complete verse (John 10:22)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 10:22:

  • Uma: “In Yerusalem at that time, people made a festival to remember the big day of the consecration of the House of God long ago. At that time, it was the cold time.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “So-then the time had come for the festival they called ‘For-purifying the temple’ there in Awrusalam. It was the cold season.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And there in the town of Jerusalem, that was the time of the feast of the Jews when they celebrated the cleaning long ago of their church, the House of God.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “During the frost-season, there is in Jerusalem a fiesta called Dedication of the Temple. When that fiesta arrived,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Cold season coincided with the fiesta in Jerusalem which was the Fiesta of Making-far-from-ordinary the Templo.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “It was the time of the cold rains. There in Jerusalem the people prepared to celebrate at the church.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Jerusalem

The name that is transliterated as “Jerusalem” in English is signed in French Sign Language with a sign that depicts worshiping at the Western Wall in Jerusalem:


“Jerusalem” in French Sign Language (source: La Bible en langue des signes française )

While a similar sign is also used in British Sign Language, another, more neutral sign that combines the sign “J” and the signs for “place” is used as well. (Source: Anna Smith)


“Jerusalem” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Jerusalem .

Translation commentary on John 10:22

The Festival of Dedication was known also as Hanukkah, or “Tabernacles of the month of Kislev” (2 Macc 1.9). This month was approximately equivalent to December. The festival celebrated the rededication of the Temple in 164 B.C., after the Syrians had profaned it for three years (Macc 4.54). It began on the 25th day of the month and lasted for eight days, and it was a time of great happiness for the Jews. For Festival a term meaning “feast” may be used, but the focus of meaning should not be upon eating, but upon the joy that accompanied the celebration. It may be possible to translate the Festival of the Dedication … was being celebrated in a combined expression meaning “celebrate the time for remembering the dedication of the Temple.”

Winter in Jerusalem can be cold, and this fact perhaps explains why Jesus was walking in Solomon’s porch in the Temple (verse 23). In some languages it is better to employ such a term as “a cold time” or “a cold season,” rather than attempt to define winter in terms of a particular period of the year. If one must use a term for winter which depends upon the annual calendar, it may be necessary, especially in the tropics or in the southern hemisphere, to provide a marginal note explaining that at this time of the year the weather was cold.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .