complete verse (Luke 14:34)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 14:34:

  • Noongar: “This salt is no good for growing food, and no good for the soil. You must throw this salt out. Listen then, if you have ears!'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Noongar: “‘Salt is good, but if salt does not taste like salt, you cannot make this salt become good again.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “‘Salt has many uses. But if its saltiness changes so that it is no longer salty, what then can make it salty?” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Isa parabled again, he said, ‘You know that salt is really good. But when the salt has no more taste, it cannot become salty again.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Then Jesus told a parable because he wanted to let people understand that being his disciple is like salt. He said, ‘Salt is good because it makes food taste good; however, if salt has lost its flavor, there’s no way that you can bring back its flavor.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Jesus parabled again saying, ‘Salt has a use, but if it becomes-insipid, it is emphatically not possible to return its saltiness (lit. bitterness).” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Jesus added on saying, ‘That one who wants to submit to me but he won’t submit all he has to my control, he is like salt which is no longer salty. For as for salt, its usefulness is big. But if it is no longer salty, how can it again be made salty?” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Luke 14:34

Exegesis:

kalon oun to halas ‘salt is good.’ oun is difficult to interpret as to its reference, and best left untranslated.

halas ‘salt,’ here probably referring to discipleship.

ean de kai to halas mōranthē ‘but if even the salt becomes tasteless.’

mōrainō in the passive ‘to become tasteless,’ ‘to lose strength/flavour.’

en tini artuthēsetai ‘with what can it (i.e. the salt) be seasoned?.’ artuō.

Translation:

Jesus concludes by referring to a general truth, leaving it to his hearers to draw the inference; this may make advisable the use of some such introductory expression as, ‘remember,’ ‘you all know.’

Salt is good; but if …, or, ‘even though salt is good, if….’

Has lost its taste, or, ‘no longer has its taste/flavour,’ ‘has become insipid’ (Bahasa Indonesia, using the opposite of ‘salt-ish’), “loses its strength” (An American Translation, similarly Tae’); in Sranan Tongo the idiom is, ‘becomes dead.’

How shall its saltness be restored?, or, ‘how will it be given flavour again?,’ ‘how can it be made salt/salt-ish again?,’ ‘what will you take to awaken/raise it again?’ (Sranan Tongo); or as a statement, “there is no way to make it good again” (Good News Translation). If an active construction has to be used, the subject can best be ‘people,’ or, ‘we’ (inclusive).

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.