UTN uW Translation Notes:

Luke 24 Chapter Introduction

Structure and Formatting

1. The women go to Jesus’ tomb and find it empty (24:1–12)
2. Two disciples meet Jesus on a journey to Emmaus (24:13–35)
3. Jesus, risen from the dead, appears to his disciples (24:36–53)

Religious and Cultural Concepts in This Chapter

The loyalty of the women

Many of Luke’s original readers would have thought that women were less important than men. But Luke carefully demonstrates that some women who loved Jesus very much showed him greater loyalty than the twelve disciples did. While the disciples ran away and hid, the women lovingly cared for Jesus’ body, and as a result, they were the first to learn that he had risen from the dead.

Resurrection

Luke wants his readers to understand that Jesus came alive again in a physical body (Luke 24:38–43).

Translation Issues in This Chapter

“the third day”

This expression occurs three times in this chapter, in 24:7, 24:21, and 24:46. See the explanation of this expression in the note to Luke 18:33. In the idiom of this culture, today was the “first day,” tomorrow was the “second day,” and the day after tomorrow was the “third day.” By that way of reckoning time, since Jesus died on a Friday, when he rose from the dead on a Sunday, that was the “third day.”

Two men in bright shining robes

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all write about angels in white clothing speaking with the women at Jesus’ tomb. Matthew and John call them angels, while Mark and Luke call them men, but that is only because the angels appeared in human form. Luke and John write about both angels, while Matthew and Mark write about only one of them. It would be best to translate each of these passages as it appears in ULT without trying to make the passages all say exactly the same thing. (See: Matthew 28:1–2 and Mark 16:5 and Luke 24:4 and John 20:12)