Exegesis:
kai pros autous eipen ‘and to them he said.’ pros autous is emphatic by position.
tinos humōn etc. lit. ‘of whom of you will the son or ox fall into a well, and will he not immediately pull him out on the day of the sabbath?,’ interrogative clause consisting of two co-ordinate clauses of which the former is not interrogative semantically, but serves to describe a situation to which the second clause refers. This second clause contains the question proper. Revised Standard Version follows the text read by Nestle, which has onos ‘ass’ instead of huios.
phrear ‘well’ dug for the purpose of supplying water.
anaspaō ‘to draw up,’ ‘to pull up.’
Translation:
Recasting the sentence structure one may say, e.g. ‘if any of you had a son or an ox that (or, if your son or your ox) happened to fall into a well, would you not (or, would you hesitate to) pull him out…’; or as a statement, ‘if…, you would certainly pull him out’; or in two sentences, e.g. ‘suppose any one of you…, what will he do? He immediately pulls….’ Cf. also the constructions in 11.5-7 and 11.
For ass (Revised Standard Version) and ox see 13.15; for ‘son’ (Exegesis) cf. on 1.13.
Well. Any common term for ‘well,’ ‘pond,’ ‘fountain,’ ‘cistern’ is acceptable here, provided that falling into it implies the danger of drowning. In Batak Toba ‘to fall into a well’ is expressed by a passive verbal derivation of ‘well/ moat.’
Pull him out, or ‘pull him up,’ ‘lift him up from in that hole’ (Trukese, Pohnpeian).
On a sabbath day, or, ‘even though it were on sabbath’ (e.g. in Shona 1966, Sundanese), ‘even if you must do so on a sabbath’ (Sranan Tongo); cf. also “… fall in a well on a Sabbath, would you not pull him out at once on the Sabbath itself?” (Good News 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.