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 (Luke 22:1)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 22:1:

  • Noongar: “Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread was happening soon. People also called it this feast the Passover.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “It was already close to the big day of the Yahudi people called the Feast of Bread that is not Yeasted, that is also called Paskah Day.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “The celebration/feast of the Yahudi was already near when they eat bread not mixed with leaven (lit. for-rising). That feast was called the Feast of Remembrance.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Now at that time it was just a little time before the feast of eating bread without yeast, which is called the Feast of passover (feast of passing (someone by)).” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The fiesta of the Jews called Passed-By had almost arrived at which they ate bread that had no yeast/baking-powder.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “The Fiesta of Bread Without Raising-agent was getting-closer-and-closer, which is called Passed-by.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Luke 22:1-6)

Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Luke 22:1-6:

Passover was near, and the religious authorities
were looking for a way to get rid of Jesus,
       but they were afraid of what the people might do.

About this time, Satan influenced Judas
to approach the religious authorities
       with an offer to betray Jesus.
They were very glad and agreed
       to pay Judas some money.
Right away he began looking
for a chance to betray Jesus
       when the crowds were not around, of course.

Translation commentary on Luke 22:1

Exegesis:

ēggizen … hē heortē tōn azumōn ‘the feast of the unleavened bread was drawing near,’ durative imperfect. For ta azuma see below.

hē legomenē pascha ‘which is called Passover’

Translation:

Feast of Unleavened Bread; Sranan Tongo has ‘feast of the matzos,’ making use of the Yiddish term for ‘pieces of unleavened bread.’ For unleavened cf. also on “leaven” in 12.1; for bread cf. references on 4.3.

Drew near, or, ‘was to happen soon.’

Passover, see on 2.41, and references.

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.

SIL Translator’s Notes on Luke 22:1

22:1a–b

Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread…was approaching: This clause is background information for the events that will happen in this section. It indicates that people would soon celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In Greek the clause is introduced by a common conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Now. This conjunction does not function as a time word here, and many English versions do not translate it.

Translate the background information in a natural way in your language. Some other ways to translate it in English are:

As the Feast of Unleavened Bread came near
-or-
It was almost time for the feast of unleavened bread
-or-
At that time, it was not long before the Feast of Unleavened Bread would happen

the Feast of Unleavened Bread: The phrase the Feast of Unleavened Bread refers to a festival that the Jewish people celebrated each year for seven days. During those days they did not eat any bread made with yeast.

The purpose of the festival was to remind them of the time when God had delivered their ancestors from slavery in Egypt. At that time they ate unleavened bread because they needed to eat quickly before they left on their journey out of Egypt. They did not have time to wait for their bread dough to rise before they baked it.

Feast: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Feast means “festival, celebration.” It refers to a special time when people celebrate and follow special customs or rituals. During the festival of Unleavened Bread, people ate a special meal, so some versions, such as the New International Version, translate the word as “feast.” Use a natural way in your language to refer to it.

Unleavened Bread: The phrase Unleavened Bread refers to bread cooked without yeast. This bread was thin and flat because it contained nothing to “leaven” it (make it rise). In some areas people do not use yeast and there is no word for it. If this is true in your language, you may be able to use a descriptive phrase for this type of bread. For example:

Thin Bread (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
bread without the thing that makes it rise/swell
-or-
bread that ⌊people⌋ ⌊make⌋ without any rising/swelling substance

called the Passover: The word Passover refers to a festival that the Jews celebrated each year on the day before the Feast of Unleavened Bread began. The word Passover was often used to refer to the whole eight days that included the day of Passover and the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. People ate only unleavened bread on the day of Passover, as well as during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

In some languages it may be helpful to translate the phrase called the Passover as a separate sentence. For example:

This was the feast that people also call the Passover.

You may want to include a footnote and cross reference about the feasts/festivals of Unleavened Bread and Passover. For example:

During the time period that Luke wrote about, the festivals of Unleavened Bread and Passover were often considered to be one festival. These festivals reminded the Jews of the time when God freed their ancestors from slavery in Egypt. See Exodus 12:1–27.

Passover: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Passover means “pass by” or “pass over.” During the Passover festival the people of Israel remember how the angel of the Lord “passed over” the houses of their ancestors. (This account is found in Exodus 12:1–27.) The term “pass over” implies that he showed mercy to them and did not kill them.

However, the angel killed the firstborn sons of the Egyptians. He did this to force the Egyptian king to free the Jews from slavery and allow them to leave Egypt. The angel passed over the Jewish houses because they did what the Lord told them to do. Each family sacrificed a lamb and put some of its blood over their doors. When the angel saw the blood, he passed by their houses without harming them.

Some ways to translate Passover are:

• Translate the meaning of the phrase “pass over.” For example:

“⌊Death⌋ passed us by” Festival
-or-
“⌊Death⌋ did not harm us” Feast
-or-
Passed-by/Mercy Feast

• Focus on the result of the angel “passing over”: the Jews were delivered from slavery and became free. For example:

the Festival of Freedom
-or-
Deliverance Day/Feast

The term Passover also occurred in 2:41. See how you translated it there.

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