Luke 4:18 Fun

Sometimes Jesus’s wordplay in not only entertaining but beautiful as well. This is the case with Luke 4:18

NIV: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,

There are many errors in this verse. Here is it with each of them noted in bold. You can go to my article on it to get and explanation for each. This is a new feature I am adding to my latest translation work.

The(IW) Spirit of the(IW) is on me, because(CW) (MW) he has(WT) anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent(CW) me to proclaim freedom(CW) for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set(WW) the oppressed(WT) (MW) free(CW,WF)

Here is a more accurate translation of what Jesus’s audience would have heard:

Listeners Heard: A spirit of a Master upon me for the sake of which he anointed me to bring good news myself to beggars. He has sent me out to proclaim to a letting go for prisoners, and to the blind seeing again. And I wish he would send out those having been broken by letting go.

Note all the errors at the end. This is because what Jesus says is not what he would have read from the Greek of the Septuagint. It would be a surprise to those listening because he changed what they expected. It says, "And I wish he would send out those having been broken by letting go." The last word, “letting go” is the punchline because it changes the context of the word from its earlier use, which changes its meaning. I will explain how after explaining the “setup” of the punchline.

The setup is “The verb "send out" is translated as "to set," but is the same verb earlier translated as "sent" in both translations earlier in the verse and in most other biblical verses that use it. This verb could be an infinitive but "to send out" doesn't work will, so the translators changed it. The verb form that works better here is the rare one (the optative) that has the meaning of something desired on the part of the speaker. In this case, it would mean, "I wish he would send out." This perfectly fits something a person would add instead of reading from a text.

The last word punchline, “letting go," is used earlier in the verse to refer to the “freedom” of prisoners, but at the end of the verse, its form modifies "those having been broken," (“the oppressed”). It is preceded by an preposition so that phrase means "by letting go."  So, these people are those damaged by their freedom, their "letting themselves go." This changes its idea of "freedom" to "license," a freedom or letting go that hurts us.

Jesus is saying that he hopes those imprisoned by their own licentious choices are also released from their prison.