serve

The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated in English as “serve,” “minister,” “walk with,” or “service” is translated in Igede as myị ẹrụ or “agree with message (of the one you’re serving).” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

In Quetzaltepec Mixe, “serve” is translated as “obey.” (Source: Robert Bascom)

complete verse (Luke 4:39)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 4:39:

  • Noongar: “The woman was lying down so Jesus went and he stood beside the woman. Jesus told the sickness to leave the woman. Her sickness left, and she stood up and began preparing their food.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “Yesus went to stand beside her bed, and he said: ‘Come out, sickness!’ She immediately got well, and he arose to serve them.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Isa went there and stood beside the sick woman and he commanded the fever to leave and the woman was well, immediately she got up and fed them.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus got near to the woman and He used-His-power so that her fever might leave. And immediately that woman was healed, and then she got up and cooked and prepared something for Jesus and company.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Jesus approached where-she-was-lying and commanded that her fever be-removed. It was removed immediately and she got-right-up and there-she-was feeding them.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Jesus stood there beside the bed of that woman and spoke causing the fever to drop. Well, it dropped at once. The woman got up and prepared-a-meal which she would serve to Jesus.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Honorary "rare" construct denoting God (“scold/rebuke”)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, shikaritsuke-rare-ru (叱りつけられる) or “scold/rebuke” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Luke 4:39

Exegesis:

kai epistas epanō autēs ‘standing over her,’ or, ‘at her head’; the former is more consistent with the basic meaning of epanō, and hence to be preferred. For epistas cf. on 2.9. The aorist tense is ingressive and this makes the meaning of the whole clause complex: Jesus went to her and came to stand over her; epistas implies the idea of a movement towards and epanō autēs indicates a position.

epanō ‘above,’ ‘over,’ either used as an adverb or as a preposition with genitive.

epetimēsen tō puretō ‘he checked the fever,’ cf. on v. 35 and references there.

kai aphēken autēn ‘and it left her,’ sudden change of subject. For aphiēmi in the meaning ‘to leave.’

parachrēma de anastasa ‘after getting up at once.’ Here anastasa has the basic meaning of ‘rising,’ or, ‘getting up,’ cf. on 1.39. For parachrēma cf. on 1.64. Often it is used by Luke with reference to an act of healing and suggests that no time elapsed between the word (or act) of healing and its effectuation (cf. also 5.25; 8.44, 47; 13.13).

diēkonei autois ‘she served them,’ i.e. Jesus and those who had come with him.

diakoneō ‘to serve,’ here of serving guests in the house, cf. An American Translation, “waited on them”.

Translation:

Stood over her, preferably, “came and stood over her” (New English Bible, and cf. Exegesis), or, ‘approached (or, came to her side) and bowed over (or, looked down on) her.’

Rebuked, or, ‘stopped,’ ‘checked,’ ‘caused to cease’; or here a specific term for a comparable treatment by a medical man, e.g. ‘chased-away’ (Balinese).

And has a consecutive force here, which is expressed in some languages, e.g. Balinese, Batak Toba.

It left her, or, ‘it ceased’ (Javanese), ‘the fever went out’ (Marathi); or, avoiding the change of subject, ‘she became free from it’ (Willibrord), ‘she recovered.’

Served them, or, “attended on them” (Translator’s New Testament), “began to see their needs” (Phillips), ‘took care of them,’ ‘gave them something to eat,’ ‘prepared food’ (Toraja-Sa’dan), ‘entertained them (lit. treated-them-as-guests)’ (Tae’). One should avoid a rendering suggesting that she had the position of a servant in the house. The three Indonesian languages that use honorifics do not permit persons of different rank to be subjoined under one plural pronoun; hence the rendering ‘she served the guests’ was chosen in order to avoid a double rendering of “them”, i.e. by ‘him (honorific) and them (common pronoun),’ or, ‘Jesus and those with him.’

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 4:39

4:39a

He stood over her: There are at least two ways to interpret the clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as He stood over her:

(1) It means that Jesus leaned or bent over her. For example:

He bent over her (God’s Word)

(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, Revised Standard Version, New Jerusalem Bible, NET Bible, New American Standard Bible, Revised English Bible, King James Version, God’s Word, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)

(2) It means that Jesus stood by her side. For example:

stood at her bedside (Good News Translation)

(Good News Translation, New Living Translation (2004), New Century Version)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1).

This clause implies that Jesus walked over to the woman who was lying down.

rebuked the fever: The verb rebuked means “spoke forcefully to.” In this context, it means that Jesus commanded the fever to leave the woman. For example:

ordered the fever to leave (God’s Word)

In some languages, a person cannot speak to a sickness. If that is true in your language, you should find another way to translate rebuked the fever. For example:

Jesus caused the fever to leave her.
-or-
Jesus caused the fever to cool/diminish.
-or-
Jesus said that the sickness must end.
-or-
Jesus spoke words to heal her.

4:39b

and it left her: The phrase and it left her means “the fever left her.” This means that the woman’s temperature went back to normal again. Some other ways to translate this are:

The fever left her (Good News Translation)
-or-
and immediately her temperature returned to normal (New Living Translation (1996))
-or-
she was healed
-or-
she became healthy

4:39c

And she got up at once: The phrase she got up at once means that the woman was able to get out of bed immediately. She was not weak, as a person recovering from a fever usually is. For example:

Right then she was able to get up (Contemporary English Version)

and began to serve them: The Greek clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as began to serve them is literally “she was serving them.” It means that as soon as the woman got up, she started to prepare a meal for Jesus and his disciples. For example:

She got up immediately and prepared a meal for them. (God’s Word)

This shows that as soon as Jesus had healed Simon’s mother-in-law, she was strong enough to serve the food.

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