International Institute of Jesus Christ
Luke 24
Translated straight from the SBLGNT, with the grounds of every decision on the page.
Why this rendering
Luke.24.4 Observation
Syntactic observation
**This one phrase calls two places in this book at once.** ἐσθής, clothing, stands twice in the corpus and both are Luke's, the other being **23:11** — the **splendid robe** Herod put on him in mockery. ἀστράπτω, to flash, also stands twice and both are Luke's, the other being **17:24**, where the lightning shines from one end under heaven to the other as the Son of Man will. So what the two at the tomb wear is **the same word as the robe of mockery**, and what that clothing does is **the word used of the day of the Son of Man**. The text does not state the link. What the figures at the tomb are called differs across the books: Matt 28:2, 5 has one **ἄγγελος κυρίου**, an angel of the Lord; Mark 16:5 one **νεανίσκος**, a young man; John 20:12 **ἀγγέλους δύο**, two angels; and **Luke 24:4 ἄνδρες δύο**, two men — neither the number nor the name is the same in all four. Yet at 24:23 what the women reported is **ἀγγέλων ὀπτασίαν**, a vision of angels, so within the text they are named again later. ὀπτασία stands twice in the corpus and both are Luke's, the other being **1:22**, the vision Zechariah saw in the sanctuary. ἔμφοβος, afraid, stands twice in the corpus and both are in this chapter (24:5, 24:37).
Rendering options · 2
Basis That the four books differ in number and name is the datum. And the text itself calls them angels at 24:23, so **there is no call for the translation to do it first** — set v.4 beside v.23 and it happens within the text. The two words stand twice each in this book, so splitting the renderings loses the links. Among the fourteen versions surveyed **not one turns them into angels** — the number differs across the books, yet all read two men. Six keep ἐσθής the same word as at 23:11 (KRV, RNKSV, YLT, ASV, NLT, WEB); only **one, LSV**, keeps ἀστράπτω the same as at 17:24, and that same LSV splits ἐσθής — **no version holds both links.**
Basis Since v.23 says angels, saying so at v.4 reads more easily; and one word for Herod's robe and the tomb's clothing sits oddly.
Rejected The oddness is the datum: that the robe of mockery and the clothing at the tomb are one word is **a fact confirmable only within this book**, and splitting them makes it unconfirmable. And turning v.4 into angels leaves the renaming at v.23 with nothing to do — the translation does in advance what the text does for itself.
Lost in translation
Verses 1-5 say that the subject is women **by word-form alone** — φέρουσαι, εἰσελθοῦσαι, ἀπορεῖσθαι αὐτάς, κλινουσῶν, ἐμφόβων … αὐτῶν are all feminine, and **the names do not come until v.10.** A Greek reader therefore knows from v.1 who went to the tomb. **The nine locales part five to four here.** Chinese marks it with 她们, the feminine third-person plural, and Portuguese with elas and feminine agreement (ficando **elas atemorizadas**) — **without supplying any person**, at the same level the Greek uses, the form of the word. Japanese does it with 彼女たち, French with elles and Spanish with ellas — five in all. **Korean and English have no way to mark it, and neither do Russian and German**, whose plural past and plural pronoun carry no gender: сказали and sie are as blank as 그들 and they: 그들 and they carry no gender, and putting in 여자들 or the women is not a word-form but **a noun the text does not have.** This edition supplies no persons before v.10, so **in Korean and English the gender is invisible for those nine verses.**
Why this rendering
Luke.24.12 Observation
Syntactic observation
**The base text prints the whole of this verse inside variant marks ⸂⸃**, without the square brackets used at 22:19b-20 and at 24:40, 51 and 52. So the base text this edition has worked through marks **three grades**: no mark, variant marks only, and square brackets as well. And the two words this verse carries **overlap with John 20.** παρακύπτω, to stoop and look in, stands three times in the corpus — Luke 24:12, **John 20:5 and 20:11** — and ὀθόνιον, linen cloths, five times — Luke 24:12, **John 19:40, 20:5, 20:6 and 20:7**. So **one verse of Luke overlaps with John alone in both words**; neither stands in Matthew or Mark. And the verse interlocks with 24:24, where those going to Emmaus say that some of those with us went to the tomb, taking this verse up again. The λῆρος of the verse before, nonsense, is a **corpus hapax**, and ἀπιστέω, to disbelieve, stands four times — **Mark 16:11, 16:16 and Luke 24:11, 24:41** — that is, only in Mark's longer ending and in this chapter.
Rendering options · 2
Basis The base text prints it (DECISIONS C1). And here there is a further ground inside the text: **24:24 takes this verse up, so dropping v.12 leaves v.24 pointing at nothing.** That it is marked is recorded outside. All fourteen versions surveyed **print v.12, and none brackets it.** At 23:17 five diverged and at 23:34 one (NET) kept the mark; here there is no divergence at all.
Basis It carries a mark and so stands lower, and the overlap with John 20 may itself be a sign of later entry.
Rejected **The base text marks this verse and 24:40 differently** — brackets at v.40 and none here — and that difference is the editors' judgement, which evening out erases. And which side of an overlap came first is not for this edition to decide; only that they overlap is recorded.
Lost in translation
πρὸς αὑτόν reads either **to his own home** or **to himself**, that is, inwardly. The first attaches to ἀπῆλθεν, the second to θαυμάζων, and **the Greek does not settle which.** All nine locales must choose, and that a choice was made is invisible to the reader. The versions divide too — ten read to his home, three (KJV, BSB, NIV2011) read to himself. This edition has chosen **to his own home.**
Why this rendering
Luke.24.31 Observation
Syntactic observation
**διανοίγω, to open, comes three times in this chapter, and what is opened differs each time** — at v.31 the **eyes**, at v.32 the **scriptures**, at v.45 the **mind** (νοῦς). The verb stands five times in the corpus: once in Mark (7:34, Ephphatha, be opened) and **four times in Luke**, three of the four in this chapter and the other at **2:23**, every male that **opens** the womb. So the places it stands in this book are a womb, eyes, scriptures and a mind. And the recognising falls at **the breaking of bread**: the build of v.30, λαβὼν … εὐλόγησεν καὶ κλάσας ἐπεδίδου, matches 9:16, the feeding of the five thousand, and v.35 names it **κλάσις τοῦ ἄρτου**, the breaking of the bread, where κλάσις is a **corpus hapax**. ἄφαντος, vanished from sight, is also a **corpus hapax**. Nearly all the words of the Emmaus road stand only here: ὁμιλέω, to converse (24:14, 15); ἀντιβάλλω, to exchange; παροικέω, to sojourn; ὀρθρινός, at dawn; ἀνόητος, foolish; βραδύς, slow; διερμηνεύω, to interpret; προσποιέομαι, to make as if; παραβιάζομαι, to urge strongly; ἑσπέρα, evening; ἀθροίζω, to gather — each a corpus hapax or confined to this chapter. σκυθρωπός, gloomy, stands twice, the other being **Matt 6:16**, do not be gloomy-faced like the hypocrites when you fast. And the ἐξηγέομαι of v.35, to relate, stands twice in the corpus, the other being **John 1:18**, the one at the Father's side has **expounded** him.
Rendering options · 2
Basis One verb comes three times in one chapter and only what is opened changes; that build shows **only if the rendering is the same.** Rendering it as made to understand or made clear at each place turns the three into different sayings. The versions split seven to seven. Seven bind all four places with one word (YLT, ASV, KJV, LSV, ESV, MSG, WEB). The seven that separate do not separate in the same place: **BSB and NIV2011 hold the three in ch. 24 together and turn only 2:23 into firstborn**; **NASB, NET and NLT part only at 24:32**, where they read explain; and **KRV and RNKSV part at both 31 and 32**. So all fourteen read open at 24:45, and scatter at the two places before it.
Basis Opening the scriptures sits oddly in Korean and English, and the sense shifts a little at each place.
Rejected The oddness is the build — opening the scriptures is not ordinary Greek either, **and its unordinariness comes precisely from being the same word as opening eyes and opening a mind.** Rendering each by sense leaves no way to confirm the three are one verb.
Lost in translation
ἄφαντος is built by negating the root of φαίνω, to appear, and **the same root stands in this chapter at v.11 as ἐφάνησαν**, their words appeared to them as nonsense. So within chapter 24 the way the women's report appeared and the way he became un-appearing run off one root. The chapter's word for seeing is another one — the ὁράω of vv.23, 24, 34 and 39. **All nine locales render toward not being seen** — 보이지 않게 되다, became unseen, tornou-se invisível, 不见了, стал невидим, 見えなくなられた, wurde unsichtbar, devint invisible, se hizo invisible. All four keep the became of ἐγένετο, but **the root lands on ὁράω's side rather than on v.11's.** The tie to v.11 survives in no locale.
κλάσας in v.30 and κλάσις in v.35 are **participle and noun of one root**: v.35 names the moment of recognition with the very word of v.30. English broke/breaking, Portuguese partiu/partir and Chinese 擘开/擘饼 all keep the root as it stands. **Korean alone blurs it**: 떼어 and 떼심 do connect, but the noun form is the strained one and the link shows less.
Why this rendering
Luke.24.40 Observation
Syntactic observation
**There are three sets of square brackets in this chapter** — the whole of v.40; **καὶ ἀνεφέρετο εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν**, and he was carried up into heaven, in v.51; and **προσκυνήσαντες αὐτόν**, having done obeisance to him, in v.52. Counting 22:19b-20, the base text this edition has worked through has **four** bracketed passages, and all four are in Luke 22 and 24. **The double brackets ⟦ ⟧ around Mark 16:9-20 and the shorter ending are a different mark** — those enclose the standing of a whole ending, these four enclose a single sentence or phrase. All three here fall at the chapter's close, on **the bodily appearing and the being carried up.** What lies inside the brackets matters: **the showing of the hands and feet**, **the being carried into heaven**, and **the disciples' worship.** Take the three away and chapter 24 still has him tell them to handle him and eat fish (vv.39 and 41-43 carry no mark), but **the ascending remains only as he parted from them** (διέστη). διΐστημι stands twice in the corpus and both are Luke's, the other being **22:59**, when about an hour had **passed**. ἀναφέρω, to carry up, stands three times: Matt 17:1 and Mark 9:2 are **leading them up a mountain**, and the third is here, inside the brackets. The words of v.39 stand only here as well: ψηλαφάω, to handle, is a **corpus hapax**, and ὀστέον, bone, stands three times — Matt 23:27 (the bones in whitewashed tombs), Luke 24:39, and **John 19:36** (not a bone shall be broken). βρώσιμος, eatable, and ὀπτός, broiled, are corpus hapax too.
Rendering options · 2
Basis The base text prints them so (DECISIONS C1), and this edition already took that road at 22:19b-20 and does not change direction here. **Where the brackets fall is itself the datum** — that all four cluster in the two chapters of passion and resurrection can be seen only if the marking is carried across. Among the fourteen versions surveyed **not one keeps brackets at all three places.** But here something differs from 22:19b-20: **KRV and RNKSV do keep brackets at 24:51b and 24:52a.** Across the twelve chapters surveyed (Luke 13-24) these are the **only two places** either Korean version brackets anything, and both match the base text's brackets **down to the words.** Yet they do **not** bracket 24:40 — of the three places the base text bracketed, they follow two. NASB and LSV also use brackets, but for **words they supply** (LSV reserving double brackets for text it doubts), and at these three places they carry neither mark.
Basis Brackets interrupt reading, and these are widely read as text.
Rejected Dropping them **erases a doubt the editors marked** and hides where the four cluster. This edition exists to publish the grounds of its choices, so there is no reason not to carry across a doubt the base text states itself. Not one of the thirteen versions examined keeps the brackets — this edition stands alone here, as it already did in chapter 22.
Lost in translation
διΐστημι stands twice in the corpus, both in Luke: **at 22:59 an hour had come between, at 24:51 he came between himself and them, that is, parted from them.** One verb covers a gap opening in time and a gap opening between persons, and of the nine locales **only Spanish has a word that holds both** — distando at 22:59 (about an hour standing off) against se distanció at 24:51 (he drew away from them). The other eight render it differently in each place — **recorded as a divergence, but the divergence is eight, not nine.** All fourteen versions divide it too.
The base text uses three grades: no mark, variant marks ⸂⸃, and square brackets [ ]. This edition **carries the brackets across but not the variant marks.** So 24:12, which is marked, and 24:39, which is marked, look to the reader exactly like unmarked verses. **The middle grade disappears.** What is left of it is this record.
Why this rendering
Luke.24.49 Observation
Syntactic observation
**ὕψος, height, stands twice in the corpus and both are Luke's — one at the book's opening and one at its close.** At 1:78 it is ἀνατολὴ **ἐξ ὕψους**, a dawn **from on high**, inside Zechariah's song; at 24:49 **ἐξ ὕψους** δύναμιν, power **from on high**. Even the phrase is the same. And where the book ends interlocks with where it began: at 1:8-10 Zechariah is inside the sanctuary and the people pray **outside**, while 24:53 has the disciples **inside the temple** continually, blessing God. The words differ (ναός at 1:9, ἱερόν at 24:53), but the place is the same. The three members of v.44 stand only here as well: **the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms** named side by side occurs nowhere else in this corpus. At v.47 μετάνοια, repentance, stands beside ἄφεσις, release — a pairing that already came at Luke 3:3, of John the Baptist. And the ὄντως of v.34 stands four times in the corpus, Luke's two being **23:47** (the centurion at the cross) and here — as recorded at Luke 23, the two places the adverb stands in this book are the cross and the resurrection.
Rendering options · 2
Basis The Greek phrase is the same. What this edition does is show where a word stands elsewhere in the book, and here **the first chapter and the last** are joined — splitting the renderings loses the joint. Twelve of the fourteen render the two places alike — ten with from on high, KRV and RNKSV with 위로부터. NLT reads from heaven in both: a different word, but **the link is kept.** Only two break it, and for different reasons — **NIV2011 writes from heaven at 1:78 and from on high at 24:49**, while **MSG drops the phrase altogether at 1:78.**
Basis Power from on high sits a little oddly, and what is meant is from heaven.
Rejected From heaven **mixes it with οὐρανός**, which actually stands in this chapter at v.51, so the two words could not be told apart. And splitting it from 1:78 loses that the book's two ends are bound by one phrase.
Lost in translation
The Greek runs ἕως οὗ ἐνδύσησθε **ἐξ ὕψους δύναμιν**, putting **from on high before power**: where it comes from is heard before what comes. Korean and Chinese keep that order (높은 데서 오는 힘, 从高天来的能力) but only as a **modifier**, which carries no weight of its own there; English and Portuguese put power first outright (power from on high, poder do alto). Russian, German, French and Spanish do the same (силою с высоты, Kraft aus der Höhe, puissance d'en haut, potencia de lo alto), and Japanese keeps the order as a modifier like Korean and Chinese (高い所からの力). **So six of the nine invert it and the other three keep it only as a modifier: in none of the nine does the order of emphasis stand as it stands in Greek.**
εὐλογέω stands four times in this chapter — over **the bread** (30), over **the disciples**, twice (50, 51), and over **God** (53). In Greek all four are one verb. **Only English keeps all four as one word** (bless). **Portuguese and Chinese split into two** (abençoar / bendizer; 祝福 / 称颂), and **Korean into three**: 복을 빌다 for the bread, following 9:16; 축복하다 for people, following 2:34; 찬송하다 for God, following 1:64 and 2:28. To match the earlier places one must split; to split is to scatter the four of this chapter. **Neither can be had whole.** So the thread from this book's first chapter to its last verse (1:64, Zechariah blessing God, to 24:53, they blessing God) is if anything clearer in Korean, Chinese and Portuguese, while **that the four in this chapter are one verb can be seen only in English.**