The Greek that is translated as “Sabbath day’s journey” in English is translated in Elhomwe as “nearly one kilometer,” which was all you can travel on the Sabbath. (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) it is translated as der nicht weiter von der Stadt entfernt ist, als man am Sabbat gehen kann or “which is no further away from the city than you can walk on the Sabbath.”
About the early translation efforts into Kankanaey, J.B. Newman (2018, p. 82f.) tells this story about her husband Barclay Newman in 1968:
“Barclay and his family had been living in the Philippines for only a short time, when he had a request from a Wycliffe missionary translator to come to a tribal group of people living in the interior hill country near Baguio in the Philippines. The translator knew the language and was working on a translation of the New Testament for this group of people who had never had even a part of the Bible translated into their language.
“‘Barclay recalls that late in the afternoon, after a full day’s work with the translator, he was standing outside, watching a tribal man cooking something on a small fire. The Wycliffe translator was also watching, and as she and Barclay conversed about the days’ translation questions, Barclay asked her, ‘How did you translate Acts 1.12 where the Scripture , ‘The Mount of Olives that was about a Sabbath Day’s journey from Jerusalem?’’
“The translator explained to Barclay that she and her colleague had translated this as, ‘The Mount of Olives that is as far from Jerusalem as can walk on a day of rest.’
“Barclay looked intently at the translator, who then asked, ‘That doesn’t get it, does it?’
“He explained, ‘The phrase goes back to the time of Moses, when the Israelites were living in the desert. In New Testament times it had come to be used as a measurement of distance.’ Then Barclay asked the translator how the people of this tribe measured distance? ‘Do they use miles or kilometers? If so, you could translate either ‘about half a mile’ or ‘about a kilometer.’ Or if they use time to measure distance, you could say ‘about a twenty or thirty-minute walk.’’
“The old squatting gentleman – more naked than not – continued to cook his meat on the small fire. The translator discussed the problem in the old man’s language and finally decided to translate the verse as, ‘The Mount of Olives that is as far from Jerusalem as you can walk in the time that it takes a pot of bananas to cook.’
“Barclay wanted to be very exacting and correct before he agreed to this method of measuring distance, so he asked the translator to inquire of the old tribal man if he meant a big pot of bananas or a small pot of bananas? She repeated Barclay’s question, and the old man’s brown, shriveled up face broke into a wide grin. Then he replied, ‘Any fool – even a white man – ought to know that if you have a big bunch of bananas to cook, you build a big fire and use a big pot, and if you have a small amount of bananas to cook, you build a small fire and use a small pot. It always takes the same amount of time to cook a pot of bananas. Anyone should know that.’
“The translator confirmed that this was true, because she and the other missionary lady who lived and worked with her in the village would go out for a walk each evening while the bananas were cooking, and it always took about the same amount of time, whether it was a big pot or a small pot.”
See also Translation commentary on Acts 1:12.
.jpg){kind=link}
