complete verse (Luke 14:20)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 14:20:

  • Noongar: “Another person said, ‘I only just married and really, I can’t come’.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “Another one also said: ‘I just got married. I cannot go [to where you are].'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “And one said, ‘I have recently married, therefore I cannot come.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And another person there said, ‘I cannot attend because I have just gotten married; that’s why I cannot go there.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “One also, he said, ‘I-have-just-gotten-married, so I will not be joining-in-eating.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “As for one person, he said, ‘I really can’t come for our (excl.) marriage-legalities have just been completed.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Luke 14:20

Exegesis:

gunaika egēma ‘I have married a wife,’ i.e. “I have just got married” (New English Bible).

gameō ‘to marry,’ with a man as subject.

kai dia touto ou dunamai elthein ‘and therefore I cannot come.’

Translation:

Another, or, ‘yet another,’ i.e. a third example.

I have married a wife, or ‘I have married,’ since ‘a wife’ is unduly redundant here. Elsewhere ‘to marry’ may be rendered e.g. by, ‘to take a spouse’ (e.g. in Ekari, which, when a woman is the subject, uses, ‘to go-with a spouse’), ‘to take a woman’ (Batak Toba, which says of the woman, ‘to go-home,’ or, ‘to go-home to the village,’ i.e. of her husband); or by an idiomatic phrase, e.g. in Yucateco (lit. ‘to end one’s road,’ i.e. as bachelor), or in Toraja-Sa’dan (lit. ‘to establish-a-fireplace’).

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.