Luke 3:4

3:4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

“The voice ¹  of one shouting in the wilderness: ² 

‘Prepare the way for the Lord,

make ³  his paths straight.

Luke 3:22

3:22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. ⁴  And a voice came from heaven, “You are my one dear Son; ⁵  in you I take great delight.” ⁶ 

Luke 8:28

8:28 When he saw ⁷  Jesus, he cried out, fell ⁸  down before him, and shouted with a loud voice, “Leave me alone, ⁹  Jesus, Son of the Most High ¹⁰  God! I beg you, do not torment ¹¹  me!”

Luke 11:27

11:27 As ¹²  he said these things, a woman in the crowd spoke out ¹³  to him, “Blessed is the womb ¹⁴  that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed!” ¹⁵ 

Luke 19:37

19:37 As he approached the road leading down from ¹⁶  the Mount of Olives, ¹⁷  the whole crowd of his ¹⁸  disciples began to rejoice ¹⁹  and praise ²⁰  God with a loud voice for all the mighty works ²¹  they had seen: ²² 

[3:4]  ¹ tn Or “A voice.”

[3:4]  ² tn Or “desert.” The syntactic position of the phrase “in the wilderness” is unclear in both Luke and the LXX. The MT favors taking it with “Prepare a way,” while the LXX takes it with “a voice shouting.” If the former, the meaning would be that such preparation should be done “in the wilderness.” If the latter, the meaning would be that the place from where John’s ministry went forth was “in the wilderness.” There are Jewish materials that support both renderings: 1QS 8:14 and 9.19-20 support the MT while certain rabbinic texts favor the LXX (see D. L. Bock, Luke [BECNT], 1:290-91). While it is not absolutely necessary that a call in the wilderness led to a response in the wilderness, it is not unlikely that such would be the case. Thus, in the final analysis, the net effect between the two choices may be minimal. In any case, a majority of commentators and translations take “in the wilderness” with “The voice of one shouting” (D. L. Bock; R. H. Stein, Luke [NAC], 129; I. H. Marshall, Luke [NIGTC], 136; NIV, NRSV, NKJV, NLT, NASB, REB).

[3:4]  ³ tn This call to “make paths straight” in this context is probably an allusion to preparation through repentance as the verb ποιέω (poiew) reappears in vv. 8, 10, 11, 12, 14.

[3:22]  ⁴ tn This phrase is a descriptive comparison. The Spirit is not a dove, but descends like one in some type of bodily representation.

[3:22]  ⁵ tn Grk “my beloved Son,” or “my Son, the beloved [one].” The force of ἀγαπητός (agaphtos) is often “pertaining to one who is the only one of his or her class, but at the same time is particularly loved and cherished” (L&N 58.53; cf. also BDAG 7 s.v. 1).

[3:22]  ⁶ tc Instead of “You are my one dear Son; in you I take great delight,” one Greek ms and several Latin mss and church fathers (D it Ju [Cl] Meth Hil Aug) quote Ps 2:7 outright with “You are my Son; today I have fathered you.” But the weight of the ms testimony is against this reading.

[8:28]  ⁷ tn Grk “And seeing.” The participle ἰδών (idwn) has been taken temporally. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[8:28]  ⁸ tn Grk “and fell,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[8:28]  ⁹ tn Grk “What to me and to you?” (an idiom). The phrase τί ἐμοὶ καὶ σοί (ti emoi kai soi) is Semitic in origin, though it made its way into colloquial Greek (BDAG 275 s.v. ἐγώ). The equivalent Hebrew expression in the OT had two basic meanings: (1) When one person was unjustly bothering another, the injured party could say “What to me and to you?” meaning, “What have I done to you that you should do this to me?” (Judg 11:12; 2 Chr 35:21; 1 Kgs 17:18). (2) When someone was asked to get involved in a matter he felt was no business of his own, he could say to the one asking him, “What to me and to you?” meaning, “That is your business, how am I involved?” (2 Kgs 3:13; Hos 14:8). These nuances were apparently expanded in Greek, but the basic notions of defensive hostility (option 1) and indifference or disengagement (option 2) are still present. BDAG suggests the following as glosses for this expression: What have I to do with you? What have we in common? Leave me alone! Never mind! Hostility between Jesus and the demons is certainly to be understood in this context, hence the translation: “Leave me alone….”

[8:28]  ¹⁰ sn On the title Most High see Luke 1:35.

[8:28]  ¹¹ sn The demons’ plea “do not torment me” is a recognition of Jesus’ inherent authority over evil forces. The request is that Jesus not bother them. There was an appointed time in which demons would face their judgment, and they seem to have viewed Jesus’ arrival on the scene as an illegitimate change in God’s plan regarding the time when their sentence would be executed.

[11:27]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “And it happened that as.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[11:27]  ¹¹ tn Grk “lifted up her voice and said.” This idiom is somewhat redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “spoke out.”

[11:27]  ¹² tn For this term see L&N 8.69.

[11:27]  ¹³ sn Both the reference to the womb and the breasts form a figure of speech called metonymy. In this case the parts are mentioned instead of the whole; the meaning is “Blessed is your mother!” The warnings seem to have sparked a little nervousness that brought forth this response. In the culture a mother was valued for the accomplishments of her son. So this amounts to a compliment to Jesus.

[19:37]  ¹³ tn Grk “the descent of”; this could refer to either the slope of the hillside itself or the path leading down from it (the second option has been adopted for the translation, see L&N 15.109).

[19:37]  ¹⁴ sn See the note on the name Mount of Olives in v. 29.

[19:37]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “the”; the Greek article has been translated here as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[19:37]  ¹⁶ tn Here the participle χαίροντες (caironte") has been translated as a finite verb in English; it could also be translated adverbially as a participle of manner: “began to praise God joyfully.”

[19:37]  ¹⁷ sn See 2:13, 20; Acts 2:47; 3:8-9.

[19:37]  ¹⁸ tn Or “works of power,” “miracles.” Jesus’ ministry of miracles is what has drawn attention. See Luke 7:22.

[19:37]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “they had seen, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.