complete verse (Luke 14:18)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 14:18:

  • Noongar: “But all of them started saying why they couldn’t come. The first person said to the servant, ‘I have bought land and I must go and see the land. I am sorry but I can’t come.'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “But the people who were invited all gave-excuses. The first one said: ‘I have just bought land, and I must first go and look at it. I ask forgiveness, I do not go [to where you are].'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But all of them had an excuse. The one he first went to said, ‘I cannot come because I have bought land and I should go there first and look at it. Don’t be angry with me.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “However, the people whom he had invited, they weren’t even thinking about that feast, and each one of them made excuses as to why they could not attend. One said, ‘I hope you aren’t angry with me, because I cannot come because there is some land which I’ve just bought and I have to go and look at it today.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But those who had been invited, they each one demurred making-excuses. One said, ‘Sorry (pasinsiya), because I’ve-just-bought some land and I must go see it.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But all those informed each-made-his-own excuse-for-not-coming. One person said, ‘I’ve bought some land. Well, it’s necessary that I go there today. I’m sure you’ll forgive me.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Luke 14:18

Exegesis:

kai ērxanto apo mias pantes paraiteisthai ‘and they all with one accord began to excuse themselves.’ apo mias may mean ‘at once,’ or, with gnōmē ‘mind’ understood, ‘with one mind,’ ‘with one accord,’ ‘unanimously.’

paraiteomai lit. ‘to beg off,’ here with reference to an invitation, ‘to excuse oneself,’ ‘to make excuses.’

ho prōtos eipen autō ‘the first one (to whom the servant came) said to him,’ i.e. to the servant, but through him implicitly to the host as well.

agron ēgorasa ‘I have bought a piece of land.’

echō anagkēn exelthōn idein auton ‘I must go out (of town) and look at it.’

anagkē (also 21.23 but with a different meaning) ‘necessity,’ ‘compulsion,’ here with echō and following infinitive, ‘I must.’

erōtō se, eche me parētēmenon ‘I beg you, consider me as having excused myself, or, as excused,’ i.e. ‘accept my excuses.’ What he begs, is expressed in an asyndetic clause in the imperative.

Translation:

They all is basically distributive, again.

Alike, or, ‘as with one accord,’ ‘with a sameness (i.e. as though by agreement)’ (Ekari); they act in the same way, but not together at the same time, as some renderings seem to suggest.

To make excuses, i.e. to produce reasons why they should be released from their promise to come. Renderings may be built on the formula for excusing oneself used at the end of the verse; or the language may possess an idiomatic phrase, e.g. ‘to seek what words to cover-up with’ (Tzeltal); or one may describe the concept, e.g. ‘to say they could not come/had no time,’ ‘to ask a way to refrain-from arriving at that feast’ (Kituba); or, somewhat pejoratively, ‘to seek pretexts/subterfuges’ (e.g. in Batak Toba). Ekari uses a rather generic expression, ‘to say every sort of thing (lit. this word that word),’ leaving its specification to what follows.

The first said to him, or, ‘the one visited first said to the servant’ (Balinese). The subsequent speech may be envisaged as addressed simply to the servant (hence non-honorifics, e.g. in Balinese), or to the master, though via the servant (hence honorific terms, e.g. in Javanese). To indicate the latter choice Willibrord has, ‘the first told him to say.’

Field, probably a piece of arable land.

I pray you, (or, Please) have me excused. Some expressions used address the master, e.g. ‘I ask your forgiveness’ (Javanese), ‘I ask (for) myself (i.e. to be released from the obligation), please’ (Thai 1967); others ask the servant’s mediation with his master, e.g. ‘ask-for(-me) pardon’ (Balinese), ‘please (lit. ruler you!), intercede-for me’ (Batak Toba), ‘I beg your master: may he not be offended (lit. small his-heart)’ (Tae’ 1933), ‘may he (i.e. the master) forgive me that I do not go’ (Tzeltal), ‘I ask you to go and speak for me’ (Shona 1963); still others seem rather to apologize to the servant himself, e.g. ‘I beg you, don’t take me for bad (i.e. don’t take it ill)’ (Sranan Tongo), ‘let me be, I ask you’ (Ekari).

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.