Lukas 1:15

1:15 for he will be great in the sight of ¹  the Lord. He ²  must never drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth. ³ 

Lukas 2:37

2:37 She had lived as a widow since then for eighty-four years. ⁴  She never left the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. ⁵ 

Lukas 12:24

12:24 Consider the ravens: ⁶  They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds ⁷  them. How much more valuable are you than the birds!

Lukas 21:34

Be Ready!

21:34 “But be on your guard ⁸  so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day close down upon you suddenly like a trap. ⁹ 

[1:15]  ¹ tn Grk “before.”

[1:15]  ² tn Grk “and he”; because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence is begun in the translation.

[1:15]  ³ tn Grk “even from his mother’s womb.” While this idiom may be understood to refer to the point of birth (“even from his birth”), Luke 1:41 suggests that here it should be understood to refer to a time before birth.

[1:15]  sn He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth. This is the language of the birth of a prophet (Judg 13:5, 7; Isa 49:1; Jer 1:5; Sir 49:7); see 1:41 for the first fulfillment.

[2:37]  ⁴ tn Grk “living with her husband for seven years from her virginity and she was a widow for eighty four years.” The chronology of the eighty-four years is unclear, since the final phrase could mean “she was widowed until the age of eighty-four” (so BDAG 423 s.v. ἕως 1.b.α). However, the more natural way to take the syntax is as a reference to the length of her widowhood, the subject of the clause, in which case Anna was about 105 years old (so D. L. Bock, Luke [BECNT], 1:251-52; I. H. Marshall, Luke, [NIGTC], 123-24).

[2:37]  ⁵ sn The statements about Anna worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day make her extreme piety clear.

[12:24]  ⁶ tn Or “crows.” Crows and ravens belong to the same family of birds. English uses “crow” as a general word for the family. Palestine has several indigenous members of the crow family.

[12:24]  ⁷ tn Or “God gives them food to eat.” L&N 23.6 has both “to provide food for” and “to give food to someone to eat.”

[21:34]  ⁸ tn Grk “watch out for yourselves.”

[21:34]  sn Disciples are to watch out. If they are too absorbed into everyday life, they will stop watching and living faithfully.

[21:34]  ⁹ sn Or like a thief, see Luke 12:39-40. The metaphor of a trap is a vivid one. Most modern English translations traditionally place the words “like a trap” at the end of v. 34, completing the metaphor. In the Greek text (and in the NRSV and REB) the words “like a trap” are placed at the beginning of v. 35. This does not affect the meaning.