14:12 He 9 said also to the man 10 who had invited him, “When you host a dinner or a banquet, 11 don’t invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors so you can be invited by them in return and get repaid.
1 tn Or “banquet.” This may not refer only to a wedding feast, because this term can have broader sense (note the usage in Esth 2:18; 9:22 LXX). However, this difference does not affect the point of the parable.
2 tn Grk “do not recline in the place of honor.” 1st century middle eastern meals were not eaten while sitting at a table, but while reclining on one’s side on the floor with the head closest to the low table and the feet farthest away.
3 tn Grk “by him”; the referent (the host) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4 tn Grk “host, and.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate this action is a result of the situation described in the previous verse. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
5 tn Or “then in disgrace”; Grk “with shame.” In this culture avoiding shame was important.
6 tn Grk “lowest place” (also in the repetition of the phrase in the next verse).
7 tn Grk “the one who invited you.”
8 tn Grk “Go up higher.” This means to move to a more important place.
9 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
10 sn That is, the leader of the Pharisees (v. 1).
11 tn The meaning of the two terms for meals here, ἄριστον (ariston) and δεῖπνον (deipnon), essentially overlap (L&N 23.22). Translators usually try to find two terms for a meal to use as equivalents (e.g., lunch and dinner, dinner and supper, etc.). In this translation “dinner” and “banquet” have been used, since the expected presence of rich neighbors later in the verse suggests a rather more elaborate occasion than an ordinary meal.