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OET (OET-LV) (For/Because they_were about five_thousand men.
) And he_said to the apprentices/followers of_him:
Recline them in_groups about fifty each.
OET (OET-RV) There were about 5,000 men (not counting women and children).
¶ Then he told his apprentices, “Sit them down in rows of about fifty each.”
Jesus taught the people about the kingdom of God and he healed many sick people. Then he fed all of the people by multiplying a small amount of bread and fish. This is the only miracle besides Jesus’ resurrection that all four Gospels record.
Some other headings for this section are:
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand (NIV)
The Feeding of the Five Thousand (NET)
There are parallel passages for this section in Matthew 14:13–21, Mark 6:30–44, and John 6:1–14.
(There were about five thousand men.)
(There were about five thousand men there.)
They said that because there were about five thousand men in the crowd of people who were there.
There were about five thousand men: This is background information that explains what the disciples said in 9:13c. They did not think that Jesus wanted them to buy food for so many people. In Greek, 9:14 begins with a conjunction that is often translated as “for.” The BSB uses parentheses to indicate that this is an explanation. You should express the explanation in a natural way in your language. One way to do that in English is:
They said this because there were five thousand men there.
five thousand men: The number five thousand refers only to the men who were in the crowd, but women and children were also there.The place where Jesus and his disciples were was far from where people lived. So probably not many women and children came with the men to hear Jesus teach. It may be helpful in your translation to imply that there were more than five thousand people in the crowd. For example:
There were about five thousand men in the crowd. (CEV)
You may want to put a footnote in your translation to make this clear. You could also give a cross-reference to the parallel account in Matthew 14:21. The Matthew passage says, “The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.”
He told His disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.”
But Jesus said to the disciples, “Tell(plur) them to sit down in groups, about fifty in each group.”
Jesus replied, “Tell(plur) the people to sit in groups of about fifty people each.”
But Jesus told his disciples/apostles to seat everyone in groups with about fifty people in each group.
This verse begins with a Greek conjunction that is often translated as “and.” Some English versions, such as the ESV, translate it that way. Other versions, such as the NASB and NIV, translate it as “But” because it introduces Jesus’ response to what his disciples said in 9:13b, and his response may imply a slight contrast with the disciples’ attitude. In some languages it may be more natural to leave this contrast implied. For example:
Then he said to his disciples (REB)
Some other versions simply start a new sentence. For example:
Jesus said to his disciples (GNT)
The BSB similarly has not translated this conjunction. Introduce Jesus’ response in a natural way in your language.
He told His disciples: The word disciples refers here to the same men as “the apostles” in 9:10 and “the twelve” in 9:12. Translate the clause He told His disciples in a way that clearly indicates that Jesus was still talking to the same people.
disciples: The Greek word that the BSB translates as disciples means “learners” who are in a special relationship with a teacher. The learners commit themselves to their teacher in order to learn from him and live according to his teaching and example. Disciples often lived with their teacher and followed him wherever he went.
Some ways to translate disciples are:
students/learners
apprentices
followers
This word first occurs in Luke in 5:30a. See disciple in the Glossary for more information.
Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each: Have them sit down means “Cause them to sit down.” You may be able to translate this whole command as:
Organize them into groups of fifty people and tell them to sit down.
Tell them to sit down in groups of about fifty people.
Seat them in groups of fifty people.
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
ὡσεὶ ἄνδρες πεντακισχίλιοι
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: ἦσαν Γάρ ὡσεί ἄνδρες πεντακισχίλιοι εἶπεν Δέ πρός τούς μαθητάς αὐτοῦ Κατακλίνατε αὐτούς κλισίας ὡσεί ἀνά πεντήκοντα)
Luke assumes that readers will know that this number does not include the women and children who were likely also present. (This is not a case where a masculine term includes women.) If it would be helpful to your readers, you could state that explicitly. Alternate translation: [about 5,000 men, not counting the women and children]
κατακλίνατε αὐτοὺς
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: ἦσαν Γάρ ὡσεί ἄνδρες πεντακισχίλιοι εἶπεν Δέ πρός τούς μαθητάς αὐτοῦ Κατακλίνατε αὐτούς κλισίας ὡσεί ἀνά πεντήκοντα)
Alternate translation: [Tell them to sit down to eat]
OET (OET-LV) (For/Because they_were about five_thousand men.
) And he_said to the apprentices/followers of_him:
Recline them in_groups about fifty each.
OET (OET-RV) There were about 5,000 men (not counting women and children).
¶ Then he told his apprentices, “Sit them down in rows of about fifty each.”
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.