Language-specific Insights

unleavened bread

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “unleavened bread” in English is translated in various ways:

  • Chichimeca-Jonaz: “bread that doesn’t have its medicine that makes it puff up”
  • Teutila Cuicatec: “bread without its sour”
  • Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “bread that has no mother” (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Mairasi: “bread without other ingredient” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Chichewa: “non-puffed-up bread”
  • Chitonga: “bread without fermented grain” (source for this and above: de Regt / Wendland 2016)
  • Hiligaynon: “bread that has-none of that-which-causes-to-expand” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Tatar: “unleavened flat cakes” (source: Lénart de Regt in The Bible Translator 2017, p. 131ff. )
  • Nkumbi / Mbangala / Songo: “bread that has gone no yeast” — “this is an application of a common construction in Angolan Bantu languages for speaking about the ingredients in some foods: ‘there is salt in the soup’ is rendered literally, ‘the soup has gone salt.’ (Source: Riikka Halme-Berneking in The Bible Translator 2014, p. 353ff. )

peace offering

The Hebrew that is rendered in English as “peace offering” or “sacrifice (or “offerings”) of well-being” or similar is translated into Pökoot as pöghisyö: “gift of peace/fellowship.” This term has the connotations of fellowship, wholeness, restored relationships, etc. The word pöghisyö is also used as a common greeting (much like Shalom in Hebrew).

In the Italian Traduzione interconfessionale in lingua corrente (2014) it is translated as “sacrificio per il banchetto sacro” (“sacrifice for the holy banquet”), in the Contemporary Russian Version (2nd ed., 2015) as “banquet offering,” or in Tatar as “sacrifice of reconciliation.” (Source: Lénart de Regt in The Bible Translator 2017, p. 131ff. )

The German Jewish translation by Buber and Rosenzweig has “peace meal slaughter” (Friedmahlschlachtung).

guilt offering

The Hebrew that is typically translated as “guilt offering” in English is translated in Chol as “offerings for responsibility for sinning as well as for sinning itself.” (Source: Robert Bascom)

In Tatar it is translated as “sacrifice of redemption from guilt.” (Source: Lénart de Regt in The Bible Translator 2017, p. 131ff. )

year of Jubilee

The Hebrew that is translated as “(year of) Jubilee” in English is translated in Kwere as mwaka wa kubweleza or “year of return.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

In Tatar it is translated as “fiftieth year.” “It was difficult to coin a meaning-based rendering in this language. Since the context already refers to restoration, the translation team felt that a calendar-based rendering of the term itself would be best.§” (Source: Lénart de Regt in The Bible Translator 2017, p. 131ff. )

purification offering

The Hebrew and Greek that is typically translated as “purification offering” in English is translated in Tatar as “sacrifice of redemption from sin”), in the Italian Traduzione interconfessionale in lingua corrente (2014) as offerta per il perdono dei peccati (offering for the pardon of sins), and in German as either Sühneopfer (“atoning offering”) or Sündopfer (“sin offering”). (Source: Lénart de Regt in The Bible Translator 2017, p. 131ff. )

grain offering

The Hebrew and Greek that is typically translated as “grain offering” is translated in Tatar as “bread gift,” in the Italian Traduzione interconfessionale in lingua corrente (2014) as offerta di vegetali (“vegetable offering”), in the French Parole de Vie (2000) as un produit de la terre (“a product of the earth”) and in German as Speiseopfer (“food offering”). (Source: Lénart de Regt in The Bible Translator 2017, p. 131ff. )