complete verse (Luke 1:57)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 1:57:

  • Noongar: “Now the day came for Elizabeth’s baby. She bore a son.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “The time arrived for Elisabet to give birth. She gave birth to a male child.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “So-then, the day came for Elisabet to give birth. And she gave birth to a boy.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when the day arrived, Elizabeth gave birth, and her child was a male.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “When the time-arrived for Elizabet -to-give-birth, a male is what she gave-birth-to.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “When it was the Elisabet’s due-date, a boy was born.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Luke 1:57

Exegesis:

tē de Elisabet eplēsthē ho chronos tou tekein autēn ‘for Elizabeth the time of her delivery was fulfilled.’ The expression ‘the days, or, the time is fulfilled’ as a whole (1.23, 57; 2.6, 21, 22) combines two ideas: (1) that a certain time must elapse before something can happen, as shown by the fact that hēmerai ‘days,’ and chronos ‘time,’ always denote a period, never a moment; (2) that the time has come for something to happen, as intimated by eplēsthē ‘was fulfilled.’ The construction of tou tekein autēn is an articular accusative and infinitive (cf. Moule 127f): the accusative is the logical subject of the action expressed by the infinitive.

ho chronos ‘time,’ ‘period of time.’

kai egennēsen huion ‘and she bore a son’; gennaō and tiktō are synonymous, cf. vv. 13 and 31; here Luke’s shift from the one to the other is in order to avoid repetition.

Translation:

Now is not temporal here, but transitional, marking a new division in the narrative. Cf. also v. 8, where “now” renders Gr. egeneto de.

The time came for Elizabeth to be delivered. In speaking of a woman’s coming delivery specific idioms are often in use, e.g. ‘her month to bring-forth (a child) becomes’ (Ekari), ‘the day arrives when she goes into labour (lit. day of labour-paining her abdomen)’ (Tboli), ‘full the time/days of her pregnancy (lit. being-with-life)’ (Batak Toba), ‘complete her months to give-birth’ (Bahasa Indonesia); some such idioms do not explicitly refer to the actual delivery, e.g. ‘her days are fully fulfilled’ (Marathi), and cf. English “her time comes”.

She gave birth to a son, see on “to bear a son” in v. 13; Marathi expresses this by ‘a son became to her.’ Some languages must render the synonymous expressions “to be delivered” and “to give birth” by forms of the same verb, e.g. Kituba, Sundanese, Tae.’

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.