Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, translators typically select the inclusive form (including Jesus).
Source: SIL International Translation Department (1999).
The Greek that is translated as “raise up children for his brother” or similar in English is translated in Copainalá Zoque as “have children with her who will carry on the older brother’s name,” in Central Tarahumara as “those children are to be as though they were the dead brother’s children,” in Teutila Cuicatec as “he is to have children with her so that in this way his brother’s race will not end,” in Tzotzil as “so that she will have a child who will bear the name of his late brother,” and in Southern Puebla Mixtec as “be like the children of the dead.” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “widow” in English is translated in West Kewa as ona wasa or “woman shadow” (source: Karl J. Franklin in Notes on Translation 70/1978, pp. 13ff.) and in Newari as “husband already died ones” or “ones who have no husband” (source: Newari Back Translation).
The etymological meaning of the Hebrewalmanah (אַלְמָנָה) is likely “pain, ache,” the Greekchéra (χήρα) is likely “to leave behind,” “abandon,” and the Englishwidow (as well as related terms in languages such as Dutch, German, Sanskrit, Welsh, or Persian) is “to separate,” “divide” (source: Wiktionary).
The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “brother” in English is translated in Kwere as sekulu, in Elhomwe as mbalaawo´, and in Mandarin Chinese as gēgē (哥哥), both “older brother.”
Note that Kwere also uses lumbu — “older sibling” in some cases. (Source for Kwere and Elhomwe: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext; Chinese: Jost Zetzsche)
The Greek that is translated as “teacher” (also: “master”) in English is translated in the 1941 Yiddish by Einspruch as rebe (רֶבּי) or “Rabbi” in an effort to identify Jesus as a teacher of the Jews. (Source: Naomi Seidmann in Elliott / Boer 2012, p. 151ff.)
Likewise, a number of Hebrew translations, including the 2018 and 2020 editions by the The Bible Society in Israel also use “Rabbi” (רַבִּי).
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 22:24:
Uma: “Those Saduki people came saying to Yesus: ‘Teacher, the prophet Musa taught like this: If a man dies, yet he doesn’t have any children, his sibling must marry his widow so that the dead person will have some descendants.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “They asked him, they said, ‘Sir, Musa wrote he said, ‘If a man dies and he has no children then his younger brother shall marry that widow in order that his older brother has descendants.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And they said, ‘Teacher, Moses taught long ago that, for example, if there is a man and he has a wife and that man dies, it is necessary for the brother of the man to marry his widow so that the dead person might have children through him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “They said to him, ‘Sir teacher, our law that Moses wrote says, ‘If there is a married-couple who have no children and the man dies, his brother must marry the widow so that if they have a child, that will be like a child of the dead-one.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “On arriving, they said, ‘Teacher, Moises taught that if a man who is married dies, that married couple having no children yet, he is to be succeeded by his brother in marrying (that wife). For if they have a child, it is to be regarded as like it is indeed the child of that dead (person).” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “‘Listen, teacher, in the law which Moses wrote, there is written this word which says that when a man dies and he didn’t have any children, then concerning the wife of the dead man who is left, the dead man’s brother will marry the widow so that there will be children as though they were the children of the dead man.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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:
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).
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
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