unleavened bread

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “unleavened bread” in English is translated in various ways:

  • Chichimeca-Jonaz: “bread that doesn’t have its medicine that makes it puff up”
  • Teutila Cuicatec: “bread without its sour”
  • Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “bread that has no mother” (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Mairasi: “bread without other ingredient” (source: Enggavoter 2004)

complete verse (Exodus 12:17)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 12:17:

  • Kupsabiny: “Be eating/celebrating this festival of breads that have not risen to show/remind how I removed/rescued you from the hands of the people of Egypt. You must do this festival in all years from generations (age-sets) to generations.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Observe the feast of unleavened bread because on that day I have brought you out of Egypt, in ordered groups. Till later generations will be born and forever observance of this day is like an ordinance to be kept.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘You (plur.) should-celebrate the Feast of the Bread that Has-None of That-Which-Causes-To-Expand, for it will-remind you (plur.) of-the day that I caused- you (plur.) -to-go-out from Egipto. You (plur.) should-celebrate this forever/[lit. until whenever] as a that-which-is-to-be-followed that you should obey until generations to-come.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “‘You (pl.) will do this feast of Bret Not Having Yis Existing in it, because I brought each of the families of you Israel people so that you left Isip on this day. You must do this big feast each and every year and onward, and so later your children and descendants will be doing it also.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “Yearly, you shall remember days of joy of bread which lacks yeast thus, because that is what be day which I take away tribes your out from Egypt all. you and generation your which will come all, you shall remember this day as that which you put down until forever.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “Every year you must keep celebrating this festival of eating bread that has no yeast in it, because it will remind you that it was on this day that I brought all your tribal groups out of Egypt. So every year, in all the generations to come, you must celebrate this day as a festival. It must continue forever.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also pronoun for “God”.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Exod 12:17

And you shall observe means to “keep” (Good News Translation) or “celebrate” (New International Version). The basic meaning of the word is to watch or guard. It is used again in verse 24. The feast of unleavened bread is just one word, matsoth, meaning “unleavened cakes” (see the comment on verse 8), but here it stands for the seven-day feast or “festival” (Good News Translation) itself. New English Bible has “these commandments,” following the src Samaritan Pentateuchsrc* (mitsoth), but Revised English Bible has returned to matsoth in the src Masoretic textsrc*. Therefore it is better to translate “You shall celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread,” or “… Festival of Thin Bread” (Contemporary English Version), or “… Festival of Bread without Yeast.” (See the comment under the section heading before verse 14.)

For on this very day refers to the “first day” in verse 15, which is also “this day” in verse 14, the 15th of Abib. I brought … out—Yahweh is still speaking—is literally “I caused to go out.” The verb speaks of the action as already completed. Your hosts is a military term referring to a multitude, or a large number. Some translations try to keep the military aspect: “companies” (New Revised Standard Version), “ranks” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New American Bible), and “divisions” (New International Version). But more likely the Israelites were organized by “tribes” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) rather than as “armies” (Jerusalem Bible). (Revised English Bible and New English Bible have “your tribal hosts.”) (See the comment on “tribe” at 2.1.)

Therefore is the usual conjunction waw, which may be omitted. You shall observe this day repeats the same verb as in the first clause, and this day is the same day referred to earlier. Throughout your generations means “from generation to generation” (Revised English Bible), or simply “For all time to come.” (See verse 14.) As an ordinance for ever is also the same expression used in verse 14.

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .