29But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.
New Testament Greek is by Balinese standards an extremely impolite language. Consider, for example, the second person pronoun. When speaking to God, to a nobleman, to a friend, to a pupil, or to a slave, the same word is used. In Balinese this is completely different. In the above examples one would differentiate various social ranks and use terms which, more or less freely translated, mean “adored one” or “he who is borne on the head”, “feet of Your Highness”, “older (or younger) brother”, “little one”, and “you”. (…) In Balinese one has to cope with three vocabularies within the language, each of which, at a moderate estimate, includes some hundreds of words. One employs the ordinary common language (“Low Balinese”) when speaking with intimates, equals, or inferiors; polite terms must, however, be used as soon as one begins to speak to one’s superiors or to strangers; and “deferential” terms are obligatory in all cases when one is so bold as to speak of parts of the body, or the acts, possessions, and qualities of important people. The Balinese sums up the two last named vocabularies under the term alus (“fine”, or “noble”): we say “High Balinese”. (…)
In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the younger son, who feels himself less than a slave, speaks to his father in High Balinese; the elder son may use the intimate Low Balinese. When, however, the latter severs himself from the intimate family community, he uses High Balinese to express his contempt, thus placing a gulf between himself and his father.
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One important aspect of addressing someone else in one’s or someone else’s family is by selecting the correct word when referring to them.
In the widely used Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible (rev. of 2017) in the parable of the prodigal son, both of the sons refer to their father with o-tō-san (お父さん), a form that expresses the intimate father-son relationship, whereas the servant (in Luke 15:27) refers to the father as o-tō-sama (お父様) to express a higher level of reference. (Source: S. E. Doi)
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 15:29:
Noongar: “29 ‘But he replied to his father, ‘Look, all these years I have worked for you like one of your servants, and I always do everything you want me to do. What have you given me? Not one young goat so I and my friends can eat and drink!” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “But the child said: ‘For years I have worked hard working for you, Father. Not once have I refused your (sing.) orders. But you (sing.) have not given me even a goat so that I could make a party with my friends.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “But he answered his father he said, ‘Look, Father, for how many years have I worked for you like one of your slaves. You didn’t tell me anything that I didn’t do. But you haven’t given me even one child of a goat so that I could make a feast with my friends.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And his son answered, ‘Just remember, father, how long I have been working here like your servant. You can’t think of any command of yours that I have not carried out at any time. But in spite of that, you never gave me even just a goat so that I might have a good time with my friends.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “But he answered him saying, ‘Oh confound-it (exp. of exasperation/rebuke)! How many years have I been working like your (sing.) slave and I’ve obeyed all that you (sing.) have-commanded. But you (sing.) have absolutely given me not even the child of a goat so that I could have an-occasion-of-making-merry-with my friends.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “But his reply was, ‘I really can’t accept it. For as for me, I have never gone away for how many years now, for I work-very-hard like I’m just one of your slaves, and not even once have I disobeyed you. But not once did you give me even just a young goat for a celebration for me and my friends!” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.
As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff.), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.
Here, Jesus is addressing religious leaders with the formal pronoun, showing respect. Compare that with the typical address with the informal pronoun of the religious leaders.
The only two exceptions to this are Luke 7:40/43 and 10:26 where Jesus uses the informal pronoun as a response to the sycophantic use of the formal pronoun by the religious leaders (see formal pronoun: religious leaders addressing Jesus).
In most Dutch translations, the same distinctions are made, with the exception of Luke 10:26 where Jesus is using the formal pronoun. In Afrikaans and Western Frisian the informal pronoun is used throughout.
apokritheis ‘answering,’ i.e. to his father’s pleading.
idou ‘behold,’ emphatic introduction of what follows.
tosauta etē douleuō soi lit. ‘so many years I am serving you,’ i.e. ‘so many years I have served you, and am still serving you.’ tosauta etē is accusative of duration.
douleuō (also 16.13) ‘to serve as a doulos, i.e. as a slave, or, servant.’
kai oudepote entolēn sou parēlthon ‘and I never once disobeyed an order of yours.’ The aorist tense of parēlthon is punctiliar. For parerchomai cf. on 11.42.
kai emoi oudepote edōkas eriphon ‘and to me you never once gave a kid.’ emoi is emphatic.
eriphos ‘kid,’ ‘young he-goat,’ cheap as compared with the fatted calf.
hina meta tōn philōn mou euphranthō ‘that I might enjoy myself with my friends,’ i.e. by means of a meal together.
Translation:
Honorifics, again, in Javanese and related languages, but now with another intention than in v. 21: the honorific form of elder son’s words is sarcastic rather than respectful, treating the father as a stranger.
Lo, cf. on “behold” in 1.20.
I have served you, or, ‘I have kept on working for you’ (Ekari), ‘I have been your servant, or, like a servant of yours.’
I never disobeyed your command, or, ‘I never transgressed your command/word,’ ‘I never failed to do what you commanded/told me (to do)’; in Sranan Tongo the idiom is, ‘never I passed your mouth.’ Cf. also on “disobedient” in 1.17.
A kid, or, more disdainfully, “so much as a kid” (New English Bible), “even a goat” (Good News Translation).
That I might make merry with my friends, or, ‘to-be-used by me to feast together-with’ (Sundanese).
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.
homoiōs kathōs egeneto ‘in the same way, as it was…’ homoiōs may either be taken together with kathōs ‘in the same way as,’ or connect the comparisons of vv. 26f and vv. 28ff, preferably the latter. Hence a rendering like “also” (New English Bible).
ēsthion, epinon, ēgorazon, epōloun, ephuteuon, oikodomoun ‘they ate, drank, bought, sold, planted, built,’ cf. on v. 26. The description is more extensive here and partly different, but no special meaning is to be attached to the differences.
(V. 29) hē de hēmera exēlthen Lōt apo Sodomōn ‘but on the day on which Lot went out of Sodom, or, left Sodom.’
ebrexen pur kai theion ap’ ouranou ‘it rained fire and sulphur from heaven,’ or, ‘he (i.e. God) made it rain fire and sulphur from heaven,’ preferably the latter, and Gen. 19.24. ebrexen is punctiliar aorist after the descriptive imperfects in v. 28.
theion ‘sulphur,’ ‘brimstone.’
kai apōlesen pantas ‘and destroyed all.’ For pantas cf. on v. 27. The subject of apōlesen is the same as that of ebrexen.
(V. 30) kata ta auta estai ‘in the same way,’ or, ‘so it will be,’ taking up kathōs in v. 28.
hē hēmera ho huios tou anthrōpou apokaluptetai ‘on the day on which the Son of man is revealed.’ apokaluptō here of the glorious manifestation of the Son of man at his coming.
Translation:
Likewise (introducing a second comparison), or, ‘similarly,’ ‘or again,’ and cf. “so too, what happened in the time of Lot will be repeated” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation).
The final clause (v. 30) may better be rendered as an independent sentence, e.g. ‘similarly, in the days of Lot everybody ate, …, but on the day when Lot went out of S. fire … destroyed them all. So will it be (or, that will happen also) on the day when the Son of man is revealed’; or, it may be transposed to its original position, ‘or again, when the Son of man is revealed, the situation will be as it was in the time of Lot; people ate….’
They bought, they sold, or, ‘they bought and sold goods’ (cf. Pohnpeian). That the two processes are basically reciprocal is sometimes made explicit, e.g. Navajo; since they view the same process, though from different sides, they may be rendered by one expression, e.g. ‘they traded-with-each-other’ (Yao; similarly in Javanese, lit. a compound form, ‘sold-bought’).
They planted may, again, require an object, e.g. ‘they planted seedlings,’ ‘they sowed seed’; elsewhere it is more idiomatic to use two verbs, ‘(they) sowed planted’ (Thai 1967).
They built, or, ‘they built houses’ (Trukese). Thai 1967, again, uses a double rendering, ‘(they) built made.’
(V. 29) Fire and brimstone rained, preferably, ‘he/God made it rain fire and brimstone,’ ‘he/God caused to fall/descend/come a rain of fire and brimstone (or, fire and brimstone as a rain).’ Brimstone, or, ‘sulphur,’ may be described as ‘fiery stones’ (Dan), ‘burning/inflammable stones (or, stuff).’
(V. 30) Is revealed, or, “is brought into the light” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation), “appears” (An American Translation), ‘shows himself,’ ‘becomes-visible’ (cf. Javanese).
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.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.