Exegesis:
ē ‘or,’ introduces a clause which, again in the form of a question, describes a similar case.
ekeinoi hoi deka oktō ‘those eighteen people,’ the subject of egenonto but for the sake of emphasis placed at the beginning of the sentence and hence taken up by autoi (after hoti). The demonstrative pronoun and the article show that Jesus referred to people whom everybody knew about.
eph’ hous epesen ho purgos en tō Silōam ‘on whom the tower fell at Siloam.’ en tō Silōam is best understood to mean ‘in the neighbourhood of Siloam,’ and to go with the whole clause. For Silōam cf. IDB IV, 352ff. purgos also 14.28.
dokeite hoti autoi opheiletai egenonto para pantas tous anthrōpous tous katoikountas Ierousalēm ‘do you think that they were offenders, more than all people who live in Jerusalem?,’ same structure as the corresponding interrogative clause in v. 2. katoikeō, cf. on 11.26.
opheiletēs lit. ‘debtor,’ here corresponding with, and equivalent to hamartōloi ‘sinners’ in v. 2 (cf. also 11.4).
Translation:
The introductory words (or those … killed them) can often best be rendered as an independent question or statement, introduced by a phrase like, “again, take” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation), “what about…?” (Good News Translation); or, ‘you remember how…?,’ which may require some of the shifts mentioned in the next entry.
Those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, or, ‘those eighteen men who were killed when/because the tower fell on them (or, by/at the falling down of the tower) in S.,’ or, ‘the eighteen people who died fallen-upon-by the tower in S.’ (Bahasa Indonesia, Javanese). Tower sometimes has to be rendered by a descriptive term, e.g. ‘built upward house’ (Ekari), ‘high house/building’ (Kekchi, Zarma), ‘far-visible house’ (Tae’ 1933), ‘house/building one looks out from’; Tzeltal suggests not height but strength by using a word designating any kind of edifice or wall made of stones put together with mortar, in contrast with the usual buildings made with poles and vines. Since the tower may have been part of the fortifications, Batak Toba uses the term for an observation-post on the walls around the settlement, cf. also, ‘house-of war’ (Trukese, Pohnpeian). For to be killed, here accidentally.
Were worse offenders than, see the synonymous phrase in v. 2. Offender, or, ‘wrong doer,’ ‘transgressor,’ ‘sinner.’
The others who dwelt in, or, ‘the other inhabitants of,’ implying that the eighteen also lived in Jerusalem.
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.