Exegesis:

prosepheron de autō kai ta brephē ‘they brought to him also the little children.’ prosepheron and epetimōn in the next clause are descriptive imperfect. kai may mean ‘even,’ or, ‘also,’ i.e. ‘in addition to the sick,’ preferably the latter. ta brephē (cf. on 1.41) refers here to children who are able to walk, as erchesthai ‘to come,’ and ta paidia in v. 16 suggest. Subject of prosepheron is implicitly the parents.

hina autōn haptētai ‘that he might touch them,’ final clause. For haptomai cf. on 5.13.

idontes de hoi mathētai epetimōn autois ‘but the disciples, when they saw it, stopped them.’ epetimōn may mean ‘they scolded, or reproved (them),’ or ‘they checked, or stopped (them),’ preferably the latter, cf. on 4.35. autois is best understood as having the same referent as autōn above, and auta in v. 16, i.e. the children.

Translation:

For now see on 1.57.

They were bringing … to him, or ‘(some) people were leading/taking-with-them … to him’ (Balinese, Toraja-Sa’dan).

That he might touch them, or, ‘saying, “Please touch my little one” .’ The people probably expected that Jesus’ touch had the power to bless. The verb cannot be rendered literally in some cases, e.g. in Tzeltal, where ‘to touch’ is the technical term for a shaman’s rite of curing the sick; hence, ‘that He might place His hand on their heads one-after-the-other.’ Elsewhere it is thought undesirable for a stranger to touch children; then one may use the term rendering ‘to bless,’ for which cf. on 1.42, sub (1) or (3), preferably (1).

Rebuked them, cf. on 4.35.

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.