The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated “boat” or “ship” in English is translated in Chichimeca-Jonaz as “that with which we can walk on water” (source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.), in Chitonga as a term in combination with bwato or “dugout canoe” (source: Wendland 1987, p. 72), and in Tangale as inj am or “canoe-of water” (inj — “canoe” — on its own typically refers to a traditional type of carved-out log for sleeping) (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin).
In Kouya it is translated as ‘glʋ ‘kadʋ — “big canoe.”
Philip Saunders (p. 231) explains how the Kouya team arrived at that conclusion:
“Acts chapter 27 was a challenge! It describes Paul’s sea voyage to Italy, and finally Rome. There is a storm at sea and a shipwreck on Malta, and the chapter includes much detailed nautical vocabulary. How do you translate this for a landlocked people group, most of whom have never seen the ocean? All they know are small rivers and dugout canoes.
“We knew that we could later insert some illustrations during the final paging process which would help the Kouya readers to picture what was happening, but meanwhile we struggled to find or invent meaningful terms. The ‘ship’ was a ‘big canoe’ and the ‘passengers’ were ‘the people in the big canoe’; the ‘crew’ were the ‘workers in the big canoe’; the ‘pilot’ was the ‘driver of the big canoe’; the ‘big canoe stopping place’ was the ‘harbour’, and the ‘big canoe stopping metal’ was the ‘anchor’!”
In Lokạạ it is translated as ukalangkwaa, lit. “English canoe.” “The term was not coined for the Bible translation, but rather originated in colonial times when the English arrived in Nigeria on ships. The indigenous term for a canoe was modified to represent the large, ocean-going ship of the English.” (Source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )
In many, if not most of the languages in the Philippines, proper nouns, such as personal names, are tagged with a marker that signals their grammatical role within a sentence. For Tagalog and the Visayan languages , this typically includes si to mark the proper noun as the actor or subject (nominative case), ni to mark the proper noun as an owner (genitive case), and kay to mark the proper noun as as an indirect object, i.e. the one to or toward whom an action is directed (dative case). All of these also have plural forms — sina, nina and kina respectively — and unlike in the biblical languages or in English, the plural form has to be used when only a single proper name is mentioned but implicitly that proper name includes more than just one.
In this verse, where English translates “he (crossed the sea),” the Tagalog translation translates “sina Jesus” because the context of the text makes clear that Jesus did not cross the sea by himself. (Source: Kermit Titrud and Steve Quakenbush)
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 9:1:
Uma: “From there, Yesus again rode a boat with his companions they went across returning going to their staying-place in the village of Kapernaum.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Isa got into the boat and they crossed over to the other side going back to his town.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Then Jesus and company got into the boat again, and they went back to the other side. And Jesus went back to his town.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Then plural Jesus climbed-up into the boat and they crossed-over (body of water) to return to his town/country.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Jesus and company sailed again to return to the other side, to the town of Capernaum where he was staying.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Jesus entered into the boat to go and went to the other side of the lake to where his town was.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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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 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, kae-rare-ru (帰られる) or “return” is used.
The various Greek, Aramaic, Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
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®).
The words And getting show that a new episode is beginning but that it follows directly from the previous one. Some translators have found it necessary to say “Then” or “After that.”
A boat, as in the Greek, is translated “the boat” by Good News Translation in order to maintain continuity within the immediate unit (see 8.23 where the boat is previously mentioned).
He is represented by a pronominal suffix of the verb in Greek and is identified as “Jesus” by Good News Translation because a new section is begun.
Crossed over (one verb in Greek) is translated “went back across the lake” by Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch.
To his own city, as the TEV footnote indicates, is Capernaum. New Jerusalem Bible also supplies this information by way of a footnote, and New American Bible does so by a section heading: “A Paralytic at Capernaum.” In 4.13 Matthew informs his readers that Jesus moved to the town of Capernaum after the death of John the Baptist.
The information about the town being Capernaum can be in a footnote, but should not be made specific in the text. To his own city may be rendered “to the town where he lived.” It is important to avoid an expression that would mean the town where Jesus was born (Bethlehem) or where he grew up (Nazareth).
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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