Luke 15
Three stories of what was lost: one sheep, one drachma, and the son who left and came back — with his brother standing outside.
All the tax collectors and the sinners — the writer sets the audience before the three parables.
Welcomes (προσδέχομαι, prosdechomai) is to receive to oneself — and the grumbling is what the whole chapter answers.
This parable — singular, though three follow. The writer counts them as one.
Lost (ἀπόλλυμι, apollymi) — this book says lost; Matthew 18:12 says strays. In the wilderness — this book leaves the ninety-nine there; Matthew says on the hills.
Why this rendering
Luke.15.4 Observation
Syntactic observation
The same story as Matthew 18:12-14, and the way the sheep goes missing differs. Matthew has πλανηθῇ, if one of them strays — the sheep leaves of itself. Luke has ἀπολέσας, having lost one — with the man as subject: the sheep did not stray, he lost it. That is why the word runs through the whole chapter: ἀπόλλυμι comes eight times across seven verses of ch.15 (4 twice, 6, 8, 9, 17, 24, 32) — sheep, coin and son are all lost by one verb. In Matthew's parallel that verb stands at one place only, the conclusion (18:14 ἀπόληται). Where the ninety-nine are left differs too — Matthew ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη, on the mountains; Luke ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, in the wilderness — and so does the verb of leaving, Matthew ἀφήσει against Luke's καταλείπει. The seeking differs most: Matthew has ἐὰν γένηται εὑρεῖν αὐτό, if he should happen to find it, a condition; Luke ἕως εὕρῃ αὐτό, until he finds it, which is not. And Luke alone carries on: onto his shoulders (15:5), calling friends and neighbours together (15:6), rejoice with me. συγχαίρω, to rejoice with, stands three times in the four Gospels and all three are Luke's — 15:6, 15:9, and 1:58, where Elizabeth's neighbours rejoice with her. The close differs as well: Matthew, it is not the will of your Father that one of these little ones should perish; Luke, there is joy in heaven over one sinner repenting. μετανοέω and μετάνοια are absent from Matthew's parallel. Matthew 18:13 has ἀμήν; Luke does not.
Rendering options · 2
Basis These two are where the books part. Rendering it as if the sheep strays imports Matthew's word and breaks the first of the seven places ἀπόλλυμι binds in ch.15. The same for the condition: Matthew's is one and Luke's is not.
Basis It is one parable, so the reader sees the parallel more easily, and the sense carries without naming who lost it.
Rejected Who lost it is the datum here. In Matthew the sheep strays; in Luke the man loses it — the two books put the responsibility in different places in one story. Blurring erases that, and hides that the whole chapter is bound by one verb.
On his shoulders — only this book carries the sheep home.
Rejoice with me renders συγχαίρω (synchairō), a compound this edition keeps apart from the plain joy-verb.
Righteous who have no need of repentance — the line may be read plainly or as irony, and the text does not settle it.
Drachmas — a Greek coin kept as sound, about a day's wage. This parable stands only in this book, and it is the only one in the four Gospels with a woman at its centre.
Why this rendering
Luke.15.8 Observation
Syntactic observation
This parable is Luke's alone and is built to pair with the sheep before it — one man and one woman, one lost out of a hundred and one out of ten, and the two closing in the same sentence (συγκαλεῖ … Συγχάρητέ μοι ὅτι εὗρον). The words hold the pairing up. δραχμή stands three times in the four Gospels and all three are here (15:8 twice, 15:9). ἐπιμελῶς, carefully, is a hapax in the four Gospels. But σαρόω, to sweep, is different: it stands three times, and Matthew 12:44 and Luke 11:25 are the same place — the unclean spirit returns and finds the house swept — with the third here. So the only two houses swept in the four Gospels are one standing empty for a spirit's return and one swept to find a coin. The text does not state the link. συγκαλέω, to call together, occurs once in Mark and four times in Luke, two of the four being here (15:6, 15:9) and the others 9:1 (calling the Twelve together) and 23:13 (Pilate calling together the chief priests, the rulers and the people). And this parable's close differs from the previous one by a word: v.7 has χαρὰ ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, joy in heaven; v.10 χαρὰ ἐνώπιον τῶν ἀγγέλων τοῦ θεοῦ, joy before the angels of God. The same thing said twice, with the place of the joy written differently.
Rendering options · 2
Basis Coin names are fixed as transliterations in this edition (denarius, assarion, lepton, kodrantes). And though vv.7 and 10 look like the same statement twice, their phrases differ; matching them erases that the base text wrote them differently. Of thirteen versions examined only four transliterate (개역한글, YLT, LSV, WEB) and the rest render by value; this edition is with the minority, but transliterating coins is fixed here.
Basis A reader does not know what a drachma is, so a value renders it readable; and the two closes mean the same, so matching them makes the repetition plain.
Rejected Transliteration is fixed because more than three coins appear and their values differ — rendering denarius, drachma and lepton all as a silver coin makes it impossible to weigh Matt 20:2, which prices the denarius at a day's wage. And that the two closes mean the same is a judgement, not the text: the text writes heaven once and before the angels once.
Lost in translation
The φίλας of v.9 is feminine, so the Greek says by its ending that the women the woman calls are her women friends; the φίλους of v.6 is masculine. English friends carries no gender, so the pairing does not cross over in the form — the last layer of the man-and-woman symmetry thins here.
Her women friends — the Greek noun is feminine, which English cannot mark without adding a word.
Before the angels of God — the joy is placed in heaven's sight, not in heaven itself.
Two sons — this parable stands only in this book, and the second son is as much its subject as the first.
The share of the property that falls to me — the Greek word for property here (οὐσία, ousia) is “being” or “substance”. His living in the second half is βίος (bios), which is both a life and what one lives on.
Wastefully (ἀσώτως, asōtōs) is used once in the four Gospels — without saving.
To be in want — the Greek verb is a passive, “to be left lacking”.
Attached himself (κολλάομαι, kollaomai) is to be glued on — a hard word for hiring oneself out.
Carob pods (κεράτια, keratia) is used once in the four Gospels — pig food.
Hired men (μίσθιοι, misthioi) — this edition keeps them apart from the hirelings of John 10:12; all nine locales had them mixed until it was measured.
Against heaven and before you — “heaven” stands for God without naming God.
Make me as one of your hired men — the speech he prepares, and verse 21 stops one line short of it.
Kissed him here is καταφιλέω (kataphileō), the strengthened form — this book never uses it of Judas, though the other books do. Fell on his neck keeps a Semitic turn.
Why this rendering
Luke.15.20 Observation
Syntactic observation
Four verbs run through one verse — saw, was moved with compassion, ran and fell on his neck, kissed him. Three of them are caught by the counts. σπλαγχνίζομαι stands eleven times in the four Gospels, and only three of those have a subject other than Jesus: Matt 18:27 (a master in a parable), Luke 10:33 (the Samaritan), Luke 15:20 (the father). Two of the three are Luke's, and Luke's three places (7:13, 10:33, 15:20) are all in stories only Luke has. τράχηλος, neck, stands four times: Matt 18:6, Mark 9:42 and Luke 17:2 are all a millstone hung around the neck, and only this fourth is a father's arms around one — Luke holds both (15:20, 17:2). καταφιλέω, to kiss, stands five times, and Matt 26:49 and Mark 14:45 are Judas's kiss. But Luke does not use this verb of Judas — 22:47 has φιλῆσαι (φιλέω) and 22:48 φιλήματι (φίλημα). So Luke's three καταφιλέω are 7:38 and 7:45, the woman kissing his feet, and this one. In the four Gospels, then, one verb is the mark of betrayal in Matthew and Mark and the sinner's love and the father's welcome in Luke. The son's prepared speech comes twice, and its ending differs: at vv.18-19 he prepares as far as ποίησόν με ὡς ἕνα τῶν μισθίων σου, make me as one of your hired men — but at v.21, when he actually speaks, he does not get that far, because the father turns to the slaves. μίσθιος stands twice in the four Gospels and both are inside that prepared speech (15:17, 15:19).
Rendering options · 2
Basis The clause is not in v.21 of the base text. Set vv.18-19 beside v.21 and the datum is that the speech does not reach its end. Supplying it makes the two speeches identical and the break disappears.
Basis Some manuscripts carry the clause, and it reads more naturally if the prepared and the spoken speech agree.
Rejected The base text does not carry it (DECISIONS C1). And that it reads more naturally is itself a reason the clause may have been filled in later — the hand that matches a speech to its rehearsal could have worked in the manuscripts too. That judgement is not made here; what is recorded is what the base text reads. And of thirteen versions examined not one supplies the clause — not even KJV, ASV, YLT and LSV, which follow a different base-text family.
Lost in translation
καταφιλέω is φιλέω with κατά, so the Greek carries a sense of kissing again and again, or hard. English kiss cannot hold it. Yet in the four Gospels the places that take the prefix and the places that do not are divided, and that division separates Judas from the father. It does not cross over in the rendering and survives only in this record.
The son does not get to the last line — “make me as one of your hired men” is never said.
The best robe renders “the first robe”. A ring for his hand — the ring is a mark of standing.
Be merry (εὐφραίνομαι, euphrainomai) — this edition keeps it apart from the plain joy-verbs; it runs through verses 23, 24, 29 and 32.
Lived again renders ἀναζάω (anazaō) — the same verb stands at verse 32 without the prefix, where the father says only “lived”. English must add “again” — recorded as a loss.
Why this rendering
Luke.15.24 Observation
Syntactic observation
The father says the same thing twice — once at v.24 and once at v.32 — and the verb differs. v.24 has νεκρὸς ἦν καὶ ἀνέζησεν, was dead and lived again; v.32 νεκρὸς ἦν καὶ ἔζησεν, was dead and lived. ἀναζάω is a hapax in the four Gospels; ζάω stands thirty-five times. So between two repeated sentences one prefix drops away. What the son is called changes too: v.24 ὁ υἱός μου, my son; v.32 ὁ ἀδελφός σου, your brother. Speaking to the elder son the father does not say my son but your brother. The second clause holds: both have ἀπολωλὼς καὶ εὑρέθη, was lost and was found — the two verbs that bind the chapter. εὐφραίνω, to be merry, stands six times in the four Gospels and all six are Luke's, four of them in this passage (23, 24, 29, 32). At v.29 it is used by the elder son of the merriment he never had. The other two are 12:19, the rich man telling his own life to eat, drink and be merry, and 16:19, the rich man faring merrily every day — so of the six places the verb stands, two are a rich man's merriment and four are the feast over what was lost and found. So one verb attaches to the feast and to the one who will not go into it.
Rendering options · 2
Basis The base text uses different verbs, and where a repeated sentence changes by one word, that change is the datum. The dropped prefix can be carried straight over by dropping the rendering's own prefix — nothing is lost here. Of thirteen versions examined only four keep the two verses apart (개역한글, NASB, ESV, NET); the rest put again into v.32 as well and make the two alike.
Basis That the father says the same thing twice is part of the parable's build, so matching brings the repetition out.
Rejected He does not say the same thing twice — he says nearly the same thing twice. And ἀναζάω occurs only this once in the four Gospels, so matching erases that once. The repetition is already carried by the second clause, was lost and was found, which does not change.
Music and dancing — the elder hears the feast before he is told of it.
These things — he asks what the sound means.
Healthy (ὑγιαίνω, hygiainō) — the servant's word, and the father's word at verse 32 will be different.
Was pleading with him — the father goes out to the second son as he ran to the first.
I have served you renders δουλεύω (douleuō), the slave-verb — the elder son names himself a slave in his father's house. A goat is a diminutive (ἔριφος, eriphos).
Why this rendering
Luke.15.29 Observation
Syntactic observation
Three words in the elder son's speech are caught by the counts. ἔριφος, a goat, stands twice in the four Gospels, the other being Matthew 25:32, the separating of sheep from goats — and Matthew changes the word in the very next verse, 25:33, to ἐρίφιον, a little goat, a form found only there. So goats stand at three places in the four Gospels, two of them consecutive in Matthew 25, with the word changing within one verse. πόρνη, a prostitute, stands three times: Matt 21:31, 21:32, and here — but it must be recorded who says it. The text says only ζῶν ἀσώτως, living wastefully, at v.13, and never mentions prostitutes. The prostitutes first appear in the elder son's mouth. ἀσώτως is a hapax in the four Gospels. βίος stands six times, twice in this chapter: at v.12 the father divides his βίος between them (διεῖλεν αὐτοῖς τὸν βίον), and at v.30 the elder son says his brother devoured it. Yet the same word stands at Mark 12:44 and Luke 21:4 for the whole βίος the widow puts in. vv.12 and 13 also part by a word: what the son asks for is τὸ ἐπιβάλλον μέρος τῆς οὐσίας, the share of the property falling to him, and what the father divides is τὸν βίον, the living. οὐσία stands twice in the four Gospels and both are in this chapter (15:12, 15:13).
Rendering options · 2
Basis The text does not say at v.13 what he did. What is said at v.30 is said by the elder son, and the text does not say whether he is right. Importing prostitutes into v.13 turns the elder son's charge into narration — a thing this edition does not do. οὐσία and βίος are used apart by the base text at vv.12-13 and are kept apart.
Basis v.30 says so, and if the reader knows it already at v.13 the story runs smoothly and what wastefully means is made plain.
Rejected v.30 is not narration but the elder son's speech. The parable sets the two sons side by side and adjudicates neither; putting prostitutes into v.13 makes the text confirm the elder son's charge. The father himself neither confirms nor denies it at vv.31-32. The gap is left as a gap. Of thirteen versions examined not one imports prostitutes into v.13 — this is a road that comes from commentary and preaching rather than from the versions.
Lost in translation
βίος is both life and livelihood — the widow at Mark 12:44 put in her whole βίος, and here the father divides his. English living carries a little of both, but not enough to hold the widow's place and this one on one word. The split from οὐσία does cross over; that βίος also opens toward life does not.
This son of yours — the elder will not say “my brother”, and verse 32 gives him the word back.
Child (τέκνον, teknon) — the father's address is warm, not formal.
Lived — the prefix of verse 24 is gone, and the father says only that he lived. This brother of yours gives back the word the elder son refused. The parable ends without saying whether the elder went in.