The Greek that is translated into English as “(this) generation” is translated as “the people now” into Chol, “those who are in space now” into Tzeltal or “you people” into Tlahuitoltepec Mixe. (Source: Bratcher / Nida; Mixe: Robert Bascom)
Generic terms for the Greek that is translated as “generation” include “(people of one) layer” (Ekari, Toraja-Sa’dan, Batak Toba), or “one storey of growing” (Highland Totonac, using a term also denoting a storey or floor of a building). (Source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 11:50:
Noongar: “So the people of today will be punished for the killing of the Prophets, all the Prophets who have been killed, since the beginning of the World.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “At the end, you who live at this time will be punished because of all the prophets who have been killed since the world was first created,” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Therefore you, the people of this day, will be punished because of the sin of your forefathers for killing the prophets since the world was created.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “That’s why, as for you people today, you also will be punished for the murder of all the prophets of God who were murdered long ago,” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Therefore the people now, they will be punished for the death of all the prophets since the creation of the earth,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Therefore in the determining of God, punishment will come to you for all these prophets who have been killed from the creating of the world,” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Eugene Nida wrote the following about the translation of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek terms that are typically translated with “prophet” in English:
“The tendency in many translations is to use ‘to foretell the future’ for ‘prophesy,’ and ‘one who foretells the future’ for ‘prophet.’ This is not always a recommended usage, particularly if such expressions denote certain special native practices of spirit contact and control. It is true, of course, that prophets of the Bible did foretell the future, but this was not always their principal function. One essential significance of the Greek word prophētēs is ‘one who speaks forth,’ principally, of course, as a forth-teller of the Divine will. A translation such as ‘spokesman for God’ may often be employed profitably.” (1947, p. 234f.)
Following is a list of (back-) translations from other languages (click or tap for details):
Ayutla Mixtec: “one who talks as God’s representative”
Isthmus Mixe: “speaker for God” (source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Mezquital Otomi / Paasaal: “God’s messenger” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff. and Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Noongar: Warda Marridjiny or “News Traveling” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Kutu: mtula ndagu or “one who gives the prediction of the past and the future” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
French 1985 translation by Chouraqui: inspiré or “inspired one” (“someone in whom God has breathed [Latin: in + spiro]) (source: Watson 2023, p. 45)
In Ixcatlán Mazatec a term is used that specifically includes women. (Source: Robert Bascom)
“In some instances these spiritual terms result from adaptations reflecting the native life and culture. Among the Northern Grebo people of Liberia, a missionary wanted some adequate term for ‘prophet,’ and she was fully aware that the native word for ‘soothsayer’ or ‘diviner’ was no equivalent for the Biblical prophet who spoke forth for God. Of course, much of what the prophets said referred to the future, and though this was an essential part of much of their ministry, it was by no means all. The right word for the Gbeapo people would have to include something which would not only mean the foretelling of important events but the proclamation of truth as God’s representative among the people. At last the right word came; it was ‘God’s town-crier.’ Every morning and evening the official representative of the chief goes through the village crying out the news, delivering the orders of the chief, and announcing important coming events. ‘God’s town-crier’ would be the official representative of God, announcing to the people God’s doings, His commands, and His pronouncements for their salvation and well-being. For the Northern Grebo people the prophet is no weird person from forgotten times; he is as real as the human, moving message of the plowman Amos, who became God’s town-crier to a calloused people.” (source: Nida 1952, p. 20)
In British Sign Language it is is translated with a sign that depicts a message coming from God to a person (the upright finger) and then being passed on to others. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Prophet” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
dia touto kai hē sophia tou theou eipen ‘therefore then the wisdom of God said.’ kai reinforces dia touto. Whether hē sophia tou theou is the title of an (unknown) book, or refers to a place in an (unknown) book, in which the personified wisdom of God speaks is uncertain. The meaning ‘God in his wisdom’ is improbable.
apostelō eis autous prophētas kai apostolous ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles.’ For apostellō cf. on 1.19. For apostolos cf. on 6.13.
kai ex autōn apoktenousin kai diōxousin ‘and (some) or them they will kill and persecute,’ or, ‘and (some) of them they will kill and (some others) they will persecute,’ preferably the latter, ex autōn stands for tinas ex autōn ‘some of them.’
diōkō ‘to run after,’ ‘to persecute.’
(V. 50) hina ekzētēthē to haima pantōn tōn prophētōn … apo tēs geneas tautēs ‘so that the blood of all the prophets will be required of this generation,’ i.e. the present generation will be charged with the crimes of the preceding generations.
ekzēteō (also v. 51) ‘to seek out,’ hence ‘to require as a debt,’ ‘to charge with.’
haima ‘blood,’ see next note.
to ekkechumenon apo katabolēs kosmou, going with haima, ‘(the blood) that has been shed since the foundation of the world.’ To shed somebody’s blood means to kill him.
katabolē ‘foundation,’ ‘beginning.’
kosmos here ‘created world,’ ‘creation.’
(V. 51) apo haimatos Habel heōs haimatos Zachariou ‘from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah,’ a specification of apo katabolēs kosmou, stating the slaying of the first and the last prophet of the Old Testament that were killed (cf. Gen. 4.1ff and 2 Chron. 24.20f, the last book in the Hebrew Bible).
tou apolomenou metaxu tou thusiastēriou kai tou oikou, going with Zachariou (Zechariah), ‘who perished between the altar and the temple building.’ The verb implies violence. For thusiastērion cf. on 1.11. Here the reference is to the altar of burnt offering in the inner forecourt of the temple in Jerusalem in front of the temple building itself (to which oikos refers). metaxu also 16.26.
nai, legō humin ‘indeed, I tell you’ (cf. on 3.8), marks the end of the quotation from the wisdom of God (v. 49) and introduces the emphatic repetition of its main words by Jesus himself. In that repetition the emphasis is on apo tēs geneas tautēs ‘of this generation.’
Translation:
The Wisdom of God said, or, ‘it is written (for which cf. 2.23) in (the) book of (i.e. called) Wisdom of God’ (Kituba), following the first interpretation. If the other interpretation is preferred, it may be unidiomatic to take an abstract noun (‘Wisdom’) as subject of ‘said’; then one may shift to something like, ‘the One called Wisdom of God said.’
I will send them. The first pronoun refers to (the Wisdom of) God, the second presumably to Israelites of preceding generations, virtually identical with “your fathers” in vv. 47f.
Apostles, or, ‘personal messengers’ (Zarma), ‘persons sent’ (Trukese, Pohnpeian), and cf. the descriptive renderings mentioned in 6.13 and references, most of which can be used also in the more general sense meant here.
Some of whom, or co-ordinated, ‘some of (or, from among) them,’ referring to the prophets and apostles.
They (same reference as “them” as in “send them”) will kill and persecute. To keep the references clear it may be better to shift to a passive construction, e.g. ‘some of whom will be killed and persecuted’ (cf. Shona 1966, some Indonesian languages), or to specify the agent, e.g. ‘those men’ (Balinese), unless this has been done already in the preceding clause. When kill and persecute are taken as having the same group as object the more logical sequence is ‘persecute and kill’ (followed e.g. in Tzeltal, Trukese, Pohnpeian); this transposition is not necessary, however, when two different groups are envisaged, as advocated in Exegesis. The verb to persecute, i.e. to pursue (or, run after) with enmity and injury, has also been rendered ‘to harass,’ ‘to maltreat’ (Bahasa Indonesia, Tzeltal).
(V. 50) That is resultative, hence in co-ordination e.g. ‘the consequences/result (of this) will be thus: ….’
The intricate pattern of the subsequent clause may require several adjustments. The agent implied in “may be required” is God, that in “blood … shed” is the preceding generations, or, the fathers. To shed (or, cause to flow) the blood of … may have to be rendered by, ‘to cause the death of,’ ‘to kill/murder,’ and the blood of … may be required of this generation by, ‘the blood of … has been avenged on…’ (Toraja-Sa’dan, Batak Toba), ‘this generation may be caused to pay for the blood/death of … (or, to pay because their fathers killed …),’ “the people of this time will be punished for the murder of…” (Good News Translation), ‘the blood of … its account may be taken from this generation’ (Marathi). When an active construction is necessary or preferable, one may say, ‘God will require (etc., as above) of this generation the blood shed (or, which their fathers shed),’ or shift to, ‘this generation will be responsible for the blood of…’; cf. also ‘the killing of…, this generation must pay(-for-it)’ (cf. Kituba).
From the foundation of the world, or, ‘from the (very) beginning of the world onward’ (cf. Trukese, Tzeltal), ‘since the world was made’ (Sranan Tongo), ‘from the oldest times onward’ (cf. Pohnpeian).
(V. 51) The first half of this verse also may better be co-ordinated and recast, e.g. ‘as the first they killed A. and as the last they killed Z., who….’
The altar. To make explicit what was implied in this expression for the original receptors one may have to add some specification, e.g. ‘in the courtyard of the temple’ (Tzeltal). Some other possible renderings are, ‘where they place the gifts to God’ (cf. Huixtec), ‘place where the (killed) gifts to God are burned.’
For sanctuary see “temple” in 1.9.
It refers to ‘the blood, or, murder, of all the prophets.’
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.
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