Don't Greet Anyone

In my job I am constantly reminded that everything is open for interpretation. The other day I was discussing Luke 10:4 with one of the translators I work with. The context here is Jesus sending out the 72 disciples in pairs to preach the Good News. Verse 4 says "Don't take any money with you, nor a traveler's bag, nor an extra pair of sandals. And don't stop to greet anyone on the road." (NLT)

In our attempts to understand what Jesus was saying we discovered three different interpretations for the last part of this verse 'and don't stop to greet anyone on the road'. For me, this command seems a little harsh because I would interpret it as 'don't say anything to anyone on the road'. Don't even say hi, just keep going and be focused on getting there.

However the Jews would have interpreted it a little differently. Jesus wasn't saying don't be friendly and greet people along the way but rather don't stop and talk for long periods of time. Greetings for them could take a long time so Jesus is telling them not to spend huge amounts of time greeting people along the way.

The third and most interesting interpretation that I heard came from one of the Ikoma translators. He said that in the village, after someone has been to the witch doctor they will walk home without greeting anyone. Usual behaviour in the village would be to call out greetings to people as you walked along. So translating this verse literally would communicate a connection with witchcraft.

In the end we translated it this way; Hano mookuba mo-nchera, motakeechera go gukeeri abaato. Literally this means 'when you are on the way, you should not be late by greeting people' or 'when you are on the road, don't waste time by greeting people'. This explains why they shouldn't greet people and eliminates the idea of witchcraft.