18but if the field is consecrated after the Jubilee, the priest shall compute the price for it according to the years that remain until the year of Jubilee, and the assessment shall be reduced.
The Greek and Hebrew that are translated as “consecration” or “consecrate” in English is translated in Poqomchi’ as “set apart” (when applying to a ritual not to a moral status). (Source: Robert Bascom)
In Newari it is translated as “make holy” (source: Newari Back Translation) and in Kwere as “put to holy work” when it refers to making someone or something suitable for priestly duties, when it refers to individual consecration outside of the priestly duty, “offer (yourselves) for my sake” is also used. (Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew that is translated as “(year of) Jubilee” in English is translated in Kwere as mwaka wa kubweleza or “year of return.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that are typically translated as “priest” in English (itself deriving from Latin “presbyter” — “elder”) is often translated with a consideration of existing religious traditions. (Click or tap for details)
Bratcher / Nida (1961) say this:
“However, rather than borrow local names for priests, some of which have unwanted connotations, a number of translations have employed descriptive phrases based on certain functions: (1) those describing a ceremonial activity: Pamona uses tadu, the priestess who recites the litanies in which she describes her journey to the upper or under-world to fetch life-spirit for sick people, animals or plants; Batak Toba uses the Arabic malim, ‘Muslim religious teacher;’ ‘one who presents man’s sacrifice to God’ (Bambara, Eastern Maninkakan), ‘one who presents sacrifices’ (Baoulé, Navajo (Dinė)), ‘one who takes the name of the sacrifice’ (Kpelle, and ‘to make a sacrifice go out’ (Hausa); (2) those describing an intermediary function: ‘one who speaks to God’ (Shipibo-Conibo) and ‘spokesman of the people before God’ (Tabasco Chontal).”
In Obolo it is translated as ogwu ngwugwa or “the one who offers sacrifice” (source: Enene Enene), in Mairasi as agam aevar nevwerai: “religious leader” (source: Enggavoter 2004), in Ignaciano as “blesser, one who does ritual as a practice” (using a generic term rather than the otherwise common Spanish loan word sacerdote) (source: Willis Ott in Notes on Translation 88/1982, p. 18ff.), and in Noongar as yakin-kooranyi or “holy worker” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
For Guhu-Samane, Ernest Richert (in The Bible Translator, 1965, p. 81ff. ) reports this: “The [local] cult of Poro used to be an all-encompassing religious system that essentially governed all areas of life. (…) For ‘priest’ the term ‘poro father’ would at first seem to be a natural choice. However, several priests of the old cult are still living. Although they no longer function primarily as priests of the old system they still have a substantial influence on the community, and there would be more than a chance that the unqualified term would (in some contexts particularly) be equated with the priest of the poro cult. We learned, then, that the poro fathers would sometimes be called ‘knife men’ in relation to their sacrificial work. The panel was pleased to apply this term to the Jewish priest, and the Christian community has adopted it fully. [Mark 1:44, for instance, now] reads: ‘You must definitely not tell any man of this. But you go show your body to the knife man and do what Moses said about a sacrifice concerning your being healed, and the cause (base of this) will be apparent.'”
For a revision of the 1968 version of the Bible in Khmer Joseph Hong (in: The Bible Translator 1996, 233ff. ) talks about a change in wording for this term:
Bau cha r (បូជាចារ្យ) — The use of this new construction meaning “priest” is maintained to translate the Greek word hiereus. The term “mean sang (មាន សង្ឃ)” used in the old version actually means a “Buddhist monk,” and is felt to be theologically misleading. The Khmer considers the Buddhist monk as a “paddy field of merits,” a reserve of merits to be shared with other people. So a Khmer reader would find unthinkable that the mean sang in the Bible killed animals, the gravest sin for a Buddhist; and what a scandal it would be to say that a mean sang was married, had children, and drank wine.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Leviticus 27:18:
Kupsabiny: “But if he dedicated the farm after the year of release has passed, the priest shall pronounce its value according to the years that remain before the next year of release arrives and the value is reduced.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “But if the field was dedicated after the year of the festival celebrating the Year of Jubilee, the priest is to set the price according to how many years still remain [before] the next festival comes. And the price must be reduced.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “But if he still offers/dedicates this later-on, the priest will-give this a price which (is) lower, according-to the number of years that are-remaining until again the next Year of Setting-Free and Returning.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “But if he dedicates the field after the Year of Celebration, the priest will count the number of years until the next Year of Celebration, and if there are not many years that remain, the price will be much lower than the full price.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
But: since there is a clear contrast between the dedication of a field during or immediately after the Year of Restoration, and a dedication which takes place later (after the restoration year is over), it will be preferable in some languages to use a conjunction like but, indicating contrast here.
After the jubilee: this is clearly not immediately after the Year of Restoration but some time later in the fifty-year cycle. It may be necessary to translate it “some time later, after the end of the Year of Restoration.”
Until the year of jubilee: or “until the next Year of Restoration.”
A deduction shall be made from your valuation: or “you must subtract the value of the years that have passed (since the last Year of Restoration) from the set price.” This phrase actually repeats information already given, so that the last two phrases of this verse may be translated as one in some languages. For example, “the priest must fix a lower price, considering the number of years that are left until the next Year of Restoration.”
Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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