complete verse (Luke 12:39)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 12:39:

  • Noongar: “And you already know this truth: if a man owns his house and he knows when the thief will come, he will not allow the thief to break his house and enter it.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “‘Store my parable in your hearts: If the house-owner knows ahead-of-time what time robbers will come, he will definitely guard so that they do not enter.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But remember this, that if the owner of a house knew at what time the thief will arrive he would certainly watch/stay awake and he would not let/abandon his house to be broken into and entered.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus said again, ‘Don’t you forget that if the owner of the house knew when the thief would come, he would have carefully be on guard and that thief could not have entered into his house.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘Remember this also: if the house owner had known the hour that the thief would arrive, he would have been prepared so the thief would not have-been-able-to-enter.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Consider this. Supposing a householder knew at what hour a thief would come, of course he wouldn’t just allow his house to be entered.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Kabwa: “If a house owner would know the time when a thief is coming, he would prepare himself, and the thief would not enter inside his house.”
  • Suba-Simbiti: “If only a house owner would know the time at which a thief would come, he would prepare himself. He would not sleep, leaving the thief destroying his house.” (Source for this and above: R.M. Mészároš in Journal of Translation 18/2022, p. 115ff. )

Translation commentary on Luke 12:39

Exegesis:

touto de ginōskete ‘this you must know,’ or ‘this you know,’ presumably the former.

hoti … ouk an aphēken dioruchthēnai ton oikon autou ‘that … he would not have let his house be broken into.’ For aphiēmi cf. on 8.51.

diorussō lit. ‘to dig through,’ here of digging through the sun dried brick wall of a house, hence, ‘to break into.’

ei ēdei ho oikodespotēs ‘if the master of the house had known.’ The picture changes rather abruptly from the servants waiting for the return of their master to the master expecting a thief but not knowing when he will come. The common element in vv. 36-38 and v. 39 is that of watchfulness.

poia hōra ho kleptēs erchetai ‘at what time the thief would come.’ erchetai, though in the present tense, has future meaning. poia lit. ‘of what kind’ is here equivalent to tini ‘what.’

Translation:

But know this, that, or as a co-ordinate sentence, “and remember this!” (Good News Translation), ‘Take notice also of this!.’

The subsequent sentence may better be divided into two, e.g. ‘a householder cannot know (or, no householder knows) at what hour a thief will come; if he did/knew, he would not have let….’

The householder, or, ‘the master of the house,’ ‘the one who owns the house.’

Would not have left (or, let) his house to be broken into, or, ‘would not have allowed him (or, that thief) to break into his house’ (cf. Batak Toba, Good News Translation). To break into a house is variously rendered, e.g. ‘to enter a house with force’ (Kituba, similarly Tzeltal), ‘make a hole through (the wall of) a house’ (Zarma, Thai 1967; Kele, Tae’ 1933), ‘to pierce through the wall to enter a house,’ ‘to steal (the contents of) a house’ (Trukese).

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.