back-translation of Luke 7:1-10 in Finnish Sign Language

Following is the back-translation of Luke 7:1-10 from Finnish Sign Language (FiSL). One of the ways that distinguishes FiSL is by an intense way of using a spatial component via a signing space. Click or tap here to see more.

(Note: For a video of this passage in Finnish Sign Language, see below.)

Numbers attached with glosses refer to locations in signing space.

The English text gives a rough back translation of the FiSL behind the glosses.

Luke 7:1

JESUS TELL HUMAN GROUP HEAR>5
Jesus spoke and people listen

READY JESUS GO-1>2 CAPERNAUM INDEX>6
After he had finished Jesus went to Capernaum

(break)

Luke 7:2

ONE SOLDER LEADER OWN>6 SERVANT SICK NEARLY DIE
A servant of a military leader was sick and dying

LEADER INDEX>6 SERVANT PERSON-1 RESPECT
That leader respected his servant

(break)

Luke 7:3

INDEX>6 HEAR>5 JESUS
He heard about Jesus

PERSONx>5 ASK JEW HIGH-POSITION HUMANx-6 BRING-5>1 JESUS
He asked the respected Jewish men to bring Jesus to him

SERVANT PERSON-6 SAVE
to save the servant

(break)

Luke 7:4

JEW HIGH-POSITION HUMANx-6 JESUS MEET>5
The respected Jewish men met Jesus

BEG>5 SAY>5
Begging and asking:

(break)

ASK MALE INDEX>6 NEED OWN>5 HELP
Please, that man needs your help

(break)

Luke 7:5

WE HUMAN GROUP INDEX>6 LOVE
He loves our people

ALSO WE OWN>1 JEW CONGREGATION
For our Jewish congregation
INDEX>6 ALREADY BUILD HOUSE
He has built a house [= synagogue]

(break)

Luke 7:6

JESUS WITH TOGETHER-3>6 HOUSE-6 NEAR-3>6
Jesus approached the house together with others

LEADER SEND-4>5 OWN>6 FEW FRIENDx
The leader sent some of his friends

MEET-4>5
To meet Jesus:

(break)

LEADER INDEX>6 SAY
This leader says:
LORD INDEX>5 TROUBLE CLOSE-5>1 DO-NOT>5
Lord, do not trouble to come to me

Luke 7:7 (no break)

ALSO INDEX>1 CLOSE-1>5 CANNOT
As I did not come to you

(break)

[the rest of the verse moved to the end of verse 8]

Luke 7:8

COMMAND INDEX-h3>1 INDEX>1 OBEY
I am subject to command from above

ALSO SOLDER INDEX>2 INDEX>1 COMMAND INDEX-1>2
And I command solders

INDEX-2 OBEY
And they obey

(break)

OWN-1 SOLDER INDEX-2 INDEX-1 SAY
If I say to this solder of mine:

INDEX-2 GO>2
Go!

COMPLETE LEAVE-1>2
He will leave

INDEX-5 COME-5>1
Or to another: Come!

COMPLETE COME-5>1
He will come

(break)

ALSO SERVANT PERSON-2 INDEX-1 SAY
And if I say to this servant:

DO INDEXx-2
Do this!

COMPLETE DO
He will do it.

(break)

ANDx ALSO OWN>1 SERVANT PERSON-6 INDEX-5 ORDER-5>6
So, please, order this servant of mine

HEAL
And heal him.

(break)

LEADER INDEX-6 WELCOME-6>5
The leader asked Jesus to do this to him

Luke 7:9

JESUS SURPRISE>6
Jesus was surprised

TURN-6>5 HUMAN GROUP
He turned to people

SAY
And said:

LEADER OWN>6 FAITH COMPARE SAME JEW HUMAN GROUP INDEX-1 NEVER SEE-1>d
I have never seen the same faith among Jews than this leader has

(break)

Luke 7:10

FRIEND INDEXx-2 BACK-1>2>1 HOUSE-6 NEAR>6
When the friends returned to the house of the leader

SERVANT PERSON-6 ALREADY HEAL
That servant was already healthy.

Source and further explanation in Signs for words – the possibilities for the literal translation in Finnish Sign Language by Seppo Sipilä, 2008


Luke 7:1-10 in Finnish Sign Language (source )

complete verse (Luke 7:10)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 7:10:

  • Noongar: “The messengers (lit., “people talk-walk”) went back to the boss’s house and saw his servant healed.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “After that, those messengers returned to the house of the warchief. When they arrived there, his slave was already healed/well.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Then the people who had been sent by the captain went back and when they arrived at the house they saw the servant already well.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then those whom the boss of the soldiers had sent went home, and when they reached the house, that servant of the captain was already healed.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “When those sent by the captain then returned, they came-upon his servant recovered.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “On the return of those who had been sent, on their arrival the illness of that servant had already stopped.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Luke 7:1-10)

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 7:1-10:

Jesus was back in Capernaum,
where a Roman army officer’s favorite servant
       was at the point of death.
So when the officer heard Jesus was in town,
he sent some Jewish leaders with a request
       for Jesus to come and heal his servant.

The leaders went to Jesus and begged him to help —
       “This man is truly deserving,” they stated.
“He loves our nation and even built us a synagogue.”
       So Jesus went with them.

As Jesus approached the officer’s house,
       the officer sent some friends with a message:
       “Sir, please don’t trouble yourself on my account!
       I’m not worthy for you to stand under my roof,
              and I’m certainly not worthy to look you in the face.

       “Just say the word, and my servant will be healed.
       I myself am under orders,
              and I have men under my command.
       If I say ‘Jump!’ they jump;
              if I say ‘Sit down!’ they sit down.”

When Jesus heard this, he was so surprised
that he said to the crowd following him,
       “I’ve never seen such faith!”

The officer’s friends returned and found the servant well.

Translation commentary on Luke 7:10

Exegesis:

hupostrepsantes eis ton oikon lit. ‘having returned to the house,’ i.e. of the centurion.

hoi pemphthentes ‘those who had been sent,’ i.e. by the centurion (cf. Phillips), hence “the messengers” (An American Translation, New English Bible, and others), refers to the friends of the centurion (v. 6).

heuron ton doulon hugiainonta ‘they found the slave in good health.’ The story implicitly assumes that Jesus did speak the healing word and did not go to the centurion’s house.

Translation:

They found the slave well. The verb ‘to find’ with accusative and following participle or adjective is often (cf. also 8.35; 11.25; 19.30) used of coming where somebody or something is and perceiving the action or state of being he or it is in. Here one may have to render it, ‘they came where the slave was and saw that he was well (again),’ or simply, ‘and there they saw that the slave was well (again).’ For well, or, ‘in good health,’ see on 5.31. For complete and instant recovery the Tboli idiom is, ‘as if the bal has come-to-life-again,’ referring to a small animal that often shams dead but the next moment may scamper away like lightning.

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 7:10

7:10a

the messengers: The phrase the messengers, literally “the ones who had been sent,” refers to the friends whom the officer had sent to Jesus in 7:6c. If you translate the Greek more literally, you may wish to use an active expression:

the friends whom the centurion had sent

Another way to translate this is:

the officer’s friends (Contemporary English Version)

returned to the house: The phrase the house refers to the officer’s house.

7:10b

found the servant in good health: The phrase found the servant in good health means “saw that the servant was well.” Jesus had already healed him. In this context, the word found does not imply that the men had to search for the servant. He was in the same house where they had left him, but he was healthy instead of sick.

servant: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as servant is the same one that was used in 7:2a. See the note on servant at 7:2a.

© 2009, 2010, 2013 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.