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. )

man whose name was Joseph

The Greek that is translated as “a man whose name was Joseph” in English is translated in Nkumbi as “Joseph.” Riikka Halme-Berneking (in The Bible Translator 2014, p. 353ff. ) explains: “Recently, two Nkumbi translators realized they could not use the word omulume ‘man’ in Luke 1:27 where Mary is engaged to ‘a man called Joseph’ because it would imply that Joseph already was a married man and he would marry yet another woman, Mary. Another word, omumati ‘boy,’ would have to be used instead. However, without any specific information about Joseph’s age and marital status, it was decided that it was best not to take a stance on one or the other, and thus the word ‘man’ was left untranslated.”