Exegesis:
kathōs paredosan hēmin ‘as handed down to us….’ Grammatically the object of paredosan is pragmata ‘things,’ to be understood from pragmatōn in v. 1. But because, properly understood, not the pragmata themselves were handed down but information or tradition concerning them, several translations resort to a more free rendering as e.g. “following the traditions handed down to us” (New English Bible), or “basing their work on the evidence” (Phillips).
kathōs ‘just as,’ stronger than hōs ‘as.’
paradidōmi ‘to hand over,’ ‘to turn over’; with regard to oral or written tradition ‘to hand down,’ ‘to pass on.’ Here probably of the oral transmission of the Gospel tradition.
hoi ap’ archēs autoptai kai hupēretai genomenoi tou logou ‘those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word,’ or ‘those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and became ministers of the word’ (cf. La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée, Willibrord), dependent upon the interpretation of ap’ archēs and of the participle genomenoi.
ap’ archēs ‘from the beginning,’ i.e. of the pragmata i.e. of the life and ministry of Jesus, cf. Acts 1.21f. Since the preaching of the Gospel did not begin until after the ministry of Jesus as defined in Acts 1.21f, it is best to take ap’ archēs to refer to autoptai only and not to hupēretai tou logou as well. Furthermore the position of genomenoi between hupēratai and logou does not point to its going with both autoptai and hupēretai. Hence it is preferable to take ap’ archēs to modify autoptai ‘those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning’ and genomenoi to go with hupēretai tou logou ‘who became ministers of the word.’
autoptēs ‘eyewitness.’
hupēretēs (also 4.20) ‘servant,’ here with logos ‘word,’ i.e. the Gospel or the word of God (for logos in this sense cf. Acts 6.4; 11.19; for hupēretēs in this connection cf. Acts 26.16; 1 Cor 4.1), ‘preacher of the Gospel message.’
Translation:
They were delivered to us, or, ‘we had heard them from the mouth of men who…’ (Sranan Tongo). — To deliver, or, ‘to make known’ (Kannada), ‘to show causing (us) to know’ (Thai), ‘to cause-to-receive’ (Balinese, using a verb that also has the meaning ‘to bequeath an inheritance’).
From the beginning, or, specifying the reference, ‘from its beginning,’ ‘since those things began to happen,’ ‘from the very first of those things/events.’
Eyewitnesses may have to be expressed analytically, e.g. ‘people/those who saw with their own eyes,’ ‘people who witnessed with the seeing of their eyes’ (Tae,’ using a current idiomatic expression for ‘to see clearly,’ cf. ‘with the hearing of the ear’ for ‘to hear clearly’), ‘people in whose presence they happened’ (Apache). The object of ‘to see’ is “the things accomplished”, which may have to be said explicitly, e.g. adding ‘those things,’ or a pronominal preference.
Ministers refers to those who give the word the service it needs; hence e.g., ‘those who teach’ (Tboli), ‘those who convey/spread,’ ‘proclaimers of’ (Pampanga), ‘those who preach’ (Tagalog, South Bolivian Quechua, similarly Chinese, lit. ‘those who hand down the way,’ see below), or simply, ‘those who tell’ (Navajo, Apache).
The word is used here as a technical term. In several languages a literal rendering would be misleading, and still more so by its being combined here with the word ‘minister/servant,’ used also in an uncommon sense; hence such renderings as, ‘God’s word’ (Navajo, Apache), cf. on 5.1; or, ‘Gospel/Good News’ (New English Bible, Bahasa Indonesia, Balinese), ‘the word of the gospel’ (Kannada), ‘the holy word’ (Tamil). Chinese uses a cultural equivalent, ‘the way’ (tao), and ‘to hand down the way,’ in use for the teaching of the ancient sages, has become the normal term for proclaiming Christian doctrine.
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.