complete verse (Luke 11:24)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 11:24:

  • Noongar: “‘When an evil spirit leaves a person, he travels in the desert, looking for a resting place. If he does not find a place, he says, ‘I will go back to my house’.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “‘For example, there is an evil-spirit possessing [lit., riding] a person. That evil-spirit goes out, and he goes-wandering in the wilderness looking for a dwelling-place. Because he does not find one, he says: ‘It is better that I just return to the dwelling-place that I left earlier [lit., yesterday].'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “‘If there is a demon,’ said Isa, ‘who has come out of a person, he walks in the lonely country searching for a resting place. If he doesn’t find one, he says in his mind, ‘I will go back to where I lived before.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “When a demon leaves a person that he has been afflicting, he passes through a dry land because he is looking for some place to live. If he doesn’t find any place, he says, ‘I’d better go back to the place where I lived.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Jesus continued parabling, ‘If an evil-spirit who has possessed a person leaves, he goes and wanders around a rocky-area that has no water looking for a resting-place. And if he doesn’t come-upon any, he says to himself, ‘I-think I’ll (lit. Even-if I) return to the house that I came-from.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Supposing an evil spirit comes out of a person whom he is possessing, what that evil spirit will do is like just wander-around in the wilderness place, looking for whom he can next possess/make-crazy. Well if he doesn’t find any, ‘Oh well,’ he says, ‘I’ll just go back to that one I was possessing.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Luke 11:24

Exegesis:

hotan to akatharton pneuma exelthē apo tou anthrōpou ‘when an unclean spirit comes out of a man,’ i.e. when it is driven out. The articles to and tou are both generic. akatharton pneuma is synonymous with daimonion (cf. on 4.33).

dierchetai di’ anudrōn topōn ‘it goes through waterless places’ i.e. it roams through the wilderness, the natural abode of demons.

zētoun anapausin ‘seeking rest,’ or, ‘a place to rest.’

anapausis in a concrete meaning ‘a resting place.’

hupostrepsō eis ton oikon mou hothen exēlthon ‘I will return to my house from which I went out.’ oikos ‘house’ here metaphorically for a person possessed by a demon (cf. Grundmann). The possessive pronoun mou suggests that the demon still considered the man whom he had possessed his own.

Translation:

For the (preferably ‘an’) unclean spirit and gone out see on 4.33, 35f.

Passes through, or, ‘goes through’ see on 8.1.

Waterless places. The rendering often has to coincide with that of ‘desert.’

My house from which I came. If this metaphorical use of ‘house’ would be incomprehensible, one may help the readers by saying in the preceding clause .’.. gone out of a man who was its house (or, in whom it dwelled), as it were.’ The double reference to the first person has been avoided in some versions. But it should be remembered that it serves a purpose here, i.e. to bring out that the demon, though he has left the house, still thinks of it as of his property.

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.