brothers

“Brothers” has to be translated into Naro as “younger brothers and older brothers” (Tsáá qõea xu hẽé / naka tsáá kíí). All brothers are included this way, also because of the kind of plural that has been used. (Source: Gerrit van Steenbergen)

This also must be more clearly defined in Yucateco as older or younger (suku’un or Iits’in), but here there are both older and younger brothers. Yucateco does have a more general word for close relative, family member. (Source: Robert Bascom)

Joseph

The term that is transliterated as “Joseph” in English is translated in American Sign Language with a sign that relates to a) the coat he wore (see Gen 37:3), b) the holding of his clothes by Potiphar’s wife (see Gen 39:12), and c) the many times Joseph experienced grief. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)


“Joseph” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor

In Spanish Sign Language it is translated with a sign that signifies “dream,” referring to Jacob’s dream at Bethel (see Genesis 28:10 and the following verses). (Source: Steve Parkhurst)


“Joseph” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Joseph .

For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .

complete verse (Exodus 1:6)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 1:6:

  • Kupsabiny: “Joseph and his brothers stayed/lived in that land until they were old and they died there.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Joseph, his brothers and all the people of his generation died.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Later-on Jose and all his siblings died. That generation came-to-an-end,” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “It came about that Iosep together with his older brothers and all the people in that day were living their lives until it was finished. And after their death,” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “Afterwards, Joseph, with brothers, with generations their all, they became old died.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “Eventually Joseph and his older and younger brothers and everyone else in their family who lived in that generation/at that time died.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 1:6

The word Then is to be understood as “In the course of time” (Good News Translation) and not as a sudden or unexpected event. Other ways of expressing this are “In time” (John I. Durham), “As the years passed,” or even “Eventually.” Since Benjamin, Joseph’s only younger brother, is included, all his brothers may be expressed idiomatically in a number of languages; for example, “elders and youngers” or “elder and younger siblings.” All that generation probably included all adults who lived at the same time as Joseph and his brothers. In many languages the phrase all that generation will be rendered as “all the people living at that time.”

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 .