Scriptures Plain & Simple (Luke 22:54-65)

Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Luke 22:54-65:

Peter kept his distance after Jesus was arrested
       and led away to the house of the high priest.
Some people were sitting around a fire
in the courtyard of the house, and Peter joined them.
       “This man was with Jesus!” blurted out a servant girl.

“I don’t even know the guy!” insisted Peter.

“You’re one of them!” someone said with a smirk.

“Not me!” denied Peter.

An hour or so later, another man swore,
       “This man was with Jesus—they’re both from Galilee.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
       came Peter’s denial.
At that very moment, while Peter was still speaking,
       he heard the sound of a rooster crowing.

The Lord looked in Peter’s direction,
and Peter remembered those solemn words,
       “Before a rooster crows tomorrow morning,
       you’ll say three times you don’t even know me.”

Peter left and wept bitterly.

Meanwhile, the guards insulted and struck Jesus.
They put a blindfold on him and sneered as they said,
       “Tell us who hit you?”
And this was not the worst they did to him.

Translation commentary on Luke 22:61

Exegesis:

strapheis ho kurios eneblepsen tō Petrō ‘the Lord turned around and looked at Peter.’ The clause implies that Jesus is within sight. For strapheis cf. on 7.9; for ho kurios cf. on 1.6 sub (3); for emblepō cf. on 20.17.

hupemnēsthē ho Petros tou rēmatos tou kuriou ‘Peter remembered the word of the Lord.’ rēma means here ‘saying,’ ‘utterance.’

hupomimnēskō ‘to remind,’ here in the passive ‘to remember,’ with genitive.

hōs eipen autō ‘how he had said to him,’ connects rēma with the subsequent direct quotation and has no semantic function of its own.

prin alektora phōnēsai sēmeron aparnēsē me tris ‘before the/a cock will have crowed today, you will disown me three times,’ cf. on v. 34, though the structure is different here.

Translation:

Turned, or, ‘turned around,’ ‘turned his head.’

For looked at see on 20.17 and cf. Tae’ 1933, ‘meeting eyes with Peter’/ ‘(his) eye meeting Peter’s’; for remembered see on 16.25.

The word of the Lord, how he said to him, or, ‘the word(s) the Lord had said to him,’ or simply, ‘what the Lord had said a while ago,’ ‘the Lord’s word(s).’

For the last sentence of this verse see on v. 34; where an analytical rendering of deny is necessary, e.g. ‘you will say that you do not know me,’ ‘you will say, “No, I do not know him” ,’ it may have to coincide with that of “you … deny that you know me” in v. 34.

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 22:61

22:61a

And: In Greek, this verse begins with a common conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as And. Some ways to translate it here are:

Then (NET Bible)
-or-
At that moment (New Living Translation (2004))

the Lord turned and looked at Peter: The Lord Jesus was in a place where he could see Peter by turning toward him. Jesus may have been in the courtyard itself at that moment, or he may have been in an open room or gallery near the courtyard. As the rooster crowed, Jesus turned and looked at Peter. The context shows that Peter also saw Jesus looking at him.

Some other ways to translate this statement are:

The Lord turned toward Peter and looked directly at him
-or-

⌊Peter saw⌋ the Lord turn and look at him

the Lord: The phrase the Lord refers here to Jesus. In some languages it may be necessary to make this explicit. For example:

the Lord ⌊Jesus⌋

22:61b

Then Peter remembered the word that the Lord had spoken to him: In Greek this clause is literally, “And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, as he said to him…” This word refers to what Jesus said to Peter in 22:34. The text repeats this statement in 22:61c. Some other ways to translate this are:

Then Peter remembered what the Lord had said to him
-or-
And Peter remembered that the Lord had said (Contemporary English Version)

22:61c–d

Before the rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times: This statement is quoted from 22:34. See the notes at 22:34b and 22:34c. You should translate this statement in the same way as you did there.

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