lamp

The Greek that is translated as “lamp” in English is translated in Noongar as karla-maat or “firestick” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

complete verse (Luke 11:34)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 11:34:

  • Noongar: “Your eyes are like light for the body. If your eyes are good, light will fill all your body; but if your eyes are bad, all your body will be in the dark.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “Our eyes can be compared to torches. If our eyes are good, our seeing/sight is clear. But if our eyes are cloudy, our seeing/sight is dark.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Ones eyes are figuratively the lamp for ones body. If one sees clearly, that means ones doings are straight, it is as if ones whole body is light, but if ones vision is clouded/blurred that means ones doings are bad, it is as if ones whole body is dark.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The eye of a person is like a lamp in his body, for if his seeing is bright, which is to say, if his custom is righteous, it’s as if all of is body is illuminated. But if he is blind, which is to say, he is evil, it’s as if his whole body is darkened.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The eye also, it is like a person’s light. So if your (sing.) seeing is good, it’s as if your (sing.) mind is totally lighted-up, but if your (sing.) seeing is bad, it’s as if your (sing.) mind is exceedingly dark.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Think about this, that your (sing.) eye is like the lamp of the body. If there’s nothing faulty with your eye, of course your whole vision is clear. But if there’s something wrong with your eye, of course your vision will be very dark.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Luke 11:34

Exegesis:

ho luchnos tou sōmatos estin ho ophthalmos sou ‘the lamp of the body is your eye,’ ho ophthalmos is predicate. The discourse shifts from the ordinary lamp, which gives light from the outside, to a figurative extension of the word ‘lamp,’ here called ‘the lamp of the body,’ which gives light from within.

hotan ho ophthalmos sou haplous ē ‘when your eye is sound.’

haplous lit. ‘single,’ ‘simple,’ hence ‘sincere,’ ‘sound.’ Its opposite is ponēros ‘evil,’ here ‘unsound.’ Probably both ideas (sincerity and soundness) are present here.

kai holon to sōma sou phōteinon estin ‘your whole body too is full of light.’ phōteinos also v. 36.

kai to sōma sou skoteinon ‘your body too is dark.’

Translation:

Your eye is the lamp of your body, though worded as if addressed to Jesus’ interlocutors, holds true of men in general. Accordingly the two possessive pronouns have a generic function, which may have to be expressed otherwise, e.g. by using pronouns of the first person plural inclusive (Huixtec in Mt. 6.22), or by substituting an article or equivalent form at one occurrence (e.g. “your eyes are like a lamp for the body”, Good News Translation), or at both (as in Javanese, Sundanese, Sranan Tongo). The preposition of may have to be rendered by a verb, e.g. ‘the lamp that lights your/the body.’ For body it may be necessary to shift to a term for ‘inner being.’

Sound and unsound or, “sound” and “bad” (New English Bible), ‘healthy’ and ‘not healthy,’ ‘clear’ and ‘turbid/dim’ (Willibrord, Balinese, Sundanese).

Your whole body is full of light, or, changing the syntactic structure, ‘your whole body has light, or, is bright,’ ‘there is light in your whole body.’ Parallel changes will then be necessary in your body is full of darkness.

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.