LUKE 23:17 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 22:66–23:25: Leaders put Jesus on trial and condemned him to die

Luke indicates that Jesus had several trials. These trials can also be considered to be several parts of the same trial. Luke recorded the details of four of these trials. The chart here lists them according to who was leading at each trial:

22:66–71	the Jewish council
23:1–5	Pilate
23:6–12	Herod
23:13–25	Pilate again

In all of Jesus’ trials, there was no one who could prove that Jesus had broken any law of God or man. However, even though he had not done anything wrong, the Roman governor Pilate sentenced him to die on a cross.

The Notes suggest a section heading for each of the trials in the chart. However, you may decide to have one heading for Section Group 22:66–23:25 like the one suggested in the Section Group box above. Another example of a heading for this section group is:

The leaders tried and condemned Jesus

23:17

Now Pilate was obligated to release to the people one prisoner at the feast.]]

[[¶ Pilate said this because he was required to release a Jewish prisoner for them at the festival.]]
[[¶ During Pilate’s rule, there was a custom that he must release one of the Jewish prisoners for them at the Passover celebration.]]

There is a textual issue concerning 23:17. The majority of Bible scholars think that 23:17 was probably not present in the original manuscript written by Luke. It was probably added later as background information.There is support for both its absence and its presence in a number of ancient Greek manuscripts. The noticeable variation in the wording of the verse is evidence that it was added in some of those manuscripts to explain why the people wanted Pilate to release Barabbas. It explains what the people said in 23:18. They shouted that Barabbas should be set free. This information is in Matthew 27:15 and Mark 15:6.

There are two main options for translating this verse:

Put a translation of the verse in a footnote. For example, the GW has this footnote:
Some manuscripts and translations add verse 17: “At every Passover festival the governor had to set someone free for them.” (GW) If you use this option, as most English versions do, you may want to include the verse number for 17 with the number at the beginning of 23:18. For example:
^17–18With one voice…
Put the verse in brackets in the text. Here is one way to translate this:
¹⁷[Now he was obliged to release to them at the feast one prisoner.] (NASB)

If the national language version includes 23:17 without brackets in the text, you may decide to follow it. If you do this, it is good to include a footnote to explain that this verse is not present in some of the oldest Greek manuscripts of Luke.

The words in the Display and in the following notes come from the BSB footnote.

Now Pilate was obligated to release to the people one prisoner at the feast: This statement is background information. The BSB indicates that with the word Now. The word Now is not a time word in this context. Introduce the background information in a natural way in your language.

This statement contains implied information. Pilate was holding some Jews as prisoners. There was a custom that Pilate had to set one of those prisoners free on the Feast of Passover. Some other ways to translate this verse are:

Now it was necessary for him to release one prisoner to them during the Passover celebration.

Pilate said this because it was a custom that he must release one Jewish prisoner for them during the time that the Jews celebrated their Passover festival.

the feast: The term the feast refers here to the Passover feast. See the notes at 22:1a–b for translation suggestions.

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: translate-textvariants

Ἀνάγκην δὲ εἶχεν ἀπολύειν αὐτοῖς κατὰ ἑορτὴν ἕνα

(Anagkaʸn de eiⱪen apoluein autois kata heortaʸn hena)

See the discussion of textual issues at the end of the General Notes to this chapter to decide whether to include this verse in your translation. The notes below discuss translation issues in the verse, for those who decide to include it.

Note 2 topic: grammar-connect-time-background

δὲ

(de)

This verse uses the word But to introduce background information that will help readers understand what is happening. In the previous verse, Pilate was saying that Jesus would be the prisoner he was obligated to release. But in the next verse, the crowd shouts for him to release a different man instead. Alternate translation: [Now]

Note 3 topic: writing-pronouns

Ἀνάγκην & εἶχεν

(Anagkaʸn & eiⱪen)

The pronoun he refers to Pilate. Alternate translation: [Pilate was obligated]

Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / nominaladj

ἕνα

(hena)

This verse is using the adjective one as a noun. In context, the term clearly means one prisoner. Your language may use adjectives in the same way. If not, you could supply the noun for clarity, as ULT does.

Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / synecdoche

κατὰ ἑορτὴν

(kata heortaʸn)

This verse uses the general term feast to mean one feast in particular, Passover. Alternate translation: [during each Passover celebration]

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 23:17

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

Section 22:66–23:25: Leaders put Jesus on trial and condemned him to die

23:17

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