Orthodox Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between. One way to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.
The Greek that is translated as “come down” in English is translated in the Shinkaiyaku Bible as o-kudari (お下り), combining “go/come down” (kudari) with the respectful prefix o-. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff.
The term that is transliterated as “Paul” in English is translated in American Sign Language with a sign that signifies the many letters he wrote. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Paul” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
In Spanish Sign Language it is translated with a sign depicting putting away a sword, referring to his conversion from a persecutor of Christians to a Christian leader. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, translators typically select the inclusive form (the multitudes speaking among themselves).
Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 14:11:
Uma: “When the people saw what Paulus had done, they spoke in their own language, which was named Likaonia language, they said: ‘The village spirits [anitu] have landed here on the earth in human appearance!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “When the crowds of people saw what Paul had done, they kept shouting in their Likaona language, they said, ‘The gods have now taken the form of man/humans and they have come down here to us (incl.).'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when the many people saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lyconian language saying, ‘The gods have become people and had come down to us.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Upon the many-people’s seeing what Pablo did, they began to shout in their language in Licaonia, ‘These are gods who have appeared as people. Here-now they have come-down to us.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “When the crowd saw what Pablo had done, they were shouting out in their own language, which was the language of Licaonia. They were saying, ‘Expl., there are gods who have become these people who have now come down here to us!'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
They started to shout translates the Hebraic expression “they lifted up their voice,” which means simply “to speak (or to shout) loudly.” Started to shout is an attempt to express the force of the aorist tense of the Greek verb, here indicating the beginning of the action. Of course neither Paul nor Barnabas could understand the regional language, that is, the Lycaonian language.
The gods have become like men and have come down to us (New English Bible “the gods have come down to us in human form”) is precisely the meaning of the Greek; the Jerusalem Bible seems to have gone too far by stating that the gods came down “disguised as men.”
Have come down to us need to be more specific, for example “have come down from heaven to us.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
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