her spirit returned

The Greek in Luke 8:55 that is translated as “her spirit returned” or similar in English is translated in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) with ihre Lebensgeist kehrte zurück or “her spirit of life returned.”

Raising a Girl (image)

Painting by Wang Suda 王肅達 (1910-1963),
Copyright by the Catholic University Peking, China

Text under painting translated from Literary Chinese into English:
Raising a Girl
Proof that Jesus is the true God

Image taken from Chinese Christian Posters . For more information on the “Ars Sacra Pekinensis” school of art, see this article , for other artworks of that school in TIPs, see here.

complete verse (Luke 8:55)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 8:55:

  • Noongar: “Her life returned and she stood immediately, and Jesus told them to give her bread and meat to eat.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “That child breathed again and immediately got up. Yesus said: ‘Give her food.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Na, her soul came back and she got up immediately. And Isa told them to feed her.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And immediately the breath of that child came back and she got up. And Jesus said to the parents of the child that they should feed their child.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Then her spirit returned and she got-right-up and then Jesus ordered them to feed her.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “When Jesus had spoken, the child’s breath/life returned to normal for she was alive again, straight away getting up. And then Jesus told (them) to feed/give-food-to the child.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Honorary "rare" construct denoting God ("order/command")

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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 usage of an honorific construction where the morphemes rare (られ) or are (され) are affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, meiji-rare-ru (命じられる) or “order/command” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Luke 8:55

Exegesis:

kai epestrepsen to pneuma autēs ‘and her spirit returned.’ pneuma means here ‘life-spirit,’ and the clause implies that she came back to life from death.

kai anestē parachrēma ‘and she rose immediately,’ i.e. from the bed.

kai dietaxen autē dothēnai phagein lit. ‘and he ordered to be given to her to eat,’ i.e. ‘he ordered to give her something to eat.’ For diatassō cf. on 3.13. The infinitive dothēnai is in the passive since its subject is not explicitly stated. The infinitive phagein is best understood as having final force (‘to give (something) in order to eat,’ i.e. that she might eat), but may also be interpreted as the object of dothēnai and be rendered as ‘food’ (cf. Phillips).

Translation:

Her spirit returned. Since the concept of the life principle leaving the body at death is widespread, it will often be possible to use a rather close formal equivalent, using ‘spirit,’ or ‘soul,’ ‘breath,’ ‘life,’ etc. Where, however, such a term can indicate also the vital force of a living person, such a literal rendering may have the wrong meaning, e.g. because the phrase is idiomatically used of a person who becomes strong or courageous again, after having been exhausted or afraid, or of a person who grows up/matures, as is the case in Tzeltal; then one may better say something like ‘she became alive again.’ For spirit cf. also on 1.47.

At once, cf. on “immediately” in 1.64.

He may have to be specified, e.g. ‘Jesus.’

Directed that something should be given her to eat, or, ‘said that they should give her something to eat.’ To give to eat is sometimes rendered by a causative form of ‘to eat,’ e.g. in Toraja-Sa’dan.

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 8:55

8:55a

Her spirit returned: The Greek expression that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Her spirit returned means that the girl came back to life. Her spirit had left her body when she died, but it now returned to her, and she lived again.

Many languages have an expression that refers to a person’s life or spirit leaving the body when he or she dies. In those languages you may be able to use a similar expression to describe coming back to life. For example:

her spirit/soul returned
-or-
her breath returned
-or-
her life returned

In some languages, the expression Her spirit returned may have a different meaning such as “she became strong/courageous again.” If this is true in your language, you may want to say plainly:

She came back to life (Contemporary English Version)

8:55b

And He directed that she be given something to eat: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as be given is passive. Some ways to translate this verb are:

• As a passive verb. For example:

He ordered that something be given to her to eat.
-or-
Jesus ordered food to be given to her. (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)

• As an active verb. The Greek text does not say to whom Jesus spoke. Jesus probably gave this instruction to the parents or to the mother. The parents may have called a servant to bring food for their daughter. For example:

He ordered her parents to give her something to eat. (God’s Word)
-or-
He ordered that someone should give her something to eat.

In some languages it may be more natural to use direct speech here. For example:

…and he said, “Give her something to eat.”
-or-
…and he told ⌊the parents⌋, “Cause some food to be given to her so that she may eat.”

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