Exegesis:

hina de eidēte “but in order that you may know” (Translator’s New Testament), final clause but not followed by a main clause as normally. One would expect a clause like ‘I will do this,’ but instead Jesus addresses himself to the paralytic and tells him to do that which will confirm what he had said to the scribes and the Pharisees.

hoti ho huios tou anthrōpou exousian echei epi tēs gēs aphienai hamartias ‘that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins.’ For exousia in the sense of full, but derived authority, cf. on 4.32.

ho huios tou anthrōpou ‘the Son of man,’ in the Synoptic Gospels always used by Jesus when referring to himself as distinguished from ordinary people. Idiomatically the phrase belongs to a group of expressions like ‘son of peace,’ which mean ‘one who has the essential quality of…, or, belongs to the group of…,’ but it has developed into a Messianic title and should be treated as such also when referring to Jesus in his earthly life (which is the case in many places).

epi tēs gēs ‘on earth,’ to be connected with exousian echei ‘has authority,’ or with aphienai hamartias ‘forgive sins,’ preferably the former.

eipen tō paralelumenō ‘he said to the paralysed man,’ best treated as a parenthesis used to prepare a shift of the persons addressed.

soi legō ‘to you I say,’ with emphasis in order to underscore the change of address.

egeire kai aras to klinidion sou poreuou eis ton oikon sou ‘get up, take up your bed and go to your home.’ aras to klinidion sou lit. ‘after taking up your bed’ is virtually an imperative.

poreuou eis ton oikon sou ‘go to your home,’ stressing rather the action of going than its direction.

Translation:

In many languages a rendering is possible that leaves the break in the sentence virtually as it is, and by a judicious use of punctuation marks indicates how it is to be understood, but this is, at the best, a help for the experienced reader only. Therefore it is often better for the translator not to depend on punctuation marks, but to change the sentence structure, cf. e.g. ‘ “But I want you to know (or, I will prove to you, or, I will let you know) that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he/Jesus said to the paralysed man, “To you I say, get up…” ’; or, .’.. “Look here all of you so that you will know that…”. Then Jesus said to that man who wasn’t-able-to-go before, “Get up…” ’ (Tboli).

The Son of man (also in 6.5, 22; 7.34; 9.22, 26, 44, 58; 11.30; 12.8, 10, 40; 17.22, 24, 26, 30; 18.8, 31; 19.10; 21.27, 36; 22.22, 48, 69; 24.7). Usually it is preferable to give a rather literal rendering, e.g. ‘son/child of man.’ Swahili has virtually the same rendering, i.e. ‘Son of Adam,’ used in contradistinction to the compound term ‘Adam’s-son,’ meaning ‘human being.’ Sometimes it is necessary to add a reference to the first person, ‘I, the Son of man.’ The rendering ‘Son of men/mankind/people’ may also be possible, but in some cases is unacceptable, e.g. in Zulu and Navajo, where it would mean ‘son of our people/tribe,’ or in Zapotec, where it would suggest “that the father is unknown due to the indiscretions of the mother” and where ‘he is the son of people’ is used when one wants to disclaim responsibility for or relationship with a child caught in some mischief. For these and similar reasons some translators have had to shift to non-literal renderings, e.g. ‘son (lit. child) descended in the world’ (Toraja-Sa’dan, using a poetic verb, often found in songs that treat of the contacts between heaven and earth), ‘the man appointed,’ i.e. the man to whom authority has been delegated (Tenango Otomi), ‘Older Brother of everybody,’ expressing the dignity and authority of the Messiah and the universality of his work (Tzotzil), ‘I, the elder-brother-man’ (Guhu-Samane), ‘I who have been stood up to help,’ usually but not exclusively used of appointment to a menial task (Central Tarahumara), ‘he who is a relative/sibling of all people,’ or, ‘I, the person who accompanies all people,’ expressing the universal character of Jesus’ mission (Chicahuaxtla Triqui, Highland Totonac, Tepeuxila Cuicatec).

In some languages there arise problems about honorifics. (1) Because the reference is to Jesus a language such as Balinese uses the honorific word for ‘son,’ although this is felt to be incongruous when used with the word ‘man/mankind’ referring as it does to people of both high and low social position; this very incongruity, however, may help to signal the technical character of the title. (2) As a rule one never uses honorific terms for what concerns oneself; hence the use of honorifics with reference to ‘the Son of man’ may obscure the fact that the title refers to the speaker, i.e. Jesus. Yet honorifics have sometimes been employed, on the consideration that, when using ‘the Son of man,’ Jesus referred to his own person in another function and a higher position than the one he occupied while speaking. Such a solution, however, will be unacceptable where the use of honorifics would make the identification of ‘the Son of man’ as Jesus quite impossible. When investigating these and similar translation problems, one should remember that receptor language possibilities and requirements for the rendering of this title in passages referring to Jesus’ earthly life may differ from those for passages about his parousia (9.26; 12.8, 40; 17.22ff; 18.8; 21.27, 36; 22.69).

Earth stands here in contrast to heaven, the abode of God, cf. on 2.14.

Take up, i.e. ‘lift up and carry away.’ Here again a more specific verb may have to be introduced, e.g. ‘lift-on-the-shoulder’ (Tae’), ‘lift-up-with-the-hand’ (Santali).

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.