bread, loaf

The Greek term that is translated in English as “bread” or “loaf” is translated in Samo, it is translated as “Sago,” which serves “like ‘bread’ for the Hebrews, as a generic for food in the Samo language. It is a near-perfect metonymy that has all the semantic elements necessary for effective communication.” (Source: Daniel Shaw in Scriptura 96/2007, p. 501ff.)

In Chol it is translated as waj, the equivalent of a tortilla. (Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight)

John Beekman (in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 180f. ) explains: “The word ‘bread’ in Scripture primarily occurs as either a specific term for bread (including the Lord’s Supper), or as a generic term for food. It is not surprising, however, the some aboriginal groups use something other than bread as the staff of life. The Chols, with their cultural focus in the cultivation of corn, use waj, a type of thin corn flake. Since a meal is not complete without this main item of food, the term has been extended to include any other foods which may be served along with waj. While bread is known to them, its use is limited to a few occasions during the year when it functions as a dessert. In translating this term in the Chol New Testament, consistent use has been made of the word waj whenever the function of bread as a basic food was in focus. John 6:35, “I am the bread of life,” was thus translated with this word. If the word for bread had been used, it was feared that the Chol would compare Christ to the desirable, but not absolutely necessary, dessert.”

Robert Bascom adds his thoughts to this in relation to other Mayan languages (in Omanson 2001, p. 260): “In many Mayan languages, ‘bread’ can be translated waj or kaxlan waj. The first term literally means anything made from corn meal, while the second term literally means ‘foreigner’s waj,’ and refers to the local wheat-based sweet breads which are so popular within the broader European-influenced culture of the region. On the one hand, waj would be a better dynamic equivalent in cases where ‘bread’ meant ‘food,’ but in cases where the focus is literal or the reference well-known, kaxlan waj would preserve a flour-based meaning (though in biblical times barley was more in use than wheat) and not insert corn into a time and place where it does not belong. On the other hand kaxlan waj is not the staff of life, but refers to a local delicacy. In cases such as these, it is even tempting to suggest borrowing pan, the Spanish word for ‘bread,’ but native speakers might respond that borrowing a foreign word is not necessary since both waj and kaxlan waj are native terms that cover the meaning (though in this case, perhaps not all that well).”

In Mairasi it is translated bread tubers. Tubers are the main food staple and are therefore synonymous with food. (Source: Enggavoter 2004). In Yagaria, Kâteand Yabem it is translated as “taro cake.” (Source: Renck, p. 101)

Mark 7:24b - 30 in Mexican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 7:24b-30 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)

De repente una mujer lo descubrió y se acercó a él, se arrodilló y dijo: “Mi hija, una niña, tiene un demonio adentro, por favor expulsa el demonio.”

Jesús le dijo: “Yo ayudo primero a todas las personas judías. Por ejemplo, si los niños están alrededor de la mesa comiendo pan y el padre viene, les quita el pan y lo da al perro, y el perro lo come, ¿piensas que está bien? No.”

La mujer (dijo): “Sí, tienes razón, ¿pero si por ejemplo los niños están alrededor de la mesa comiendo pan y de repente por error algo cae y el perro lo come…?”

Jesús la miró (y dijo): “Bien, el demonio ya ha salido de tu hija. Puedes irte.”

La mujer se paró y se fue, y después fue a la casa y vio que su hija estaba acostada en la cama y que el demonio ya se había ido.

La mujer que se arrodilló y lo contó (a Jesús), esta mujer no era judía, había nacido en el lugar Sirofenicia.


Suddenly a woman discovered him, went up to him, knelt down and said: “My small daughter has a demon inside, please throw the demon out.”

Jesus said to her: “I first help all the Jewish people. For example, if the children are around the table eating bread and the father comes, takes away the bread and gives it to the dog, and the dog eats it, would you think that is good? No.”

The woman (said): “Yes, you’re right, but what if for example the children are eating around the table and suddenly by accident something falls on the floor and the dog eats it…?”

Jesus looked at her (and said): “Good, the demon has already left your daughter. You can go.”

The woman got up and left, and then she went home and saw that her daughter was lying in bed and that the demon had already left her.

The woman who just knelt and told (Jesus), this woman was not Jewish, she was born in the place Syrophoenicia.

Source: La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

<< Mark 7:17b-24a in Mexican Sign Language
Mark 7:31 in Mexican Sign Language >>

See also Matthew 15:21-28 in Mexican Sign Language.

Mark 7:24-30 in Russian Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 7:24-30 into Russian Sign Language with a back-translation underneath:


Source: Russian Bible Society / Российское Библейское Общество

Jesus went to the city of Tyre. There he went into a house. He wanted to do it secretly so that people would not know. But the rumor about him spread quickly, and everyone soon knew that Jesus was there. There was a woman there. She was a non-Jewish woman. She came to Jesus, fell on her knees before Him and begged Him:

— “Help! A demon has possessed my daughter. She is tormented. Please come and heal her, cast out the demon.

Jesus said to her:

— I have come for the sake of the Jews, because they are God’s children, and first of all I must feed them with bread. I cannot take the bread away from the children and give it to the dogs.

The woman said:

— Yes, that is true! But when the children eat bread at the table, crumbs fall on the floor and something goes to the dogs. The dog can take those crumbs and eat them. So can I…

Jesus said to her:

— Are you ready to be satisfied with crumbs? You can go home, the demon has already come out of your daughter.

The woman hurried home, entered the house, opened the door, and saw her daughter lying quietly on the bed, smiling, with no demon in her, and she was healthy.

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

Иисус пошел в город Тир. Там он зашел в один дом. Он хотел сделать это тайно, чтобы люди не знали. Но слух о Нем быстро распространялся, и все вскоре узнали, что Иисус находится там. Там была одна женщина. Она была не-еврейка. Они пришла к Иисусу, упала перед ним на колени и стала умолять Его:

— Помоги! В мою дочь вселился бес. Она мучается. Пожалуйста, приди, исцели ее, изгони беса.

Иисус сказал ей:

— Я пришел ради евреев, потому что они дети Божьи, и в первую очередь я должен накормить их хлебом. Я не могу забрать хлеб у детей и отдать его собакам.

Женщина сказала:

— Да, это так! Но когда за столом дети едят хлеб, крошки падают на полу и что-то перепадает собакам. Собака может брать эти крошки и есть. Так же и я…

Иисус сказал ей:

— Ты готова довольствоваться крошками? Ты можешь возвращаться домой, бес уже вышел из твоей дочери.

Женщина поспешила домой, вошла в дом, раскрыла дверь и видит: ее дочь спокойно лежит на кровати, улыбается, и никакого бес в ней больше нет и она здорова.

Back-translation by Luka Manevich

<< Mark 7:1-23 in Russian Sign Language
Mark 7:31-37 in Russian Sign Language >>

complete verse (Mark 7:27)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 7:27:

  • Uma: “That’s why Yesus said to her: ‘I, I help the Yahudi people now. It’s not good to take children’s food and feed it to dogs.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Isa spoke to her in a parable, he said, ‘The children should be fed first because it is not right to take the food from the children and to throw it to the dogs.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Jesus spoke to her, he said, ‘The children are fed first because it is not good if we take the food of the children and give it to the dogs.’ Jesus meant that he would first help the Jews and then those who are not Jews.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Whereupon Jesus said, parabling, ‘Wait so-that first the children who are eating will-get-full, because it is emphatically not right if the children’s food is fed to dogs.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But Jesus replied, ‘It’s necessary to cause the children to eat-to-the-full first. It’s not possible/acceptable to grab away what the children are eating and throw it there to their dogs.’ He meant, the Judio were the ones he was going to first. Not yet those who weren’t Judio.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tsafiki: “Now Jesus thus said: First I must do things for the Jewish people. I must not do things for other people before doing it for the Jewish people. If I did things for you first, it would be like giving children’s food to dogs.”
  • Palantla Chinantec: “Jesus said to the woman in double talk [= parable] Let me help my countrymen first, because it isn’t right to give what the children should eat to dogs, is it?” (Source for this and above: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)

dog

Dogs were domesticated very early and were used for hunting and as watchdogs in the ancient world. In Egypt as early as 4000 B.C. people made pottery images that indicate that sleek fast hunting dogs were bred which looked like the modern greyhound. From Babylonian sculpture we know that around 2500 B.C. large hunting dogs that looked like the modern bull-mastiff were kept by people in the Mesopotamian civilizations.

Among the Jews however while dogs were kept mainly as watch-dogs they were held in contempt and left to feed themselves by scavenging. This habit of scavenging and the fact that dogs were possibly associated with some Egyptian gods meant that dogs were seen as very unclean animals by the Jews. The dog found in Jewish settlements in Bible times was probably the pariah dog Canis familiaris putiatini which looked something like a small light brown Alsatian or German shepherd. This type of dog in its wild and domesticated forms is found all over the Middle East and on the mainland coasts of South and Southeast Asia (where it is known as the crab-eating dog). The Australian dingo is also very similar.

Small pet dogs were kept in homes in the Greek and Roman civilizations by gentiles but not by Jews. This is probably the type of dog referred to by the Greek word kunarion in Matthew 15:26 and Mark 7:27.

As mentioned above dogs were held in contempt as unclean. To call someone a dog was therefore very derogatory and to refer to someone as a “dead dog” was even more so. Israelites viewed dogs as second only to pigs as unclean animals. Dogs as scavengers around the villages ate anything from household refuse to animal carcasses and human excreta. They even ate human corpses that lay unburied after battles. Furthermore the dog was possibly one of the symbols of the Egyptian god Anubis (although many modern scholars believe the symbol to be the jackal).

With all of the above in mind it is understandable that dying and then being eaten by unclean dogs was seen as the worst of all possible fates.

In the first century A.D. gentiles were considered to be unclean and were referred to by Jews in a derogatory way as “dogs.” There is therefore strong irony in the expression in Philippians 3:2 where Judaizing Christians are referred to as dogs.

One additional connotation associated with dogs in the Bible is sexual perversion and promiscuity a connotation probably arising from the fact that sexually aroused male dogs do not always differentiate between sexes as they seek to mate and the fact that dogs of both sexes mate repeatedly with different partners.

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

Honorary "are" construct denoting God (“say”)

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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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) 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, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.

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