LUKE 20:40 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 20:27–40: Sadducees asked Jesus a trick question about the resurrection

The Jewish leaders continued to challenge Jesus’ authority and the things that he was teaching. In this section some Sadducees asked Jesus a question to try to show that his teaching was wrong. Like the Pharisees, the Sadducees were another group of Jewish leaders with certain religious beliefs. Many of the Sadducees were priests. They did not believe that God would cause anyone who had died to live again.

Jesus taught that God does cause people who have died to live again. The Sadducees tried to use this belief to trick Jesus in 20:27–40. They told a story to ridicule these beliefs that Jesus taught. The story was not true, but they used it to ask a question. They thought that if a person believed that people who died could live again, there was no sensible answer to the question.

The Sadducees based their story on the custom that is described in Deuteronomy 25:5–6. This scripture teaches that if an Israelite woman did not have any children by her husband before he died, her husband’s brother should marry her. Their first child would have the name of his dead brother and would be the heir of the dead brother.This custom was called levirate marriage. Jewish people considered the first son that the widow bore after marrying the brother of her dead husband to be the son of her dead husband, not the son of the man who was now her husband. This meant that this son and his descendants would carry on the dead man’s family and family name through future generations. Any sons born after this to the woman and her living husband would carry on the name of the living husband for future generations. In that way, the dead man’s family and family name could continue through future generations. Since the Scripture taught this custom, the Sadducees believed that they could prove from Scripture that Jesus was wrong.

Examples of headings for this section are:

The Question about Rising from Death (GNT)

Do the dead rise again?

The Sadducees challenged Jesus on people rising from death

Parallel passages for this section are found in Matthew 22:23–33 and Mark 12:18–27.

20:40

And they did not dare to question Him any further.

For people did not dare ask him any more questions.
And after that, no one was bold enough to ask Jesus another tricky question.

And they did not dare to question Him any further: The Greek conjunction that the BSB translates as And here often introduces a reason or explanation. In this clause it may explain why the scribes did not argue with Jesus in 20:39. They only told Jesus that he had answered well. They did not dare to ask him any more questions. Other ways to translate the connection are:

For they did not dare ask him any more questions. (GNT)

From that time on, no one dared to ask him another question. (GW)

In some languages a conjunction is not needed. For example:

No one was brave enough to ask him another question. (NCV)

Translate the connection with 20:39 in a natural way in your language.

they did not dare to question Him any further: People were afraid to test Jesus with any more hard or tricky questions, because he was very skillful at answering questions wisely.

they: The BSB literally represents the Greek text here. It probably refers here to people in general. It does not refer only to the scribes. Remember that the Sadducees and the scribes were different groups of people. The Sadducees had asked Jesus the question, and some scribes were there listening. Use a subject in your language that can refer to people in general, including the Sadducees and the scribes.

dare: The word dare indicates that no one felt bold enough to ask Jesus any more difficult questions. They felt unable to trick him because he had answered every question so wisely.

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / doublenegatives

οὐκέτι & ἐτόλμων ἐπερωτᾶν αὐτὸν οὐδέν

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Οὐκέτι γάρ ἐτόλμων ἐπερωτᾶν αὐτόν οὐδέν)

Here Luke uses a double negative in Greek for emphasis, saying no longer and “nothing.” The second negative does not cancel the first to create a positive meaning, “they still dared to ask him something.” If for emphasis your language uses double negatives that do not cancel one another, it would be appropriate to use that construction here.

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

οὐκέτι & ἐτόλμων ἐπερωτᾶν αὐτὸν οὐδέν

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Οὐκέτι γάρ ἐτόλμων ἐπερωτᾶν αὐτόν οὐδέν)

The implication in context is that Jesus’ enemies were afraid that if they continued to ask him difficult questions, his wise answers would continue to show how much more he understood than they did. If it would be helpful to your readers, you could state that explicitly. Alternate translation: [they were afraid to ask him any more difficult questions, because they realized he would give more wise answers that would show how much more he understood than they did]

Note 3 topic: writing-pronouns

οὐκέτι & ἐτόλμων

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Οὐκέτι γάρ ἐτόλμων ἐπερωτᾶν αὐτόν οὐδέν)

It is unclear whether they refers to the scribes, the Sadducees, or everyone who had been trying to trap Jesus with difficult questions. It may be best to translate this with a general statement. Alternate translation: [Jesus’ enemies no longer dared]

OET-LV English word order (‘Reverse’ interlinear)

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.

OET interlinear LUKE 20:40

SR Greek word order (including unused variant words in grey)

Section 20:27–40: Sadducees asked Jesus a trick question about the resurrection

20:40

OET-LV English word order (‘Reverse’ interlinear)