divorce

In Ghari different words are used for a husband divorcing a wife and a wife divorcing a husband. (Source: David Clark)

In Mairasi the term that is used means “discard.” (Source: Enggavoter 2004)

See also divorced (woman).

Mark 10:1 - 12 in Mexican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 10:1-12 into Mexican Sign Language with back-translations into Spanish and English underneath:


© La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)

Jesús y los discípulos salieron de Capernaúm y fueron a Judea, y después Jesús y los discípulos fueron a otro lugar cerca del río Jordán.

Otra vez muchas personas vinieron y Jesús los enseñaba como siempre era su costumbre.

Los Fariseos (decidieron) probar a Jesús con una pregunta y fueron a él diciendo: “Jesús, una pregunta: permite la Ley que un hombre decida a divorciar a una mujer?”

Jesús dijo: “¿Qué dice lo que Moisés escribió hace mucho, qué manda?”

Los Fariseos dijeron: “Moisés escribió que es permitido que un hombre escribe una carta de divorcio y se la da a la mujer para que se vaya.”

Jesús (respondió): “¿Porqué lo escribió Moisés en la Ley? Porque todas las personas son obstinadas y no entienden, por eso.

De verdad, hace mucho Dios hizo el mundo y lo dio al hombre y la mujer, por eso está escrito en el rollo, que un hombre se separe de sus padres cuando se case y los dos juntos se convierten en una persona.

Yo les advierto que Dios da que los dos ya están juntados eb matrimonio, y no pueden ser saparados.”

Jesús y los discípulos se fueron a casa y los discípulos preguntaron: “¿Qué significa lo que ahorita explicaste?”

Jesús respondió: “Si un hombre se casa con una mujer y después la divrocia y se casa con otra, el hombre es llamado adúltero, traiciona a la mujer.

En la misma manera una mujer que se casa con un hombre y después lo divorcia y se casa con otro es llamado adúltera.”


Jesus and the disciples left Capernaum and went to Judea, and afterwards Jesus and the disciples went to another place close to the River Jordan.

Again many people came and Jesus taught them as was always his custom.

The Pharisees (decided to) test Jesus with a question and they went up to him saying: “Jesus, a question: does the Law permit a man to decide to divorce a woman?”

Jesus said: “What did Moses write long ago, what did he order?”

The Pharisees said: “Moses wrote that a man is allowed to write a letter of divorce and give it to the woman to send her off.”

Jesus (answered): Why did Moses write it in the Law? Because all the people are stubborn and don’t understand, that’s why.

“Truly, long ago God made the world and gave it to a man and a woman, and that is why it is written in the scroll that a man will separate from his parents when he is newly married and the two together will become one person.

“I tell you that God gives that the two of them are already joined together in marriage and they cannot be separated.”

Jesus and the disciples went home and the disciples asked: “What is the meaning of what you explained just now?”

Jesus (answered): “If a man marries a woman and then divorces her and marries someone else, the man is called an adulterer, he betrays the woman.

“In the same way if a woman marries a man and then divorces him and marries someone else, the woman is called an adulteress.”

Source: La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

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Mark 10:13-16 in Mexican Sign Language >>

Mark 10:1-12 in Russian Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 10:1-12 into Russian Sign Language with a back-translation underneath:


Source: Russian Bible Society / Российское Библейское Общество

Here is Galilee, here is Judea, here is the Jordan River. Jesus is going from Galilee to Judea and to the land beyond the Jordan. Crowds of people followed Jesus. Jesus was teaching the people as usual.

The Pharisees heard that Jesus was coming. They decided among themselves, “Let’s put him to the test.” They asked Jesus:

— If a man and a woman are married, can they divorce afterward?

Jesus said to them:

— In the Law that Moses gave you, what is commanded?

The Pharisees replied:

— Moses authorized the man to write a certificate of divorce and divorce his wife by giving her this document.

Jesus said:

— Moses authorized a divorce by writing a divorce certificate just because you are stubborn. In the very beginning, when God created man and woman, this was the rule given: “A man grows up and leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife. Together they become as one person.” What God has joined together, man must not separate.

Some time later, the disciples asked Jesus in the house:

— Recently there was a conversation about divorce. Is it wrong to divorce?

Jesus replied:

— Any man who divorces his wife and marries another woman, he is violating marital fidelity. In the same way, any woman who divorces her husband and then marries another man is violating marital fidelity.

Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):

Вот Галилея, вот — Иудея, вот — река Иордан. Иисус направляется из Галилеи в Иудею и в земли за Иорданом. Толпы народа шли за Иисусом. Иисус, как обычно, учил людей.

Фарисеи прослышали, что идет Иисус. Они решили между собой: «Давайте его испытаем». Они спросили Иисуса:

— Если мужчина и женщина вступили в брак, то потом им можно развестись?

Иисус им сказал:

— В Законе, который вам дал Моисей, что велено?

Фарисеи ответили:

— Моисей разрешил мужчине написать разводное свидетельство и развестись с женой, дав ей этот документ.

Иисус сказал:

— Моисей разрешил разводиться, написав разводное письмо, только потому что вы упрямы. В самом начале, когда Бог сотворил мужчину и женщину, такое было правило дано: «Мужчина, вырастает и оставляет отца и мать и соединяется со своей женой. Вдвоем они становятся как бы один человек». То, что соединил Бог, то человеку разъединять нельзя.

Спустя какое-то время, ученики спросили Иисуса в доме:

— Недавно был разговор о разводе. Разводиться нельзя?

Иисус ответил:

— Любой мужчина, который разводится со своей женой и женится на другой женщине, он нарушает супружескую верность. Так же и любая женщина, которая развелась со своим мужем, а потом выходит замуж за другого мужчину, нарушает супружескую верность.

Back-translation by Luka Manevich

<< Mark 9:42-50 in Russian Sign Language
Mark 10:13-16 in Russian Sign Language >>

complete verse (Mark 10:4)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 10:4:

  • Uma: “The Parisi people answered: ‘Musa allowed a man to divorce his wife, as long as he first makes a divorce letter.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “They said, ‘Musa allowed a man to sign (pilma) a letter of divorce, then he can divorce his wife.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And they answered, ‘Moses allowed a man to divorce his wife but it was necessary that that man give his wife a notice of his divorcing her.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘Moses allowed a man to give his wife a writing that confirmed that they had divorced, then he would make-her-leave,’ they said answering.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “They said, ‘Well, Moises did indeed permit a man to divorce his wife, provided there is a writing which is the sign that they are now divorced.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Moses

The name that is transliterated as “Moses” in English is signed in Spanish Sign Language and Polish Sign Language in accordance with the depiction of Moses in the famous statue by Michelangelo (see here ). (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. )


“Moses” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

American Sign Language also uses the sign depicting the horns but also has a number of alternative signs (see here ).

In French Sign Language, a similar sign is used, but it is interpreted as “radiance” (see below) and it culminates in a sign for “10,” signifying the 10 commandments:


“Moses” in French Sign Language (source )

The horns that are visible in Michelangelo’s statue are based on a passage in the Latin Vulgate translation (and many Catholic Bible translations that were translated through the 1950ies with that version as the source text). Jerome, the translator, had worked from a Hebrew text without the niqquds, the diacritical marks that signify the vowels in Hebrew and had interpreted the term קרו (k-r-n) in Exodus 34:29 as קֶ֫רֶן — keren “horned,” rather than קָרַו — karan “radiance” (describing the radiance of Moses’ head as he descends from Mount Sinai).

In Swiss-German Sign Language it is translated with a sign depicting holding a staff. This refers to a number of times where Moses’s staff is used in the context of miracles, including the parting of the sea (see Exodus 14:16), striking of the rock for water (see Exodus 17:5 and following), or the battle with Amalek (see Exodus 17:9 and following).


“Moses” in Swiss-German Sign Language, source: DSGS-Lexikon biblischer Begriffe , © CGG Schweiz

In Vietnamese (Hanoi) Sign Language it is translated with the sign that depicts the eye make up he would have worn as the adopted son of an Egyptian princess. (Source: The Vietnamese Sign Language translation team, VSLBT)


“Moses” in Vietnamese Sign Language, source: SooSL

In Estonian Sign Language Moses is depicted with a big beard. (Source: Liina Paales in Folklore 47, 2011, p. 43ff. )


“Moses” in Estonian Sign Language, source: Glossary of the EKNK Toompea kogudus

For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Moses .

Translation commentary on Mark 10:4

Exegesis:

epetrepsen … grapsai kai apolusai ‘he allowed … (a man) to write and to divorce (her)’: by law a Jewish husband had to write a divorce certificate in the presence of witnesses, sign it and deliver it to his wife, saying, “Here is your bill of divorce.”

epitrepō (cf. 5.13) ‘allow,’ ‘permit’: the Pharisees cannot quote a Mosaic commandment concerning divorce, but only what Moses allowed (Deut. 24.1).

biblion apostasiou (only here in Mark) ‘a document of divorce,’ ‘a certificate of divorce’: in the Septuagint the word apostasion ‘putting away’ is always used in the sense of divorce.

Translation:

Certificate of divorce is translatable as ‘paper concerning sending his wife away’ (Amganad Ifugao), ‘write her a paper when he puts her out’ (Highland Puebla Nahuatl), or ‘write a paper and she will no longer be his wife’ (Piro).

Put her away must not be translated literally in most languages, for this would imply ‘storing her’ or ‘placing her in a position away from people,’ a not uncommon mistake in translating. As in all such instances the receptor language idiom should be one commonly used for a man getting rid of or abandoning a wife.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator's Notes on Mark 10:4

10:4a–b

Moses permitted: Here the name Moses represents the law that Moses wrote. The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as permitted means “allowed.”

Here are some other ways to translate this:

Moses allowed (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
Moses’ law permitted
-or-
Moses gave permission (Good News Bible)

a certificate of divorce: The phrase certificate of divorce refers to a legal document/paper stating that a certain woman is no longer married to a certain man.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

an official letter of divorce (New Living Translation, 1996 edition)
-or-
a paper stating/confirming that he had divorced his wife

General Comment on 10:4b

It is implied that the man gave the certificate of divorce to the woman. It may be more natural in your language to include that implied information. For example:

Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and give it to her.

In some languages, it may be more natural to translate certificate of divorce as a direct quote. For example:

According to Moses’ law, a man could give his wife a paper that said, “I divorce you.”

10:4c

send her away: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as send…away is the same verb that was translated as “divorce” in 10:2b. The Berean Standard Bible uses the expression send her away to refer to the final action of the divorce.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

to divorce her (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
force her to leave

When you translate these two phrases in 10:4b and 10:4c, be careful not to imply that the man divorced his wife twice.

© 2008 by SIL International®

Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
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