The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “fringe” or “tzitzit” in many English translations is translated in Uma as “the decorations [lit.: “fruit”] of clothes” (source: Uma Back Translation), in Tenango Otomi as “clothing that reaches the ground” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation) and in Mairasi as “wings of the garments” (source: Enggavoter 2004).
In Bura-Pabir a term is used that is traditionally used for the tassels worn on clothes by hunters. (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
In Paasaal it is translated as “cloth mouth.” (Source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Click or tap here to see a short video clip about tzitzvits (source: Bible Lands 2012)
The Greek that is translated as “hemorrhage stopped” or “made well” in English was translated in Kalam with the regularly used expression “it was dried up.” (Source: Deibler / Taylor 1977, p. 1075.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 8:44:
Noongar: “She walked among the people behind Jesus and touched the bottom of his clothes and her bleeding stopped immediately.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “That woman came close to Yesus from behind him, and she touched the edge of his shirt/clothes. In the blinking of an eye, her bleeding stopped.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “She went close to Isa from behind and touched the tassels of Isa’s garment/blouse. Immediately her bleeding stopped.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And she worked her way up to the back of Jesus and reached out and touched the hem of Jesus’ shirt. And immediately her bleeding stopped.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “She approached behind Jesus and touched the fringe of his clothes, then immediately her flowing blood suddenly-stopped.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “She persevered to be able to get close behind Jesus, and then she touched/brushed-her-hand against what was attached to the hem of the cloak of Jesus. Well, as she touched, the blood stopped.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains in the following way: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
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®).
kai gunē … hēpsato ‘and a woman … touched.’ gunē and hēpsato are subject and main verb in a long sentence. With gunē go (a) ousa en rusei haimatos apo etōn dōdeka lit. ‘being in a hemorrhage since twelve years,’ conjunctive participle, and (b) hētis ouk ischusen ap’ oudenos therapeuthēnai ‘who could not be healed by any one’; (a) and (b) together serve to identify the woman by describing her hopeless plight. With the verb hēpsato goes the participle proselthousa opisthen ‘coming up behind,’ which describes the first stage of her action.
ousa en rusei haimatos ‘being in a flow of blood,’ i.e. ‘suffering from a hemorrhage.’
apo etōn dōdeka ‘since twelve years’ implying that the illness had begun twelve years ago and had lasted ever since.
hētis … ouk ischusen ap’ oudenos therapeuthēnai ‘who could not be healed by any one,’ or, “whom nobody had been able to cure” (An American Translation), in order to bring out the connotation of ‘being able,’ which ischuō often has (cf. on 6.48). For therapeuō cf. on 4.23.
[iatrois prosanalōsasa holon ton bion] ‘having spent all her property on physicians.’ The participle has concessive force.
bios ‘life,’ here ‘means of subsistence,’ ‘property.’
(V. 44) proselthousa opisthen ‘after coming up behind, or, from behind,’ in the latter case implying that she stayed behind him. opisthen also 23.26.
hēpsato tou kraspedou tou himatiou autou ‘touched the hem, or, tassel of his garment.’
kraspedon ‘hem,’ or, ‘tassel.’ The latter rendering is slightly preferable. Cf. also Num. 15.38ff and Deut. 22.12.
kai parachrēma estē hē rusis tou haimatos autēs ‘and immediately her hemorrhage stopped.’ The possessive genitive autēs goes with haimatos.
Translation:
The sentence structure of vv. 43f may have to be simplified, e.g. ‘among them (or, in the crowd) was a woman who had (or, a certain woman; she had) suffered from a flow of blood…; nobody had been able to cure her. (v. 44) She came up … and touched … At once her flow of blood ceased.’
Who had had a flow of blood. The Balinese nonvulgar term, ‘illness (that makes) ritually-impure,’ expresses a religious view that closely parallels biblical concepts: impurity according to Jewish ritual law was one of the reasons why the woman did not act openly.
To heal, here, of course, the recovery from a non-congenital disease is meant. In some cases a hemorrhage is not said to be ‘healed’ but to be ‘stopped’ (Toraja-Sa’dan, and cf. the Greek in v. 44).
(V. 44) Came up behind him, or, ‘approached him from behind,’ ‘was able to come near to his back,’ or more contextually, ‘made her way towards him from behind, or, at his back.’
Touched. The verb or verbal form used should express or imply an intentional act.
The fringe of his garment. The loose end of the rather short square upper-garment was usually thrown over the left shoulder, so that it came to hang on the upper part of the back; it will have been the ‘fringe’ or ‘tassel’ attached to this end, that the woman touched, since it was only this part of Jesus’ dress that could be reached in the situation described. A term suggesting a place low down (such as ‘foot of his robe,’ found in one version), should not be used. If fringe, or, ‘tassel,’ has to be described, one may say, ‘the loose threads at (or, that adorned) the hem, or, the end of his uppergarment.’ For garment cf. on “cloak” in 6.29.
Her flow of blood ceased, or, ‘the blood stopped to flow,’ ‘her blood dried up’ (Balinese), ‘her hemorrhage ceased’ (Nieuwe Vertaling), ‘her illness (or, she) was-healed’ (Tae’).
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.
She came up behind Jesus: The woman probably came to Jesus from behind him because she did not want him to notice her. In your language you may want to make this explicit. For example:
she approached ⌊quietly/secretly⌋ from behind
and touched the fringe of His cloak: Mark 5:28 explains that the woman touched Jesus’ cloak because she believed that this would cause her to be healed. She did not touch him by accident. Translate this in a way that indicates that she touched him intentionally. For example:
⌊intentionally⌋ touched the edge of his cloak -or-
touched the edge of his cloak ⌊in order to be healed⌋ -or-
touched the edge of his cloak ⌊so that Jesus’ power would heal her⌋
the fringe of His cloak: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as fringe can refer generally to the edge or border of a piece of cloth. Or it can refer more specifically to the fringe or tassel that was sometimes part of the cloak that Jewish men wore. These fringes reminded them that they must stay devoted to God. (See Numbers 15:38–39 and Deuteronomy 22:12 for instructions about tassels.)
There are two ways to translate this:
• Use a word that refers to a “fringe” or “tassel” on the edge of a garment. For example:
threads that hang from the hem of his garment
• Use a more general term that refers to the hem or edge of the garment. For example:
edge -or-
border -or-
hem
cloak: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as cloak refers to a long, loose outer garment like a coat or robe. If such a garment is not worn in your area, you may want to use a general expression. For example:
clothing -or-
garment
Be careful not to use a term that would imply foreign or expensive clothing.
8:44b
her bleeding stopped: As in 8:43a, the bleeding refers to blood coming from the woman’s womb. Use an appropriate expression in your language. See the note on 8:43a.
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