complete verse (Luke 19:21)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 19:21:

  • Noongar: “I am scared of you. You are a hard man. You take what you do not own and you harvest what you do not plant’.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “I was afraid of the King, because I knew you (sing.) were harsh. You (sing.) harvest what is not your (sing.) planted-thing, you (sing.) take what you (sing.) did not work-hard-for.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “I was afraid of you for you don’t have pity/mercy on people. You take what is not yours and you reap what you have not worked for.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “because I was afraid of you, because what you say, you see that it really happens. And you expect an increase from what you give your companions to keep, and it’s the same way with what you cause to be planted, because you always expect a harvest.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “because I am afraid of you (sing.), because you (sing.) are emphatically an easily-angered person. You (sing.) get what you (sing.) didn’t work-for (lit. tire-for) and you (sing.) also harvest what you (sing.) didn’t plant.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For I am afraid of you because you are strict. You collect-money/take-payment when it wasn’t you who deposited it and you harvest what it wasn’t you who labored over.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing his disciples and common people

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 his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.

In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.

Translation commentary on Luke 19:20 – 19:21

Exegesis:

kai ho heteros ēlthen ‘and the other came,’ as if there were only three instead of ten (v. 13). But the first two and the third represent the two different attitudes of diligence and negligence respectively.

idou hē mna sou ‘behold your mina,’ i.e. ‘here is your mina.’

hēn eichon apokeimenēn en soudariō ‘which I kept put away in a facecloth.’ eichon is durative imperfect.

apokeimai ‘to be put away,’ ‘to be stored up.’

soudarion ‘face-cloth.’ ephoboumēn gar se ‘for I was afraid of you,’ durative imperfect.

hoti anthrōpos austēros ei ‘because you are an exacting man.’ This statement is illustrated by the subsequent asyndetic sentence.

austēros (also v. 22) ‘hard,’ ‘severe,’ ‘exacting.’

aireis ho ouk ethēkas ‘you take away what you did not put down,’ a proverbial saying, which refers probably to taking away from the threshing floor corn which one had not brought in and put down for threshing, cf. parallels quoted by Creed. Here it is used in the more general meaning of taking what one has not laboured for, cf. Phillips. This is in accordance with therizeis ho ouk espeiras (cf. on 12.24) ‘you reap what you did not sow.’ In both clauses the present tense is habitual.

Translation:

Another, or, ‘yet another’ (Javanese); or, “the next” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation), “the third” (New English Bible). To use a term that expresses not serial but qualitative differentiation is not advisable.

Which I kept laid away in a napkin, often better rendered as a new sentence, e.g. ‘I kept it put away in a napkin,’ ‘I wrapped it up in a face-cloth and (so) kept it safe.’ — Napkin, or, ‘face-cloth,’ ‘handkerchief,’ often simply ‘piece of cloth.’

(V. 21) I was afraid of you. The phrase of you is sometimes omitted, as virtually redundant.

You are a severe man, or, ‘your character (lit. the you-ness) is severe’ (Tae’). Some renderings of severe basically mean ‘hard’ (Batak Toba), ‘hard hearted’ (Ekari), ‘hard-livered’ (Bahasa Indonesia), ‘rigid’ (Toraja-Sa’dan), ‘stinging’ (Tae’).

You take up what you did not lay down, or to stress the illustrative character of the sentence, ‘you are (like) a man who takes up what he did not lay down, or, what is not his’ (cf. Good News Translation). Other pairs of contrastive terms used are, “draw out—put in” (New English Bible), ‘claim back—deposit’ (Willibrord). An equivalent English saying is, “getting something for nothing” (Phillips).

For to reap and to sow see on 12.24 and 8.5, and references.

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.