jesus the way a human father produces a son. Before Jesus was born, he already existed from eternity as the Son with his Father.

In areas where people do not understand the term Son of God in this way, you may wish to include a footnote. For example:

God the Father is the Father of his Son, Jesus Christ, in a different way than human males are fathers of their sons. The Bible gives Jesus Christ the title Son of God to express the fact that Jesus has the same nature as his Father. It also indicates that the relationship between the Father and Jesus Christ, his Son, is similar in some ways to the relationship between a human father and son.

In some languages, it is natural to speak of a Son as a “child,” without specifying male or female. If that is true in your language, you may translate Son of God as:

Child of God

The context will usually make it clear that “Child of God,” when speaking of Jesus, refers to a male child. If you decide to use a phrase such as “male Child of God,” be sure that it does not imply there might also be a “female Child of God.”

God: For help in translating the word God, see the note at 1:6b.

4:3b

tell this stone to become bread: There is some implied information here. Satan did not simply want Jesus to tell the stone to become bread. Satan wanted Jesus actually to cause it to become bread for Jesus to eat. So you could translate this as:

speak to this stone and cause it to become bread ⌊for you⌋
-or-
change this stone into ⌊a loaf of⌋ bread ⌊that you can eat⌋

this stone: Satan probably pointed at one of the stones or perhaps picked up one of them.

bread: In Jesus’ time, bread was the most common and basic food. The bread that the Jews ate was made of wheat flour. It was round and flat.

If you do not already have a word for bread in your language, some ways to translate bread are:

• Use a generic term such as “food.”

• Borrow the word for bread from the national language or major language in your area.

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