large numbers in Angguruk Yali

Many languages use a “body part tally system” where body parts function as numerals (see body part tally systems with a description). One such language is Angguruk Yali which uses a system that ends at the number 27. To circumvent this limitation, the Angguruk Yali translators adopted a strategy where a large number is first indicated with an approximation via the traditional system, followed by the exact number according to Arabic numerals. For example, where in 2 Samuel 6:1 it says “thirty thousand” in the English translation, the Angguruk Yali says teng-teng angge 30.000 or “so many rounds [following the body part tally system] 30,000,” likewise, in Acts 27:37 where the number “two hundred seventy-six” is used, the Angguruk Yali translation says teng-teng angge 276 or “so many rounds 276,” or in John 6:10 teng-teng angge 5.000 for “five thousand.”

This strategy is used in all the verses referenced here.

Source: Lourens de Vries in The Bible Translator 1998, p. 409ff.

See also numbers in Ngalum and numbers in Kombai.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Honorary "rare" construct denoting God (“answer”)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, kotae-rare-ru (答えられる) or “answer” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Mark 6:30-44)

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 Mark 6:30-44:

One day, Jesus and his closest followers
were surrounded by so many spectators
       that they didn’t even have a chance to eat.
Jesus said, “Let’s leave here and find a place
       where we can be alone and get some rest.”

So they jumped in a boat and rowed away,
but people found out and walked there
       before the boat arrived.

As Jesus stepped ashore, he noticed the crowd —
it was like a scattering of sheep without a shepherd.
       He felt sorry for the people and started teaching them.

That evening his followers came to him and said,
       “It’s getting dark in this desert-like place.
Stop teaching and release the crowds,
       so they can start searching for somewhere to buy food.”

“You give them something to eat,” replied Jesus

“Don’t you know,” they questioned, “a year’s wages
       would barely be enough to feed this crowd?”

“Find out how much bread is available,” commanded Jesus.

They found out and reported,
       “Five small loaves and two little fish.”

Jesus instructed his followers to tell the people to
sit down on the green grass
       in groups of a hundred and in groups of fifty.

Looking up toward heaven, Jesus blessed
       both the bread and the fish.
Then he broke the bread and handed it to his followers,
       who distributed it among the crowd.
He also divided the fish, so everyone could have some.
After everyone had eaten and was satisfied,
the followers of Jesus gathered enough leftovers
       to fill twelve large baskets.

3rd person pronoun with high register (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between. One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a third person singular and plural pronoun (“he,” “she,” “it” and their various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. While it’s not uncommon to avoid pronouns altogether in Japanese, there are is a range of third person pronouns that can be used.

In these verses a number of them are used that pay particularly much respect to the referred person (or, in fact, God, as in Exodus 15:2), including kono kata (この方), sono kata (その方), and ano kata (あの方), meaning “this person,” “that person,” and “that person over there.” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also third person pronoun with exalted register.

Translation commentary on Mark 6:37 – 6:38

Exegesis:

apokritheis eipen (cf. 3.33 for this construction) ‘he answered.’

dote … humeis ‘you … give’: the personal pronoun here is emphatic – ‘you yourselves give (them something to eat)’ (cf. The Modern Speech New Testament, Moffatt, Goodspeed, Translator’s New Testament).

dēnariōn diakosiōn artous ‘loaves of two hundred denarii’: the genitive expresses the price, ‘two hundred denarii worth of loaves.’

dēnarion (12.15; 14.5) ‘denarius’: at the time of Jesus the coin is generally supposed to have been the equivalent of a rural worker’s daily wage, as in Mt. 20.2.

artos ‘bread,’ ‘loaf’: in this incident probably barley loaves are indicated (cf. Jn. 6.9).

posous echete artous; ‘how many loaves have you?’

posos (8.5, 19, 20; 9.21; 15.4) ‘how much,’ ‘how many.’

ichthuas (6.41, 43) ‘fish’: here, of course, not fresh fish but prepared fish, either cooked or pickled (cf. Jn. 6.9).

Translation:

Answered is not used in the sense of ‘answer a question,’ but ‘reply to their statement’ or ‘speak in return.’

The question of the disciples is probably best interpreted as a rhetorical question, not a request for permission or authorization to go and buy; a kind of exclamatory question, implying the utter foolishness of such an idea (compare the parallel passages: Mt. 14.13-21, Luke 9.11-17, and John 6.5-13).

Denarii poses a problem in translation, for though it was a coin for which the silver content would be equivalent to about 20 cents in American money, its buying power was much greater, as a result of the relatively low standard of living prevailing in Palestine in those days among the lower classes. It would not be reasonable to translate it by some equivalent coin equal to 20 cents U.S. Moreover, if one chooses any local currency the translation may be badly out of line within a short time, due to extreme inflation, as has occurred in so many parts of the world. (Some countries have seen inflationary pressures within the last two or three years change currency rates from as much as 100 to 1 – in terms of the dollar – to as much as 10,000 to 1.) In areas where there is a relatively stable currency and there is a unit of currency roughly equivalent to a day’s wage of a common laborer, such a coin may be used. In most instances, however, it has seemed best to borrow the Greek word denarius, and speak of ‘bread worth 200 denarius coins’ (or ‘pieces of money’). One can then use a footnote and explain that a denarius (or whatever the appropriate transliterated form might be) was equivalent to a day’s wage. It is recommended that one employ a short table of Weights and Measures (see appendix) in publications of New Testaments or Bibles, and that in such a table the various units of currency be related to the basic unit of the denarius.

Five, and two fish must be reproduced in full grammatical form in some languages, ‘we have five loaves and two fish.’

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 6:37

6:37a

But: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as But here introduces what Jesus said. What he said was not what the disciples expected him to say. If you have a connecting word that can be used in this way, use it here. Otherwise you could start 6:37 without a connecting word. For example:

He replied… (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
“You yourselves…” (Good News Bible)

You give them something to eat: The pronoun You is emphatic in the Greek. It is also plural. The Berean Standard Bible has added the word something to make the English natural.

Here are some ways to translate Jesus’ words here:

You yourselves give them something to eat! (Good News Bible)
-or-
It is you who must feed them!

6:37b–c

In the Greek, 6:37b–c is a single rhetorical question. See the General Comment on 6:37b–c at the end of 6:37c for ways to reorder the parts of this question.

This rhetorical question expresses both surprise and mild rebuke. The disciples were astonished that Jesus asked them to feed so many people. The request also seemed foolish. They did not know how they could buy enough food to feed so many people.

Here are several ways to translate this expression:

• As a rhetorical question. For example:

Do you expect us to go and spend two hundred denarii on bread to feed all these people?

• As a statement. For example:

Surely you do not think we should go and spend two hundred silver coins on food in order to feed all these people!

• As a tag question. For example:

Surely you do not think we should go and spend two hundred silver coins on food in order to feed all these people, do you?

• As one exclamatory statement and one rhetorical question. For example, the New International Version says:

That would take eight months of a man’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?

• As a rhetorical question followed by an exclamatory statement. For example, the New Living Translation, 1996 edition says:

“With what?” they asked. “It would take a small fortune to buy food for all this crowd!”

Use a form that is natural to express surprise and rebuke in your language.

6:37b

Should we go out and spend two hundred denarii: The disciples thought that Jesus wanted them to buy food for all the people. They estimated how much money they would need to buy enough food to feed the large crowd. See the next note.

two hundred denarii: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as two hundred denarii refers to two hundred silver Roman coins called “denarii.” Workers in Jesus’ time earned about twenty-five of these coins each month, so it would take about eight months for a worker to earn two hundred of them. Some English versions, such as the Berean Standard Bible, translate this literally as “two hundred denarii.” The Berean Standard Bible translates this Greek phrase as “eight months of a man’s wages” and the New International Version, 2011 edition translates it as “more than half a year’s wages” in order to show how long it took for a worker to earn two hundred denarii.

Most readers today will not know how much money “two hundred denarii” refers to. The main idea is that is was a large sum of money, probably much more than the disciples were able to pay.

Here are some other ways to translate the phrase two hundred denarii:

two hundred silver coins (Good News Bible)
-or-
almost a year’s wages (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
We would all have to work a month to earn enough money (New Century Version)
-or-
a small fortune (New Living Translation, 1996 edition)

You should avoid translating this phrase with a term for the particular kind of currency used in your area, for two reasons:

(a) It would not be historically accurate.

(b) When the value of your currency changes your translation would become outdated.

6:37c

to give all of them bread to eat: The pronoun them refers to the crowd of people.

The clause to give all of them bread to eat functions as a purpose clause. The purpose for spending two hundred denarii on bread would be to feed the people. So in many languages it may be natural to translate this as:

so that we can give it to them to eat
-or-
in order to feed them

bread: Bread was the most common and inexpensive food at that time. In this context, the word bread probably refers to round loaves of flat bread. The Greek word is plural here and in 6:38a. It could be translated as “loaves,” or “loaves of bread” in both places. Some languages may use a plural form of bread like “breads.”

If there is no word that people know for bread, you may translate bread as “food” (as in the New Living Translation). However, in 6:38c the disciples counted units (loaves) of bread. If you use a generic word such as “food” here, you should consider whether it is natural in your language to count units or servings of it.

You should not substitute a different kind of food, because these verses are talking about an event that actually happened. Refer to how you translated bread in 2:26b.

In some areas, people may not be familiar with bread. In other areas, they may consider bread to be a snack rather than a staple food. If this is true in your area, you may want to add a footnote. For example, the TRT has this footnote:

Bread and fish were the main foods for the Jews. These loaves of bread were round, thick and flat in shape. Five of them would be enough to feed about two people one meal.

General Comment on 6:37b–c

It may be more natural in your language to give the cost of the bread at the beginning or end of these verse parts. For example:

They said to him, “That would take eight months of a man’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” (New International Version)
-or-
They asked, “Do you want us to feed them by going and buying bread at the cost of two hundred silver coins?”

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