The Greek that is translated as “sinner” in English is translated in various ways:
“people with bad hearts” (“it is not enough to call them ‘people who do bad things,’ for though actions do reflect the heart, yet it is the hearts with which God is primarily concerned — see Matt. 15:19“) in Western Kanjobal
“people who are doing wrong things in their hearts” in San Blas Kuna (source for this and above: Nida 1952, p. 148)
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 6:34:
Noongar: “And if you give only to people you know will give back to you, why will you be praised? Bad people give things to people and get back the same things!” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “If we give our money to be lent out only to people that we know will be able to return it to us, God will not bless us. Even evil people also want their fellow evil people to borrow from them, because they trust them to return [things] to them later.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “And if you only lend to those whom you expect to have the means to pay it back, is there anything to praise you for? There isn’t. For even the sinful people who lend to their fellow sinners expect that they get paid back what they lent.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And if you only lend to people who you know will be able to pay you back, don’t you think that God will reward you, for even the transgressor people, they lend to their companions who are transgressors, if they know that they will be able to pay back what they owe.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “And if you only lend (lit. cause-to-borrow) to those whom you know will return what they borrow, will you be rewarded do-you-suppose? Even sinful people lend of course to their fellows, because they expect that the borrowers will indeed also return what they lent.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well, if you only lend to those people of whom you are sure that they will be able to pay you back, well, what more reward are you waiting for? For even sinners indeed lend to those of whom they have certainty of being able to pay back.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
“Hope is sometimes one of the most difficult terms to translate in the entire Bible. It is not because people do not hope for things, but so often they speak of hoping as simply ‘waiting.’ In fact, even in Spanish, the word esperar means both ‘to wait’ and ‘to hope.’ However, in many instances the purely neutral term meaning ‘to wait’ may be modified in such a way that people will understand something more of its significance. For example, in Tepeuxila Cuicatec hope is called ‘wait-desire.’ Hope is thus a blend of two activities: waiting and desiring. This is substantially the type of expectancy of which hope consists.
In Yucateco the dependence of hope is described by the phrase ‘on what it hangs.’ ‘Our hope in God’ means that ‘we hang onto God.’ The object of hope is the support of one’s expectant waiting. In Ngäbere the phrase “resting the mind” is used. This “implies waiting and confidence, and what is a better definition of hope than ‘confident waiting’.” (Source for this and above: Nida 1952, p. 20, 133)
Enlhet: “waitings of (our) innermost” (“innermost” or valhoc is a term that is frequently used in Enlhet to describe a large variety of emotions or states of mind — for other examples see here) (source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )
Kwang: “one’s future is restored to one’s soul like a fresh, cool breeze on a hot day.” (Source: Mark Vanderkooi right here )
Noongar: koort-kwidiny or “heart waiting” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Anjam: “looking through the horizon” (source: Albert Hoffmann in his memoirs from 1948, quoted in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 7)
Ron: kintiɓwi or “put lip” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
Alekano: “wait not hearing two ears” (meaning to “wait without being double-minded” — source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation June 1986, p. 36ff.)
In Mwera “hope” and “faith” are translated with the same word: ngulupai. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
C.M. Doke looks at a number of Bantu languages and their respective translations of “hope” with slightly varying connotations (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 9ff. ):
Xhosa and Zulu: themba “hope, expect,” also “have faith in, rely upon”
Tswana: tsholofelo “hope, expect, look for confidently”
Southern Sotho: tshepo “trust, rely on, believe in, have confidence in”
“Unlike English, which uses the word hope broadly, the French language uses two words that derive from the word espérer (to hope): espoir and espérance. Both can first refer to something hoped for. In this sense, the word espoir usually refers to an uncertain object; that is, someone who hopes for something in this way does not have the certainty that it will happen (“I hope the weather will be nice tomorrow”). On the other hand, espérance describes what, rightly or wrongly, is hoped for or expected with certainty. It often refers to a philosophical or eschatological object (‘I hope in the goodness of human beings’; ‘I hope for the return of Jesus Christ’).
“When we speak of espoir or espérance, we then have in mind different types of objects hoped for. This difference matters, because both terms also commonly refer to the state of mind that characterizes the hopeful. And this state of mind will be different precisely according to the object hoped for.
“Having espoir for an uncertain yet better future in these difficult times may be a good thing, but it is not enough. Such hope can be disappointed and easily fade away when our wishes and expectations (our hopes) do not materialize.
“The opposite is true with espérance, which is deeper than our desire and wish for an end to a crisis or a future without pain and suffering. To face the trials of life, we need peace and joy in our hearts that come from expecting certain happiness. This is what espérance is: a profound and stable disposition resulting from faith in the coming of what we expect. In this sense, it is similar in meaning to the English word hopefulness.
“If we have believed in the Son of the living God, we have such a hope. It rests on the infallible promises of our God, who knows the plans he has for us, his children — plans of peace and not misfortune, to give us a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). By using the two meanings of the word, we can say that the espérance that the fulfillment of his promises represents (the object hoped for) fills us with espérance (the state of mind).”
Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.
As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.
Here, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.
In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
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 ean danisēte par’ hōn elpizete labein ‘and if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive.’ As shown by what follows labein refers to receiving back what had been lent.
daneizō (also v. 35) ‘to lend (upon interest).’
hina apolabōsin ta isa ‘in order to receive back the same amount.’
apolambanō ‘to receive full,’ ‘to receive in return,’ ‘to receive back,’ more specific than labein (see above).
isos ‘equal.’ ta isa appears to be a current financial term, ‘the same sum’ (cf. Moulton-Milligan).
Translation:
Lend. Languages may distinguish between, (1) lending food, money, etc., expecting in return an equivalent quantity or sum; (2) lending objects such as tools, expecting the same object to be returned; (3) lending on interest. In the present context one may hesitate between (1) and (3), but (1) is preferable because “to receive as much again” excludes an explicit reference to interest. The concept meant here can be expressed in various ways, e.g. ‘to give debt’ (Javanese), ‘to receive a debt’ (Kele, which uses ‘to take a debt’ for ‘to borrow’), ‘to give to-be-borrowed’ (Tzeltal), a causative form of ‘to borrow’ (Kituba; similarly in Tboli, which uses ‘to have-a-debt’ for ‘to borrow,’ and in Balinese, where the term for ‘to borrow’ is related to that for ‘to exchange/replace’); or, ‘to give temporarily’ (Ekari).
Hope. A less pregnant rendering, ‘think that you will’ is preferred in Ekari, Toraja-Sa’dan, Sranan Tongo.
Receive may require an object, e.g. ‘something’ (Tae’), ‘a return/substitute’ (Balinese, using a term related to that for ‘to lend’).
Sinners lend to sinners, or, ‘sinners lend to fellow sinners’ (East and Toraja-Sa’dan), ‘sinners lend-to-each-other’ (Balinese, using a reciprocal verbal form).
As much again, or, ‘the same quantity/sum,’ ‘as much as has-been-lent’ (Balinese), ‘(as-much-) as (their fellows) had borrowed’ (Sundanese).
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.
And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you?: This is the third rhetorical question. Jesus used this rhetorical question to emphasize that you will not receive any credit in this situation. He said that when you lend only to those who can repay you, it is no credit to you.
Translate this emphasis using the same form (question or statement) that you used for the two previous rhetorical questions in 6:32–33.
6:34a
you lend: In some languages, it may be necessary to supply an object for lend. For example:
you lend money (Contemporary English Version)
to those from whom you expect repayment: The phrase those from whom you expect repayment refers to people whom you hope/expect will repay you. Some other ways to translate this are:
only to someone you think will pay you back (Contemporary English Version) -or-
only to those who can repay you (New Living Translation (2004)) -or-
always hoping to get something back (New Century Version)
6:34b
what credit is that to you?: This is the same clause as 6:32a–b.
General Comment on 6:34a–b
In some languages, it may be natural to change the order of 6:34a and 6:34b. For example:
34bWhat credit/praise do you deserve 34afor lending to people whom you expect to repay you?
6:34c
Even sinners lend to sinners: This sentence gives the reason why there is no credit in lending money to people who will repay you. Sinners also lend money to those who will fully repay them. This is not exceptional, and it does not cause a person to deserve special favor. Connect 6:32c to 6:32b in the same way that you connected 6:32c to 6:32a–b.
expecting to be repaid in full: The phrase expecting to be repaid in full is literally “that they may receive in return the equal.” It means “expecting to get back what they loaned.” Some other ways to translate this are:
and expect to get their money back (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English) -or-
because they think they will get it all back (Contemporary English Version) -or-
to get back the same amount (Good News Translation) -or-
for a full return (New Living Translation (2004))
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