4Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David.
The name that is transliterated as “Joseph” in English is translated in Finnish Sign Language with the sign signifying “woodworker” (referring to Mark 6:3). (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
The town name that is transliterated as “Bethlehem” in English is translated in Finnish Sign Language with the signs signifying “manger + town” (referring to Luke 2:7). (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
In American Sign Language it is translated with the signs for “bread” and “house,” referring to the original meaning of “Bethlehem” as “house of bread.” (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Bethlehem” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 2:4:
Noongar: “Joseph left Nazareth, a Galileean town, and went to Bethlehem, a town in Judea. King David had been born in Bethlehem. Joseph went to Bethlehem because he was a descendant of David.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “So also Yusuf left from Nazaret town, accompanied by Maria his fiancee, who was at the time pregnant. They left from Galilea land, climbed going to Yudea land, towards Betlehem town, the birth town of King Daud long ago. Yusuf had to request that his name be written there, because he was a descendant of King Daud.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Yusup went from the town of Nasaret there in the place Jalil going up to the place Yahudiya to the town Betlehem the place where Sultan Da’ud was born. He went there to register because he was a descendant of Da’ud.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “That was why Joseph, who lived in the town of Nazareth, in the province of Galilee, it was necessary for him to go to the province of Judea, to the town of Bethlehem, which was the village where King David was born long ago, because Joseph — he was a descendant of King David.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “So also Jose, he went from Nazaret a town of Galilea to go register in Betlehem a town of Judea, because that was the town of King David who was his ancestor long ago.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well Jose also set out. Going from Nazaret in the district of Galilea, he went to Betlehem in the district of Judea, the t
own where king David was born in the past, because Jose was a descendant of that king.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Central Tunebo: (verses 3-5) “Everyone went to his own city to be counted. Joseph also went to be counted. Joseph was from the land of Galilee. He was from the city of Nazareth. Joseph’s grandfather is David. He is David’s relative. As a result he went to David’s city to be counted. He went to Bethlehem to be counted. In the city of Bethlehem. He went with Mary. Joseph would soon marry Mary. Mary was pregnant. They went together, with Mary.” (“The typical narrative text in Tunebo introduces 3 or 4 information bits in the first sentence. This includes the predicate and subject and, where appropriate, the object. A locative element is quite often introduced, too. From there, new information bearing on the stage or opening event is introduced, usually at the rate of one new bit per sentence, keeping the main verb constant.” Source: Edna Headland in Notes on Translation, 58/1975, pp. 2ff.)
The name that is transliterated as “Judah” or “Judea” in English (referring to the son of Jacob, the tribe, and the territory) is translated in Spanish Sign Language as “lion” (referring to Genesis 49:9 and Revelation 5:5). This sign for lion is reserved for regions and kingdoms. (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. and Steve Parkhurst)
Illustration by Horst Lemke (1922-1985) for the GermanGute Nachricht für Sie – NT68, one of the first editions of the Good News Bible in German of 1968. Lemke was a well-known illustrator who illustrated books by Erich Kästner , Astrid Lindgren and many others.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
anebē de kai Iōsēph ‘and Joseph also went up’; de is purely transitional and kai refers back to hekastos in the preceding verse: like everyone concerned Joseph ‘also’ went.
anabainō ‘to go up,’ ‘to ascend,’ here of going to a place that is at a higher altitude, but the emphasis is more on going than on ascending. The distance between Nazareth and Bethlehem is 63 miles and the difference in height is about 1000 feet.
apo tēs Galilaias ek poleōs Nazareth ‘from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth.’ There is no difference in meaning between apo and ek because Nazareth is part of Galilee.
eis polin Dauid hētis kaleitai Bēthleem ‘to the town of David which is called Bethlehem’; the reason for calling Bethlehem “the town of David” here is that the Messiah, who will occupy the throne of David (cf. 1.32) will be born in Bethlehem (cf. Mic. 5.1f; Jn. 7.42).
dia to einai auton ex oikou kai patrias Dauid ‘because he was of the house and family of David,’ articular accusative and infinitive governed by a preposition. For ex oikou … Dauid cf. on 1.27.
patria ‘family,’ ‘clan,’ usually the larger unit as compared with oikos, but here the words are best understood as a hendiadys (two semantically related words expressing the same idea and, by virtue of their co-ordination, emphasizing that idea), cf. New English Bible.
Translation:
Went up. Departing from Nazareth Joseph and Mary actually had to descend first, either to the valley of Megiddo or to that of the Jordan, and then, having crossed the former, or followed the latter down stream to Jericho, go up again into the hill, towards Bethlehem. Now, languages differ in specifying whether a journey is to a point higher or lower than the point of departure. Some indicate the difference in elevation always, others do so only when the difference is visible or, though not visible, can easily be envisaged in the mind. In the latter cases a rendering like ‘set out,’ ‘journeyed’ will in this context be more idiomatic. — Where the combination of one verb with two contrasting prepositions is undesirable a second verb may have to be added, e.g. ‘he journeyed/set-out from … and went to…’ (Low Malay), or, ‘he departed from village of N. … in-order to go-up as-far-as…’ (Kituba, cf. also Bible de Jérusalem, Batak Toba).
From Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem. The parallelism between the two locative phrases should preferably be preserved, even if the more specific name has to be put first, e.g. ‘from the city (of) N. in (the region of) G., to the city of D., which is called B., in (the region of) J..’ For Judea see on 1.65.
The city of David. As David is known to have been a king, ‘David’s city’ would normally be taken to mean his residence, or the capital of his kingdom. To avoid this one may have to use ‘birthplace’ instead of ‘city’ (Balinese).
House and lineage, often rendered by two synonymous terms, or by one expression (see Exegesis), such as, ‘descent’ (Ekari), ‘clan/tribe’ (Kituba), and, with a further syntactic shift, ‘descended from the former David’ (Tboli). For David and house cf. on 1.27.
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.
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