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 9:3

9:3 He ⁴  said to them, “Take nothing for your ⁵  journey – no staff, ⁶  no bag, ⁷  no bread, no money, and do not take an extra tunic. ⁸ 

[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.

[9:3]  ⁴ tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[9:3]  ⁵ tn Grk “the”; in context the article is used as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[9:3]  ⁶ sn Mark 6:8 allows one staff. It might be that Luke’s summary (cf. Matt 10:9-10) means not taking an extra staff or that the expression is merely rhetorical for “traveling light” which has been rendered in two slightly different ways.

[9:3]  ⁷ tn Or “no traveler’s bag”; or possibly “no beggar’s bag” (L&N 6.145; BDAG 811 s.v. πήρα).

[9:3]  ⁸ tn Grk “have two tunics.” See the note on the word “tunics” in 3:11.