The Greek and Latin that is translated as “resurrection” in English is translated in Chicahuaxtla Triqui and Pohnpeian as “live-up” (i.e. return to life) (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel) and in Iloko as panagungar: a term that stems “from the word ‘agungar,’ an agricultural term used to describe the coming back to life of a plant which was wilting but which has been watered by the farmer, or of a bulb which was apparently dead but grows again.” (Source: G. Henry Waterman in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 24ff. )
In Estado de México Otomi, it is translated as “people will be raised from the dead,” in Teutila Cuicatec as “the dead having to come to life again,” in San Mateo del Mar Huave as “arose from the grave” (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), and in Kriol as gidap laibala brom dedbala or “get up alive from the dead” (source: Sam Freney in this article .)
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 20:33:
Noongar: “So, when people rise from the dead, which brother will be the husband of the woman? All seven brothers had married that woman.'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “So, in the future, if all the dead really do live again, who will be the owner/lord of that woman, because seven of them married her.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Na, Sir,’ they said, ‘in the day when the dead will live again, whose wife will she be? And the seven brothers have had her for a wife.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Now in the future, when people are raised from the dead, who will be the true spouse of this woman? Because those seven brothers, every one of them married her.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “All-right then, at the future day at the living again of the dead, which of them perhaps will be the right spouse for her? Because they all married her.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well now, which of those seven is her husband if/when those who have died are made alive again, since they all got to marry her?'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
hē gunē oun en tē anastasei tinos autōn ginetai gunē ‘the woman then, the wife of which of them is (she) at the resurrection?’ oun marks the transition to the question proper. hē gunē ‘the woman,’ emphatically placed at the beginning of the clause because the question concerns her. ginetai, though in the present, refers to a future event. gunē is used in two meanings, i.e. ‘woman’ and ‘wife.’
hoi gar hepta eschon autēn gunaika ‘for the seven, i.e. all seven, had her as wife.’ eschon (aorist) refers to a series of events that have come to an end.
Translation:
The structure of the first sentence may have to be recast, e.g. ‘now, as to that woman, or, now we (exclus.) ask you about that woman (cf. on v. 21): whose wife will she be in the resurrection?’
In the resurrection, or, ‘(at the time) the dead rise, or come to life again’ etc.
Whose wife will the woman be?, or ‘which one’s wife will she be?,’ ‘which one will she have as (her) husband?,’ ‘with which one will she be-in-married-state?’; or, changing the subject, ‘which-one-will-have-her-as-his-wife?’ (Batak Toba).
The seven had her as wife, or, ‘all (those) seven (brothers) had married her’; or changing the subject, “she was married to all seven of them” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation).
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.
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