clothes

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated with “clothes” or similar in English is translated in Enlhet as “crawling-in-stuff” (source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1971, p. 169ff. ) and in Noongar as bwoka or “Kangaroo skin” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

parable

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The Greek that is usually translated as “parable” in English is translated in other languages in a number of ways:

In British Sign Language it is translated with a sign that combines the signs for “tell-a-story” and “compare.” (Source: Anna Smith)


“Parable” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)

Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023) translates it into English as analogy because “the Greek word has the sense of tossing down something alongside something else. Hence an analogy.”

See also image and figures of speech.

complete verse (Luke 5:36)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 5:36:

  • Noongar: “Jesus also told them this story. ‘Nobody tears off a piece of a new coat, repairing an old coat. If they do this, they will spoil the new coat and the piece of new coat will not be like the old coat.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “After that, Yesus said this parable, he said to them: ‘There is no-one who cuts a scrap of cloth from a new shirt [baju is the general word for clothing] and patches it on an old shirt. Because if so, the new shirt is torn. And also a new patch will not look good on an old shirt.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Then Isa parabled about the former teaching and his teaching. He said, ‘There is no person who tears a new blouse for patching an old blouse. For if he does so, the new one is torn and the new one also does not match/is not fitting for patching old clothes.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then Jesus illustrated with a parable, the incompatibility of his new teaching and the old doctrine of the Jews. He said, ‘There’s no one who tears a new shirt so that he will patch an old, rotten shirt; because if he does this he has destroyed the new one, and that old shirt is not fitting to the new patch that was put on it.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Jesus also said parabling, ‘Moreover there is no person who will tear a new garment in order to use-it-to-patch an old garment. Because if he does that, the new garment will of course be wasted and moreover the new cloth will not match/suit the old to-which-it-is-patched.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “And then he taught then that it’s not possible/acceptable just to add this teaching of his to the customs/traditions of the Judio. His illustration was, ‘Of course no-one tears new clothing to use it to patch an old one. For of course the new clothing is wasted by being torn, and well, the new isn’t suitable to patch the old with.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Luke 5:36

Exegesis:

elegen de kai parabolēn pros autous ‘he also told them a parable,’ added by Luke (cf. Mk. 2.16) to clarify the nature of what follows. For parabolē cf. on 4.23; here the meaning is rather ‘illustration’ than ‘parable’ (cf. Phillips, Schonfield). autous still refers to the same people as in vv. 34, 33, 31, 30.

epiblēma (only here and Mk. 2.21 and Mt. 9.16, in the N.T.) ‘patch.’ Syntactically it is object of schisas and epiballei. In the present context epiblēma is best understood to refer to exemption from fasting and the parable means that this exemption should neither be taken away from Jesus disciples nor imposed upon John’s disciples.

apo himatiou hainou schisas lit. ‘after tearing (it) from a new garment.’

schizō (also 23.45) ‘to tear off,’ ‘to tear (apart).’

epiballei epi himation palaion ‘puts it on an old garment.’

epiballō ‘to lay (hands) on’ (cf. on 9.62); here ‘to put on.’ Luke uses this verb here instead of epiraptō ‘to sew on’ (Mk. 2.21), probably because of the alliteration with the formally related epiblēma.

ei de mēge lit. ‘if not,’ here, because of oudeis … epiballei, ‘if he does,’ with emphasis.

kai (to kainon) … kai (tō palaiō) lit. ‘and … and,’ here meaning, ‘not only … but,’ ‘(first kai not rendered) … as well as.’

to kainon schisei ‘he will both tear (apart) the new one.’ Subject is the person implied in oudeis.

tō palaiō (scil. himatiō) ou sumphōnēsei to epiblēma to apo tou kainou ‘with the old (garment) the patch from the new will not match.’ palaios also v. 39.

sumphōneō ‘to match (with).’

Translation:

Parable, or, ‘figure,’ ‘illustration,’ ‘lesson,’ when the usual rendering (see on 8.4) does not fit the context here.

Instead of Mark’s “no one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment” Luke has “no one tears a piece from a new garment”.

No one tears, or, ‘there is no man at all who tears’ (Shona 1963, similarly Batak Toba); ‘no one would tear’ (Tboli); or, using a pronoun in an indefinite sense, ‘we (inclus.) do not tear’ (Chicahuaxtla Triqui), ‘you do not tear’ (Cuyono). In Tzeltal the more idiomatic rendering is, ‘it isn’t done to tear.’

Tears a piece from a new garment and puts it upon an old garment. The second clause has final force, .’.. in order to put it….’ Piece stands here for ‘patch,’ i.e. ‘something that is (to be) sewn upon, or, added to’; hence, ‘takes/tears something-to-become a patch from a new garment to-be-made to patch-up an old’ (Javanese); this has the advantage of using a more expressive term, which also is more suitable in the second half of the verse. Other versions shift to, ‘tears up a new garment and puts a piece of it (or, what is torn from it) upon an old garment,’ or, leaving more to the good understanding of the receptors, ‘tears up a new garment and puts a piece of it (or, what is torn from it) upon an old garment,’ or, leaving more to the good understanding of the receptors, ‘tears up … and puts it upon…’ (cf. Marathi, Cuyono, Kituba, Tae,’ Batak Toba); thus the verb ‘to tear’ is used with approximately the same meaning as in the next sentence. — New … old refer to quality here, ‘fresh,’ ‘not (yet) used’ … ‘worn out,’ ‘used,’ ‘threadbare.’ For garment a generic term for a piece of clothing is meant. To put upon, or, ‘to apply to,’ ‘to be-used as means-to-patch-up’ (Balinese), or simply, ‘to patch up’ (Tboli, Tzeltal, Trukese).

If he does, elliptically stating the reverse case. Some versions echo the form of their rendering of “no one tears”, cf. e.g. ‘if that is what he would do’ (Tboli), ‘if you do this’ (Cuyono). Others use renderings such as, ‘otherwise’ (cf. Kituba, lit. ‘if not’), ‘on that case’ (Zarma), or replace the transitional phrase by a causative conjunction, cf. ‘because it is not only the new garment that he will tear…’ (Sranan Tongo, similarly Pohnpeian).

He will tear the new. Here the verb is used in the sense of ‘to tear up,’ ‘to make a hole in.’ Because the pronoun has an indefinite function a passive or medial construction may be preferable, e.g. ‘the new will be-torn-up/go-to-pieces/remain with a hole (in it)’ (Tae’; Batak Toba and Bahasa Indonesia; Tzeltal and Shona 1966).

The piece from the new, or, ‘the piece that is taken from the new’; or more briefly, ‘the new piece’ (Bahasa Indonesia, Batak Toba), ‘what-is-torn-off’ (Balinese).

Will not match, or, ‘will not be-the-same-as’ (Pohnpeian), ‘will not form one whole with,’ or in the affirmative, ‘will clash with’ (Bible de Jérusalem), ‘will deviate from’ (Javanese). Chuukeseuses a reciprocal form, ‘the new and the old will not agree-together.’

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.