complete verse (Luke 13:11)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 13:11:

  • Noongar: “A woman had an evil spirit and she had been sick 18 years. She was stooped and could not stand up.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “There, there was a woman, she had been sick for eighteen years because she was possessed by a demon. That woman was hunchbacked, she was not able to stand up straight.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “There was a woman there who had a sickness caused by a demon for eighteen years. She was bent-over and could not straighten her body.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And there was in the church a woman whose back was bent over because she was afflicted with a demon. It was eighteen years that her back had been over, and she could no longer straighten up even a little bit.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “There was also there a woman whom a evil-spirit had hunched-over for eighteen years and she was not able-to-straighten-up.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “There was a woman there who for eighteen years had been being make ill by an evil spirit. She was now really hunchbacked, no longer able to straighten out.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Luke 13:11

Exegesis:

kai idou gunē lit. ‘and behold, a woman…,’ hence, ‘and there was a woman.’

pneuma echousa astheneias lit. ‘having a spirit of sickness,’ i.e. ‘possessed by a spirit that caused sickness,’ or, ‘having a sickness caused by a spirit.’ The spirit and the sickness are conceived as being one, cf. 11.14.

etē deka oktō ‘eighteen years,’ accusative of duration.

kai ēn sugkuptousa ‘and she was bent double,’ i.e. as a result of the sickness.

kai mē dunamenē anakupsai eis to panteles ‘and completely unable to straighten herself up.’ eis to panteles is best understood as going with dunamenē.

anakuptō (also 21.28) ‘to raise oneself up,’ ‘to straighten oneself,’ less probably ‘to lift up the head’ (cf. Lagrange, The Four Gospels – a New Translation).

eis to panteles ‘completely,’ ‘wholly,’ ‘at all.’

Translation:

To have a spirit of infirmity often is to be described by, ‘to have (or, to be possessed/entered by) a spirit/demon that makes (a person) ill,’ or with a resultative clause, ‘so that one becomes ill’ (cf. East and Toraja-Sa’dan), cf. also, ‘to be the host of a spirit that took away her strength’ (Shona 1966). In Tzeltal the idiom is, ‘to be molested by the devil’; Ekari uses a form that may mean both ‘having seen a spirit’ and ‘a spirit having seen her,’ either event being thought of as a cause of illness. For spirit cf. 9.39, for infirmity see “disease” in 4.40.

She was bent over …, sometimes introduced by, ‘because of that,’ ‘so that.’ Idiom may require another subject, e.g. ‘her back was bent’ (Bahasa Indonesia, similarly Sranan Tongo, lit. ‘was-broken’), ‘her body was crooked’ (Batak Toba).

Straighten herself, or, ‘her body/back,’ or, “stand up straight” (New English Bible, similarly Sranan Tongo).

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.

SIL Translator’s Notes on Luke 13:11

13:11a

and a woman there: In Greek, this verse begins with the words “and behold.” A few English versions translate these words literally. In this context, these words call attention to a woman who is first mentioned here in this verse. She was one of the people who were in the synagogue listening to Jesus.

Consider how your language introduces a major but unnamed character into a story. Some languages use a word like “certain.” Other use a phrase such as “There was….” For example:

A ⌊certain⌋ woman was there
-or-
There was a woman there

Use a natural way in your language to introduce an important character.

had been disabled by a spirit: The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as had been disabled by a spirit is more literally “had a spirit of weakness/illness.” It means that an evil spirit had caused the woman to have a weakness or illness that prevented her from straightening her back (13:11b). This condition had lasted for eighteen years. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

had had a spirit of infirmity (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
had been possessed by a spirit that crippled her (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
had been disabled by a spirit (NET Bible)
-or-
had an evil spirit that had kept her sick

In some languages, words such as “crippled” refer only to people who are unable to walk. In other languages, words such as “sick” refer only to illnesses, not to conditions such as being hunchbacked. Use a natural expression in your language to describe a long-term condition of this nature that is caused by an evil spirit.

a spirit: The word spirit here refers to a demon or evil spirit. See demon in the Glossary.

13:11b

This part of the verse further describes the condition caused by the spirit in 13:11a. Make sure that the expression you used in 13:11a fits the details about the woman’s crooked back in 13:11b.

She was hunched over: The clause She was hunched over means that the woman’s back was bent, or crooked, so that she could not stand upright.

could not stand up straight: There are two ways to interpret the Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as could not stand up straight:

(1) It means that the woman could not straighten up at all, even a little. For example:

was quite unable to stand up straight (New Revised Standard Version)

(New International Version, Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, Contemporary English Version, King James Version, New American Standard Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible)

(2) It means that the woman could straighten up some, but not completely. For example:

and could not fully straighten herself (Revised Standard Version)

(Berean Standard Bible, Revised Standard Version, NET Bible)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), which has stronger commentary support.

Notice that the two phrases “was hunched over” and “could not stand up straight” are two ways of saying the same thing. In some languages it may be more natural to put the emphasis of the phrase “at all” on the first expression. For example:

She was completely bent over and could not straighten up. (Contemporary English Version)

General Comment on 13:11a–b

In some languages it may be more natural to combine the three expressions describing the woman’s condition into two. For example:

There was also a woman there whom an evil spirit had caused to be hunchbacked for eighteen years. She was completely unable to straighten her back.

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