International Institute of Jesus Christ
Luke 19
Translated straight from the SBLGNT, with the grounds of every decision on the page.
Why this rendering
Luke.19.8 Observation
Syntactic observation
**Both verbs are present** — δίδωμι, I give, and ἀποδίδωμι, I pay back. Not future. So the Greek alone **does not settle whether Zacchaeus is declaring what he will now do or what he has been doing all along**; the Greek present carries both. The text does not say, and Jesus's answer at v.9 — today salvation has come to this house — does not say which it answers. The words tie the scene to this book. συκοφαντέω, to extort, stands twice in the corpus, the other being **3:14**, where John tells the soldiers not to extort — so the word John used comes back in Zacchaeus's mouth. ἀρχιτελώνης, a chief tax collector; συκομορέα, a sycamore-fig; and τετραπλοῦς, fourfold, are **each a corpus hapax**. ὑποδέχομαι, to welcome, stands twice, the other being **10:38**, where Martha welcomed him. διαγογγύζω, to grumble among themselves, stands twice, the other being **15:2** — this man welcomes sinners and eats with them — so the same complaint comes twice. And the **υἱὸς Ἀβραάμ**, son of Abraham, of v.9 pairs with the **θυγατέρα Ἀβραάμ**, daughter of Abraham, of **13:16**: the two so named in this book are a bent woman and a chief tax collector. The ἡλικία of v.3 means both age and stature, and this edition has already split it (2:52 stature, 12:25 lifespan).
Rendering options · 2
Basis The base text is present. Rendering it future nails it to a resolve; rendering it habitual nails it to a practice. The Greek is both, so neither is nailed down. Korean 드립니다 and 갚습니다 and the English present carry some of that openness. The versions divide — eight keep the present (KJV, ASV, YLT, LSV, BSB, ESV, WEB, MSG), three make it future (개역한글, NASB, NLT), and **NET and NIV2011 keep the present but add now or here and now**, nailing it to the moment: the form kept and the openness closed.
Basis The story reads as repentance, and today salvation has come at v.9 sits naturally as an answer to that resolve.
Rejected That reading may be right, but the base text uses the present. Rendering it future makes **the other reading invisible** — that Zacchaeus has been doing this already and the crowd calls him a sinner anyway. Which it is the text does not settle, so neither does the translation.
Lost in translation
The Greek present holds what is being done, what is habitually done, and what is about to be done in one form. Korean 드립니다 carries some of all three, as does English I give. But in both, **the reader still settles between I will give and I have been giving**, and the suspension the Greek keeps does not survive. That suspension is where this verse has long been argued.
Why this rendering
Luke.19.13 Observation
Syntactic observation
It reads against Matthew 25:14-30, and **the currency itself differs.** μνᾶ, a mina, stands nine times in the corpus and **all nine are in this chapter**; τάλαντον, a talent, stands fourteen times and **all fourteen are Matthew's** — neither book ever uses the other's coin. The number of slaves differs too: Matthew gives to three according to ability (five, two, one); Luke gives **one each to ten**. And **Luke alone has a second thread**: at v.12 the man goes to a far country to receive a kingdom; at v.14 his citizens send an embassy saying we do not want this man to reign over us; and at v.27 the returned king has those enemies brought and **slaughtered** before him. κατασφάζω, to slaughter, is a **corpus hapax**, and πρεσβεία, an embassy, stands twice, the other being **14:32**, an embassy sent to ask for peace. The commendation differs: Matt 25:21 has **Εὖ, δοῦλε ἀγαθὲ καὶ πιστέ**, well done, good and faithful slave; Luke 19:17 **Εὖγε, ἀγαθὲ δοῦλε**, well done, good slave — a different exclamation, and no faithful in the address. **εὖγε is a corpus hapax.** What the last slave wrapped it in differs as well: Matt 25:25 **buried** it in the ground, Luke 19:20 kept it in a **σουδάριον**, a cloth. σουδάριον stands three times: here, **John 11:44** (the cloth about Lazarus's face) and **John 20:7** (the cloth folded up in the tomb). The endings differ: Matthew throws the slave into the outer dark, while Luke stops at moving the mina and ends instead with **the slaughter of the enemies**. εὐγενής, πραγματεύομαι, διαπραγματεύομαι, προσεργάζομαι and ἀναφαίνω are **each a corpus hapax**.
Rendering options · 2
Basis Coins are fixed as transliterations (denarius, assarion, lepton, kodrantes, drachma), and that the two parables use different coins is the datum here. The same at v.27: κατασφάζω is the word for cutting a throat as of an animal, and it stands once in the corpus. Softening it makes Luke's parable end like Matthew's.
Basis A reader does not know what a mina is, and since the two parables are one story, matching helps. And v.27 is exceedingly harsh.
Rejected That they are one story is a judgement — the coin, the number of slaves, the manner of dividing, the second thread and the ending all differ, and matching erases all five. The harshness is the text as well, and it is of a piece with the kingship thread of vv.12 and 14: softened, there is no seeing why Luke put that thread in.
Why this rendering
Luke.19.30 Observation
Syntactic observation
**Luke has no donkey.** Matthew 21:2 sends for two — ὄνον δεδεμένην **καὶ πῶλον μετ’ αὐτῆς**, a tied **donkey** and a **colt** with her — and at 21:7 the garments are laid **on them** and he sits **on them**. Mark 11:2 and Luke 19:30 have **one πῶλος** only, and both add on which no one has ever sat. ὄνος, donkey, stands five times in the corpus: Matthew's three are all in this passage; **Luke's one is 13:15**, the ox or donkey untied from the manger on the Sabbath, nothing to do with the entry; and John 12:15 has one. So Matthew alone brings two animals. The verb of mounting is this book's own: ἐπιβιβάζω stands twice in the corpus and both are Luke's, the other being **10:34**, where the Samaritan **set the wounded man on his own animal**. So the only two mountings in this book call each other. v.33 is Luke's alone as well: Mark 11:5 has some of those standing there ask, while Luke has **οἱ κύριοι αὐτοῦ**, the colt's **owners** — so within one verse **ὁ κύριος**, the Lord, stands against **οἱ κύριοι**, the owners.
Rendering options · 2
Basis That Luke has no donkey is the datum. And the κύριοι of v.33 is the same word as the κύριος of vv.31 and 34, so splitting the renderings loses the standing-against — Korean must split 주 from 주인 and English the Lord from the owners, but they are kept audibly of one root.
Basis The apparent conflict confuses a reader, and its owners comes abruptly in Korean.
Rejected The apparent conflict is the datum — Matthew alone has two and the other three have one. And the abruptness at v.33 is Luke's build: the owners ask why are you untying it, and the answer is the Lord has need of it. Smoothing it loses the standing-against. Of thirteen versions examined not one imports Matthew's donkey — here the versions too follow their base text.
Why this rendering
Luke.19.38 Observation
Syntactic observation
**Luke never uses ὡσαννά, not once.** The word stands six times in the corpus — three in Matthew (21:9 twice, 21:15), two in Mark (11:9, 11:10), one in John (12:13) — and **Luke alone of the four raises no Hosanna at the entry.** Instead Luke inserts one word **inside** the quoted line: Εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐρχόμενος **βασιλεὺς** ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου, blessed is the coming **King** in the name of the Lord. Matthew 21:9, Mark 11:9 and John 12:13 have no βασιλεύς there. And the second half **answers this book's own opening.** At Luke 2:14 the angels say **Δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις** θεῷ καὶ **ἐπὶ γῆς εἰρήνη**, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace; at 19:38 the disciples say **ἐν οὐρανῷ εἰρήνη** καὶ **δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις**, in heaven peace and glory in the highest. **The two members are reversed, and the place of the peace moves from earth to heaven.** ὕψιστος stands ten times in the corpus and **seven are Luke's**. vv.39-40 are Luke's alone as well: when the Pharisees tell him to rebuke his disciples, he answers that if these are silent the stones will cry out. σιωπάω stands nine times, twice in Luke (1:20, Zechariah struck dumb; 19:40). And the κατάβασις of v.37, the descent, is a **corpus hapax**.
Rendering options · 2
Basis There is no Hosanna in the base text (DECISIONS C1). And the link between this verse and 2:14 shows **only if the words match**, so the two renderings are held identical. Of thirteen versions examined **not one** supplies a Hosanna, and all thirteen keep the **King** — here the divergence shows in the versions as well.
Basis The four books record one scene, so a Hosanna helps the reader see the parallel.
Rejected The absence is the datum — and the counts show it is not accidental: Luke does not use the word **anywhere in the book.** Supplying it erases that, and hides the βασιλεύς that fills the place instead.
Why this rendering
Luke.19.41 Observation
Syntactic observation
**This passage (vv.41-44) is Luke's alone**, and nearly all its words stand nowhere else: χάραξ, a siege-wall; περικυκλόω, to encircle; ἐδαφίζω, to dash to the ground; and ἐπισκοπή, visitation, are **each a corpus hapax**. The phrase at v.44, they will not leave stone upon stone, matches what is said of the temple at Matt 24:2, Mark 13:2 and Luke 21:6 — but **here it falls on the city and her children, not the temple.** v.42 breaks off: Εἰ ἔγνως … τὰ πρὸς εἰρήνην— if you had known the things that make for peace — and no second limb comes; it turns instead to but now they are hidden from your eyes. The Greek does not finish the sentence. κλαίω, to weep, stands twenty-five times in the corpus, eleven of them Luke's, the most of any book, and this is the only place in this book where Jesus weeps. The temple passage that follows (vv.45-46) is the shortest of the three: Matt 21:12 and Mark 11:15 drive out **both sellers and buyers** and overturn **the money-changers' tables** and **the dove-sellers' seats**, while **Luke 19:45 has only the sellers — no tables, no seats, no doves.** κολλυβιστής, money-changer, stands three times — Matt 21:12, Mark 11:15, John 2:15 — and **never in Luke.** The quotation differs too: Mark 11:17 has a house of prayer **for all the nations**, a phrase absent from both Matthew and Luke.
Rendering options · 2
Basis The Greek does not finish it. Finishing it squares the weeping speech, and squaring it is losing it. The same at v.45: supplying what is absent lengthens Luke's temple passage into Mark's and erases that it is short. Ten versions leave the break standing with an exclamation or a dash (NIV2011 uses a dash) and three fill it in — 개역한글, NLT and MSG.
Basis A broken sentence does not read in Korean or English, and the temple passage looks incomplete beside the other two.
Rejected That it does not read is the text — and the break falls where the weeping is. That v.45 looks incomplete is a judgement made from Mark, not a defect in Luke; and the count supports it — **κολλυβιστής never occurs in Luke at all.**
Lost in translation
The Greek leaves the protasis standing with no second limb — speech catching in the throat. Korean and English can keep the break with a dash. But both must lean on **a mark of punctuation**, where the Greek breaks by grammar alone; remove the mark and it reads as finished. So the break crosses over **only by way of the edition.**