Luke 3:11

3:11 John ¹  answered them, ²  “The person who has two tunics ³  must share with the person who has none, and the person who has food must do likewise.”

Luke 19:24

19:24 And he said to his attendants, ⁴  ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has ten.’ ⁵ 

Luke 19:26

19:26 ‘I tell you that everyone who has will be given more, ⁶  but from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. ⁷ 

[3:11]  ¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (John) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:11]  ² tn Grk “Answering, he said to them.” This construction with passive participle and finite verb is pleonastic (redundant) and has been simplified in the translation to “answered them.”

[3:11]  ³ tn Or “shirt” (a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin). The name for this garment (χιτών, citwn) presents some difficulty in translation. Most modern readers would not understand what a ‘tunic’ was any more than they would be familiar with a ‘chiton.’ On the other hand, attempts to find a modern equivalent are also a problem: “Shirt” conveys the idea of a much shorter garment that covers only the upper body, and “undergarment” (given the styles of modern underwear) is more misleading still. “Tunic” was therefore employed, but with a note to explain its nature.

[19:24]  ⁴ tn Grk “to those standing by,” but in this context involving an audience before the king to give an accounting, these would not be casual bystanders but courtiers or attendants.

[19:24]  ⁵ tn Grk “the ten minas.”

[19:26]  ⁷ tn Grk “to everyone who has, he will be given more.”

[19:26]  ⁸ sn The one who has nothing has even what he seems to have taken away from him, ending up with no reward at all (see also Luke 8:18). The exact force of this is left ambiguous, but there is no comfort here for those who are pictured by the third slave as being totally unmoved by the master. Though not an outright enemy, there is no relationship to the master either. Three groups are represented in the parable: the faithful of various sorts (vv. 16, 18); the unfaithful who associate with Jesus but do not trust him (v. 21); and the enemies (v. 27).