Translation commentary on Luke 17:34

Exegesis:

legō humin ‘I tell you,’ cf. on 3.8.

tautē tē nukti ‘on that night.’ The shift from ‘that day’ in v. 31 to ‘that night’ here is due to the situation that is envisaged here and does not imply that the coming of the Son of man will take place during the night, cf. Plummer.

esontai duo epi klinēs mias ‘there will be two people in one bed,’ probably to be understood as two men, cf. ho heis and ho heteros. For klinē cf. on 8.16.

ho heis paralēmphthēsetai ‘one will be taken,’ probably to be understood as ‘taken along,’ i.e. by the angels who gather the elect.

ho heteros aphethēsetai ‘the other will be left (behind).’

Translation:

In that night, i.e. at that time, in the night. To avoid the implication rejected in Exegesis it may be wise to say something like, ‘then, or, at that time, there will be two men in one bed at night.’

There will be two men in one bed, or, ‘there will be two men lying/sleeping in one (or, in the same) bed’; or where this would have undesirable associations, ‘two men will both be lying/sleeping.’

One will be taken and the other left. Where no passive form can be used one may have to say, ‘the angels will take one (of them) and will leave behind the other,’ or, ‘God will choose one (of them), reject the other.’

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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