Translation commentary on Luke 9:13

Exegesis:

dote autois humeis phagein ‘you give them (something) to eat,’ cf. on 8.55. humeis is emphatic: you give them to eat instead of letting them take care of themselves.

ouk eisin hēmin pleion ē artoi pente kai ichthues duo ‘we have no more than, or, only, five loaves and two fish.’

ei mēti poreuthentes hēmeis agorasōmen eis panta ton laon touton brōmata ‘unless we ourselves go and buy food for all this crowd.’ Between this clause and the preceding one the train of thought is like this: so we are unable to feed them, unless … hēmeis is emphatic and takes up the emphatic humeis spoken by Jesus.

agorazō ‘to buy,’ ‘to purchase,’ in Luke only in a literal sense.

Translation:

You give them something to eat, or, “give them … to eat yourselves” (New English Bible), ‘(it is) you that should give…’ (Balinese).

We have. The pronoun is best taken to be exclusive (as e.g. in Huautla Mazatec, and most Indonesian versions), unless this would suggest an intention to exclude Jesus from the food.

Loaves, see on 4.3; Tboli uses here, ‘five wrappings of cooked rice,’ the normal provisions on a journey.

Fish, cf. on 5.6; here the reference is to ‘cured (e.g. dried, or, salted) fish.’

Unless we are to go …, or, ‘except only that (or, only if) we go’ (Kele, Ekari), may have to be adjusted to bring out the right meaning, e.g. .’.. unless you want us (emphatic) to go…’ (Shona 1966), ‘or maybe we should go’ (East Nyanja), ‘it would be necessary for us to go’ (Tzeltal); or as a question, ‘or shall we go?’ (Zarma), ‘you don’t want us to go…, don’t you?’ (cf. Bahasa Indonesia RC); or again, filling out the elliptical utterance, ‘only if we go…, there would be sufficient,’ ‘we cannot give them enough, except if we go….’ Marathi reaches the same end by transposing this and the preceding clause, cf. ‘if we don’t buy and bring bread, then we have nothing besides five loaves and two fish.’ Here we is best taken exclusive, otherwise the disciples would be implying that Jesus was to join them on their errand.

Food, see on 3.11.

All these people, i.e. “this whole crowd” (Good News Translation), and cf. on 3.21.

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 9:13

9:13a

But Jesus told them: The words But Jesus told them introduce the response that Jesus made to what the disciples suggested. He did not say what the disciples expected him to say. In Greek the verse begins with the common conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates here as “But.” Some other English versions do not translate this conjunction. Introduce Jesus’ response in a natural way in your language.

You give them something to eat: The word You is emphasized here. Jesus was saying that the people should not have to find their own food. Instead, the disciples should give them food. Some ways to translate Jesus’ words here are:

You yourselves give them something to eat. (Good News Translation)
-or-
It is you ⌊who must⌋ feed them!

Paragraph 9:13b–14

9:13b

We have only five loaves of bread and two fish: In this clause the disciples implied that they did not have enough food to give the people something to eat. They implied that for this reason, they could not do what Jesus had told them. In some languages it may be necessary to make this implied information explicit in some way. For example:

⌊How can we do that?⌋ We have only…

loaves of bread: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as loaves of bread is literally “loaves.” These were small, round loaves of flat bread, probably made from barley. The parallel passage in John 6:9 makes this clear. If people do not know a word for bread, you may use a general word such as “food” here. You should not substitute a different kind of food, because these verses tell about an event that actually happened.

Languages have different ways to describe portions of bread or food. Some ways to do that are:

• Use a plural form of the word to refer to a certain number of portions. For example:

five breads

• Use a general word that refers to a unit or portion. For example:

five units/portions of bread

In areas where people do not eat bread as their main food, it may be helpful to include a footnote. For example:

Bread was one of the main foods that the Jews ate. The loaves of bread in this verse were round, thick, and flat in shape. One person would probably eat two of them for one meal.

fish: This fish was ready to eat, so it had already been cooked or dried or salted. It was probably a small kind of fresh-water fish from the nearby lake, the Lake of Galilee. Use a natural word in your language for this context.

they answered: The disciples answered by implying that they could not do what Jesus told them to do. Introduce the disciples’ response in a natural way in your language. In some languages it may be helpful to use a different verb. For example:

⌊But⌋ they said/objected

9:13c

unless we go and buy food for all these people: In this clause the disciples were suggesting that the only way to get enough food for everyone was to go and buy it. However, they did not think that this was what Jesus wanted them to do. They did not think it was possible to buy enough food for the crowd, because they did not have enough money (see John 6:7). Another way to translate this is:

…or do you intend us to go and buy food for all these people? (Revised English Bible)

In some languages it may be more natural to start a new sentence with this clause. For example:

Do you want us to go and buy food for this whole crowd? (Good News Translation)
-or-
If we are going to feed all these people, we will have to go and buy food. (Contemporary English Version)

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