Open Bible Data Home About News OET Key
OET OET-RV OET-LV ULT UST BSB MSB BLB AICNT OEB WEBBE WMBB NET LSV FBV TCNT T4T LEB BBE Moff JPS Wymth ASV DRA YLT Drby RV SLT Wbstr KJB-1769 KJB-1611 Bshps Gnva Cvdl TNT Wycl SR-GNT UHB BrLXX BrTr Related Topics Parallel Interlinear Reference Dictionary Search
InterlinearVerse GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOB JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM PSA AMOS HOS 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR PROV ECC SNG JOEL MIC ISA ZEP HAB JER LAM YNA (JNA) NAH OBA DAN EZE EZRA EST NEH HAG ZEC MAL LAO GES LES ESG DNG 2 PS TOB JDT WIS SIR BAR LJE PAZ SUS BEL MAN 1 MAC 2 MAC 3 MAC 4 MAC YHN (JHN) MARK MAT LUKE ACTs YAC (JAM) GAL 1 TH 2 TH 1 COR 2 COR ROM COL PHM EPH PHP 1 TIM TIT 1 PET 2 PET 2 TIM HEB YUD (JUD) 1 YHN (1 JHN) 2 YHN (2 JHN) 3 YHN (3 JHN) REV
Luke C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24
Luke 14 V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V8 V9 V10 V11 V12 V13 V14 V15 V16 V17 V18 V19 V20 V21 V22 V23 V24 V25 V26 V27 V28 V29 V30 V31 V32 V33 V34 V35
OET (OET-LV) And he_was_speaking a_parable to the ones having_been_invited, noticing how they_were_choosing the best_places, saying to them,
OET (OET-RV) Then he told a parable to all the invited guests after he’d noticed them choosing the best places around the table, telling them,
In this section Jesus was still in the house of the Pharisee. He noticed that the other guests who came into the house were choosing positions of honor at the meal. He instructed them by means of a parable about wedding guests that they should be humble and not seek their own honor (14:7–11). He then instructed the Pharisee who was their host to hold feasts for people who were poor. Poor people could not invite him to a feast in return, so God would reward him (14:12–14).
Some other possible headings for this section are:
Humility and Hospitality (GNT)
Instructions to Guests and to a Host
When Jesus noticed how the guests chose the places of honor,
¶ When Jesus observed that some of the guests at the meal/feast were choosing the best seats,
¶ Jesus saw that the other people whom the Pharisee had invited to eat tried to sit down in/at the important places,
When Jesus noticed how the guests chose the places of honor: This part of the verse gives the setting for the following illustration or parable. Jesus told this parable because he saw how the guests at the banquet were behaving. In some languages it may be more natural to make this a separate sentence:
He noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table. So…
Jesus noticed: The Greek text literally reads “he noticed” here. The pronoun “he” refers to Jesus. In many languages it will be helpful to refer to him more explicitly here, as the BSB does, because it is the beginning of a new paragraph and section. For example:
Jesus noticed (GNT)
the guests chose the places of honor: At the dinner in the Pharisee’s house, the people who came into the house were deciding for themselves where they would sit. They all tried to choose the places where the honored guests usually sat.
the guests: The Greek word that the BSB translates as guests refers to the other people who were invited along with Jesus to dine at the home of the Pharisee, as mentioned in 14:1. Since Jesus was one of the guests, it may be clearer to say:
the other guests
some of the guests (GNT)
the places of honor: The Greek phrase that the BSB translates as the places of honor refers to the places of honor at the table where this dinner was being served. For clarity, the NIV adds the phrase “at the table.” The NASB and NLT add similar phrases. But if such a phrase would not be helpful in your translation, there is no need to add one.
The phrase the places of honor refers to the places at the feast where the most important people sat. Scholars are not sure where these places of honor were in the Jewish culture. Use a natural expression in your language to describe places where important guests sit at a feast. Other ways to translate this phrase are:
the best places to sit (NCV)
the most important places at the table (TRT)
the places at the table reserved for the most important people/guests (TRT)
He told them a parable:
he advised/instructed them, saying,
so he gave them this advice:
He told them a parable: The Greek word that the BSB translates as parable usually refers to a story, metaphor, or saying that was used to teach a spiritual truth. In this context, it introduces Jesus’ advice to the other guests in the Pharisee’s house.
In some languages the word that is normally used to translate parable may not be clear or natural in this context. You may need to use a different word. Some other ways to translate this clause are:
he used this illustration (GW)
he gave them this advice (NLT)
he advised/instructed them, saying
In the Greek text the order of the clauses is different from the BSB order. Some English versions follow this order. For example:
7bHe then told the guests a parable, 7abecause he had noticed how they picked the places of honor. (NJB)
Consider which order is more natural in your language.
Note 1 topic: grammar-connect-logic-result
ἔλεγεν & πρὸς τοὺς κεκλημένους παραβολήν, ἐπέχων πῶς τὰς πρωτοκλισίας ἐξελέγοντο, λέγων
˱he˲_˓was˒_speaking & (Some words not found in SR-GNT: ἔλεγεν Δέ πρός τούς κεκλημένους παραβολήν ἐπέχων πῶς τάς πρωτοκλισίας ἐξελέγοντο λέγων πρός αὐτούς)
If it would be helpful in your language, you could reverse the order of the phrases in this verse, since the second phrase gives the reason for the action that the first phrase describes. Alternate translation: [Jesus noticed that those whom the leader of the Pharisees had invited to the meal were trying to sit in the seats for honored guests, so he gave them an illustration, saying]
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / parables
ἔλεγεν & παραβολήν
˱he˲_˓was˒_speaking & ˓a˒_parable
In this instance, Luke is not using the term parable to mean a brief story that teaches something true in a way that is easy to understand and remember. Jesus used a hypothetical situation as an illustration to get the guests at this meal to consider how they should behave at feasts. Alternate translation: [he gave an illustration]
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / activepassive
τοὺς κεκλημένους
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: ἔλεγεν Δέ πρός τούς κεκλημένους παραβολήν ἐπέχων πῶς τάς πρωτοκλισίας ἐξελέγοντο λέγων πρός αὐτούς)
If it would be helpful in your language, you could express this with an active form, and you could state who had done the action. Alternate translation: [those whom this Pharisee had invited to the meal]
Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor
τὰς πρωτοκλισίας
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: ἔλεγεν Δέ πρός τούς κεκλημένους παραβολήν ἐπέχων πῶς τάς πρωτοκλισίας ἐξελέγοντο λέγων πρός αὐτούς)
The term first represents being important and honored. If your culture has a way of placing people at meals to show honor, you could use that in your translation. Otherwise, you could use a general expression. Alternate translation: [the seats closest to the host] or [the seats for honored guests]
OET (OET-LV) And he_was_speaking a_parable to the ones having_been_invited, noticing how they_were_choosing the best_places, saying to them,
OET (OET-RV) Then he told a parable to all the invited guests after he’d noticed them choosing the best places around the table, telling them,
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.
Open Bible Data site copyright © 2023–2026 Freely-Given.org.
Python source code for creating these static pages is available on GitHub under an open licence.
For Bible data copyrights, see the details for each displayed Bible version.
The Open English Translation (OET) main site is at OpenEnglishTranslation.Bible or OET.Bible.