with a loud voice

The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated as “with a loud voice” in English is translated in Low German idiomatically as luuthals or “loud-throated” (translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006).

It is also used in Acts 19:28 for krazó (κράζω).

synagogue, temple (inner), temple (outer)

In many English translations the Greek terms “hieron” (the whole “temple” in Jerusalem or specifically the outer courts open to worshippers) and “naos” (the inner “shrine” or “sanctuary”) are translated with only one word: “temple” (see also for instance “Tempel” in German [for exception see below] and “tempel” in Dutch, Danish, or Afrikaans).

Other languages make a distinction: (Click or tap here to see more)

  • Navajo (Dinė): “house in which worship is carried out” (for naos)
  • Balinese: “inner part of the Great Temple” (“the term ‘inner part’ denoting the hindmost and holiest of the two or three courts that temples on Bali usually possess”) vs. “Great Temple”
  • Telugu: “womb (i.e. interior)-of-the-abode” vs. “abode”
  • Thai: a term denoting the main audience hall of a Buddhist temple compound vs. “environs-of-the-main-audience-hall”
  • Kituba: “place of holiness of house-God Lord” vs. “house-God Lord”
  • Shipibo-Conibo: “deep in God’s house” vs. “God’s house” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • German das Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022): “inner court of the temple” (Tempelinnenhof) vs. “temple”

Languages that, like English, German, Dutch, Danish, or Afrikaans, don’t make that distinction include:

  • Mandarin Chinese: “聖殿 Shèng diàn” (“holy palace”)
  • Loma: “the holy place”
  • Pular: “the sacred house” (source for this and the one above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Zarma: “God’s compound”
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “big church of the Jews”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “big house on top (i.e. most important)”
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: “house that is looked upon as holy, that is sacred, that is taboo and where one may not set foot” (lit. “house where-the-belly-gets-swollen” — because taboo is violated — using a term that is also applied to a Muslim mosque) (source for this and the three above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Mairasi: Janav Enggwarjer Weso: “Great Above One’s (God’s) House” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Noongar: Maya-maya-Kooranyi: “Sacred House” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Huehuetla Tepehua: “the big church of the Israelites”
  • Aguaruna: “the house for talking to God” (source for this and above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
  • Guhu-Samane: “festival longhouse of God” (“The biiri, ‘festival longhouse’, being the religious and social center of the community, is a possible term for ‘temple’. It is not the ‘poro house’ as such. That would be too closely identified with the cult of poro. The physical features of the building, huge and sub-divided, lend it further favor for this consideration. By qualifying it as ‘God’s biiri’ the term has become meaningful and appropriate in the context of the Scriptures.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in The Bible Translator, 1965, p. 81ff. )
  • Enga: “God’s restricted access house” (source: Adam Boyd on his blog )

Another distinction that tends to be overlooked in translations is that between hieron (“temple” in English) and sunagógé (“synagogue” in English). Euan Fry (in The Bible Translator 1987, p. 213ff. ) reports on this:

“Many older translations have simply used transliterations of ‘temple’ and ‘synagogue’ rather than trying to find equivalent terms or meaningful expressions in their own languages. This approach does keep the two terms separate; but it makes the readers depend on explanations given by pastors or teachers for their understanding of the text.

“Translators who have tried to find meaningful equivalents, for the two terms ‘temple’ and ‘synagogue’ have usually made a distinction between them in one of two ways (which focus on the contrasting components of meaning). One way takes the size and importance of the Temple to make a contrast, so that expressions such as ‘sacred meeting/ worship house of the Jews’ and ‘big sacred meeting/worship house of the Jews’ are used. The other way focuses on the different nature of the religious activity at each of the places, so that expressions such as ‘meeting/worship house of the Jews’ and ‘sacrifice/ceremony place of the Jews’ are used.

“It is not my purpose in this article to discuss how to arrive at the most precise equivalent to cover all the components of meaning of ‘temple’. That is something that each translator really has to work through for himself in the light of the present usage and possibilities in his own language. My chief concern here is that the basic term or terms chosen for ‘temple’ should give the reader of a translation a clear and correct picture of the location referred to in each passage. And I am afraid that in many cases where an equivalent like ‘house of God’ or ‘worship house’ has been chosen, the readers have quite the wrong picture of what going to the Temple or being in the Temple means. (This may be the case for the word ‘temple’ in English too, for many readers.)”

Here are some examples:

  • Bambara: “house of God” (or: “big house of worship”) vs. “worship house” (or: “small houses of worship”)
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: “house where-the-belly-gets-swollen” (see above) vs. “meeting house for discussing matters concerning religious customs” (and “church” is “house where one meets on Sunday”)
  • Navajo (Dinė): “house in which worship is carried out” vs. “house of gathering” (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida)

    • Bangandu: “the great house of God” vs. “house of prayer” (Source: Ervais Fotso Noumsi in Le Sycomore, 16/1, 2022 )

Click or tap here to see a short video clip about Herod’s temple (source: Bible Lands 2012)

Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing synagogues in New Testament times (source: Bible Lands 2012)

See also this devotion on YouVersion .

complete verse (Luke 4:33)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 4:33:

  • Noongar: “A man was sitting in the synagogue. An evil spirit lived inside him. He shouted very strongly:” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “There was also there a person who was possessed by a very evil demon. He shouted/howled he said:” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “In that prayer-house there was a demon possessed person. He cried out loud,” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then, while Jesus was still teaching, there was a man in the church who was afflicted with a demon. And when he saw Jesus, he shouted out saying,” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “There was there a man who was possessed (lit. fastened-to) by an evil spirit. He screamed shouting,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “There was there in that worship-place a man who was possessed by an evil-spirit. He shouted out loudly saying,” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

demon

The Greek that is typically translated/transliterated in English as “demon” is translated by other languages in the following ways:

  • Central Mazahua: “the evil spirit(s) of the devil” (source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.)
  • Kupsabiny: “bad spirit(s)” (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “bad bush-spirit(s)” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Hausa: “unclean spirit” (see note below) (source: Hausa Common Language Back Translation)
  • Mandarin Chinese: “dirty spirit” (污灵 / wūlíng) (Protestant); “evil spirit/demon” （邪鬼 / xiéguǐ) (Catholic) (source: Zetzsche)
  • Sissala: kaŋtɔŋ, which traditionally referred to “either a spirit of natural phenomena such as trees, rivers, stones, etc., or the spirit of a deceased person that has not been taken into the realm of the dead. Kaŋtɔŋ can be good or evil. Evil kaŋtɔŋ can bring much harm to people and are feared accordingly. A kaŋtɔŋ can also dwell in a person living on this earth. A person possessed by kaŋtɔŋ does not behave normally.” (Source: Regina Blass in Holzhausen 1991, p. 48f.)
  • Umiray Dumaget Agta: hayup or “creature, animal, general term for any non-human creature, whether natural or supernatural.” Thomas Headland (in: Notes on Translation, September 1971, p. 17ff.) explains some more: “There are several types of supernatural creatures, or spirit beings which are designated by the generic term hayup. Just as we have several terms in English for various spirit beings (elves, fairies, goblins, demons, imps, pixies) so have the Dumagats. And just as you will find vast disagreement and vagueness among English informants as to the differences between pixies and imps, etc., so you will find that no two Dumagats will agree as to the form and function of their different spirit beings.” This term can also be used in a verb form: hayupen: “creatured” or “to be killed, made sick, or crazy by a spirit.”
  • Yala: yapri̍ija ɔdwɔ̄bi̍ or “bad Yaprija.” Yaprijas are traditional spirits that have a range presumed activities including giving or withholding gifts, giving and protecting children, causing death and disease and rewarding good behavior. (Source: Eugene Bunkowske in Notes on Translation 78/1980, p. 36ff.)
  • Lamnso’: aànyùyi jívirì: “lesser gods who disturb, bother, pester, or confuse a person.” (Source: Fanwong 2013, p. 93)
  • Paasaal: gyɩŋbɔmɔ, “beings that are in the wild and can only be seen when they choose to reveal themselves to certain people. They can ‘capture’ humans and keep them in hiding while they train the person in herbalism and divination. After the training period, which can range from a week to many years, the ‘captured’ individual is released to go back into society as a healer and a diviner. The gyɩŋbɔmɔ can also be evil, striking humans with mental diseases and causing individuals to get lost in the wild. The Pasaale worldview about demons is like that of others of the language groups in the area, including the Northern Dagara [who use kɔ̃tɔmɛ with a similar meaning].” (Source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)

In the still widely-used 1908 Tswana (also: Setswana) translation (by Robert Moffat, revised by Alfred Wookey), the term badino or “ancestor spirit” is used for “demon,” even though in the traditional understanding there is nothing inherently negative associated with that term. Musa Dube (in: Journal of Society of New Testament 73, 1999, p. 33ff. ) describes this as an example of “engaging in the colonization of the minds of natives and for advancing European imperial spaces. The death and burial of Setswana culture here was primarily championed through the colonization of their language such that it no longer served the interests of the original speakers. Instead the written form of language had equated their cultural beliefs with evil spirits, demons and wizardry. This colonization of Setswana was in itself the planting of a colonial cultural bomb, meant to clear the ground for the implantation of a worldwide Christian commonwealth and European consciousness. It was a minefield that marked Setswana cultural spaces as dangerous death zones, to be avoided by every intelligent Motswana reader or hearer of the translated text.”

In Kachin, the term Nat (or nat) us used for “demon” (as well as “devil” and “unclean/evil spirit“). Like in Tswana, the meaning of Nat is not inherently negative but can be positive in the traditional Nat worship as well. Naw Din Dumdaw (in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 94ff.) argues that “the demonization of Nat created a social conflict between Kachin Christians and Kachin non-Christians. Kachin converts began to perceive their fellow Kachins who were still worshipping Nats as demonic and they wanted to distance themselves from them. Likewise, the Nat-worshiping Kachin community perceived the Kachin converts as betrayers and enemies of their own cultural heritage. (…) The demonization of the word Nat was not only the demonization of the pre-Christian religion but also the demonization of the cultural heritage of the Kachin people. When the word Nat is perceived as demonic, it creates an existential dilemma for Kachin Christians. It distances them from their cultural traditions.”

Note that often the words for “demon” and “unclean spirit / evil spirit” are being used interchangeably.

See also devil and formal pronoun: demons or Satan addressing Jesus.

Translation commentary on Luke 4:33

Exegesis:

echōn pneuma daimoniou akathartou ‘having (i.e. with) the spirit of an unclean demon.’ The phrase looks like a contamination of pneuma akatharton ‘unclean spirit’ (cf. v. 36; 6.18; 8.29; 9.42; 11.24) and daimonion ‘devil’ (cf. v. 35; 8.27; 9.42), which are, as 9.42 shows, synonymous. daimonion never has a qualifying adjective (except ‘many’ or, ‘all’) and pneuma, when not referring to the divine or the human spirit, is always combined with akatharton.

daimonion ‘demon,’ ‘evil spirit.’

akathartos ‘unclean,’ elsewhere of cultic or moral uncleanness, but in Luke only of evil spirits.

kai anekraxen phōnē megalē ‘and he shouted in a loud voice.’ Subject is anthrōpos ‘man.’

anakrazō ‘to cry out,’ ‘to shout.’

Translation:

A man who had the spirit of an unclean demon. That this expresses demon possession is clear, but the exact meaning of the uncommon collocation is not clear, as shown in Exegesis. This makes the clause difficult to translate. Matters are worse still in languages where the rendering of ‘demon’ coincides with that of ‘(evil) spirit’ (Nieuwe Vertaling) or of ‘unclean spirit,’ or with both (Tzeltal, Bahasa Indonesia, Balinese); cf. also references on “demon” in v. 35 and on “unclean spirit” in v. 36. For a practical solution of this problem it is probably best for the translator to start from his usual rendering of demon possession and then try to expand it in such a way as to reflect the longer and more intricate wording of the Greek. In doing so he may use what is less common in the receptor language (since the Greek is uncommon), though not what is decidedly unidiomatic. This may lead to renderings such as, ‘a person with an evil, unclean spirit’ (Nieuwe Vertaling), ‘who had a bad, devilish spirit (lit. wind)’ (Sranan Tongo), “possessed by a devil, an unclean spirit” (New English Bible); or simply, ‘possessed by demons’ (Balinese). In several Indonesian languages the rendering ‘entered by a demon’ is very common; the resulting expression has become so much a technical term that the qualification ‘by a demon’ is often omitted. Cf. also on “entered” in 8.30. In Marathi a term for demon possession is ‘to be touched,’ and in Tboli one can refer to it by a euphemism (used e.g. in 8.2), ‘that which they always say, “Someone (or something) is leading him” .’

Cried out with a loud voice, or, ‘shouted loudly’ (Willibrord), ‘shrieking he shouted’ (Balinese); and cf. on “exclaimed with a loud cry” in 1.42.

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 4:33

Paragraph 4:33–34

4:33a

In the synagogue: The phrase the synagogue refers to the building in Capernaum where Jews gathered to pray, read Scripture, teach their beliefs, and worship God. For more information, see the note on “synagogues” at 4:15a and synagogue in the Glossary.

This is the first time in this section that Luke has explicitly mentioned this synagogue at Capernaum. So in some languages, it may be necessary to link the synagogue to this story by saying something like:

In the synagogue ⌊at Capernaum⌋
-or-
In that synagogue ⌊where Jesus was teaching⌋

a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon: The phrase a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon indicates that an evil spirit controlled the man’s thoughts and actions. For example:

There was a man…under the influence of some evil spirit (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)

The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as possessed is literally the verb “having.” For example:

In the synagogue a man who had within him an evil spirit (New Century Version)

Languages have different ways to refer to possession by evil spirits. Some other ways to translate this are:

a man who had the spirit of an evil demon in him (Good News Translation)
-or-
a man controlled by an evil spirit
-or-
a man on whom an evil spirit had fastened

Use an expression that is natural in your language to refer to an evil spirit controlling a person.

the spirit of an unclean demon: This is the only time that Luke used the long and unusual Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as spirit of an unclean demon. Luke referred to this same being as a “demon” in 4:35b, and the people of Capernaum speak of such beings as “unclean spirits” in 4:36d.

Throughout the rest of the Gospel of Luke, Luke often referred to demons and evil spirits. Because this is the first time he referred to such a being, he gave a more complete description. The terms “demon,” “evil spirit,” and “spirit of an unclean demon” all refer to the same type of being. They are not different types of beings. All these terms refer to a spirit that is evil and can control people’s actions.

Some ways to translate the spirit of an unclean demon are:

• Use a general term in your language that refers to a spirit that is evil and can control people. For example:

a demon
-or-
a devil

• Use a specific term in your language that refers to a certain type of spirit. This spirit should be able to do what is described in this context. Do not use a term that refers to the spirit of a dead person.

• Use a descriptive phrase. For example:

an evil spirit (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
an unclean spirit

Be sure that an expression like “unclean spirit” does not imply that the spirit is physically dirty.

See demon in the Glossary for more information.

unclean: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as unclean means that the demon was morally “unclean” in the sense that it was sinful.

If the idea of “evil/impure” is already implicit in your word for demon, you do not have to explicitly translate this term.

4:33b

He cried out in a loud voice: The clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as He cried out in a loud voice is literally “he shouted in a great/large voice.” Some other ways to translate this are:

He shouted very loudly (God’s Word)
-or-
he screamed out in a loud voice (Good News Translation)
-or-
He cried out at the top of his voice (New International Version)

He: The pronoun He refers to the man. But actually, the demon was speaking through the man’s mouth. The demon was causing the man to say what he (the demon) wanted him to say. Use whatever subject is natural in your language to refer to a person speaking under the influence of an evil spirit.

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