Exegesis:
eipōn hoti lit. ‘saying,’ with following direct speech which is to be understood as an explanation of the injunction of v. 21, or, as additional information about the future destiny of the Messiah. The former appears to be more probable (cf. Klostermann).
dei with following accusative and infinitive ‘it is necessary,’ cf. on 2.49. Here it expresses a divine necessity, cf. TWNT II, 23.
ton huion tou anthrōpou ‘the Son of man,’ cf. on 5.24.
polla pathein kai apodokimasthēnai ‘suffer much and be repudiated.’ polla may mean ‘many things’ (cf. Revised Standard Version) or be understood in an adverbial sense, ‘much,’ ‘greatly’; the latter is slightly preferable.
apodokimazō ‘to reject’ (of materials which cannot be used), ‘to repudiate’ (of people whose claim is not accepted).
apo tōn presbuterōn kai archiereōn kai grammateōn ‘by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes.’ The phrase goes with both preceding infinitives; with polla pathein the preposition apo means ‘at the hands of,’ with apodokimasthēnai it means ‘by.’ The article tōn goes with all three nouns, expressing that over against the Son of man elders, high priests and scribes act as one group. For presbuteros cf. on 7.3. In the plural it refers to the members of the high-priestly families as a group. In the singular it refers to the acting high priest, cf. on 3.2. For grammateus cf. on 5.21.
kai apoktanthēnai kai tē tritē hēmera egerthēnai ‘and be killed and on the third day be raised (from the dead).’
apokteinō ‘to kill.’
Translation:
For must see on 2.49.
Suffer many things, and be rejected by … seems to take the prepositional phrase with the second verb only. To bring out that the preposition introduces the persons who are the cause of the first and the agents of the second process (as advocated in Exegesis), one may seek two, passive or active, verbal forms that take the same agent or subject (e.g. ‘be-caused-to-suffer much and be refused by…’), or refer twice to ‘the elders’ etc. (e.g. ‘suffer many things at the hand of, or, from the side of, the elders…, and be rejected by them’). — Suffer many things, or, ‘suffer greatly.’ The verb refers to primarily physical suffering caused by violence. It is often rendered by expressions such as, ‘to feel pain’ (Kele), ‘to bear distress’ (Javanese), ‘to see/find (or, to pass through) pain/trouble’ (Trukese, Tzeltal), ‘to be-caused-sorrow’ (Toraja-Sa’dan). For to reject Sranan Tongo uses a combination of two verbs, ‘to throw him away saying he is worth nothing.’
For elders see on 7.3; for chief priests cf. on “high-priesthood” in 3.2.
Be killed, implying a reference to the crucifixion.
On the third day is equivalent to “after three days” in 2.46. The original uses the numeral ‘three’ because it includes both the first and the last day of the period concerned. An expression that is formally the same seems to be acceptable as an indication of the same period in several languages, among them Tboli, where it proved to be synonymous with ‘on the tomorrow of two nights,’ but several other languages indicate the period in question by a formally different phrase (see on 2.46). Then a literal rendering of the Greek would bring the reader to the wrong day, and consequently make Jesus foretell something that did not come true. In principle it is preferable in such a case to use a current idiom in the receptor language, as is done in Kituba, ‘after two days (lit in behind-of two days),’ ‘two days later’ (Today’s Dutch Version in preparation). But rather often Bible translations (and creeds) in such languages seem to feel bound to render the phrase literally, thus allowing tradition to prevail over idiom and semantics. Where this cannot be altered the translator should at least give the idiomatic rendering in a footnote.
Be raised, or, ‘arise,’ see on 7.22.
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.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.