bread, loaf

The Greek term that is translated in English as “bread” or “loaf” is translated in Samo, it is translated as “Sago,” which serves “like ‘bread’ for the Hebrews, as a generic for food in the Samo language. It is a near-perfect metonymy that has all the semantic elements necessary for effective communication.” (Source: Daniel Shaw in Scriptura 96/2007, p. 501ff.)

In Chol it is translated as waj, the equivalent of a tortilla. (Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight)

John Beekman (in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 180f. ) explains: “The word ‘bread’ in Scripture primarily occurs as either a specific term for bread (including the Lord’s Supper), or as a generic term for food. It is not surprising, however, the some aboriginal groups use something other than bread as the staff of life. The Chols, with their cultural focus in the cultivation of corn, use waj, a type of thin corn flake. Since a meal is not complete without this main item of food, the term has been extended to include any other foods which may be served along with waj. While bread is known to them, its use is limited to a few occasions during the year when it functions as a dessert. In translating this term in the Chol New Testament, consistent use has been made of the word waj whenever the function of bread as a basic food was in focus. John 6:35, “I am the bread of life,” was thus translated with this word. If the word for bread had been used, it was feared that the Chol would compare Christ to the desirable, but not absolutely necessary, dessert.”

Robert Bascom adds his thoughts to this in relation to other Mayan languages (in Omanson 2001, p. 260): “In many Mayan languages, ‘bread’ can be translated waj or kaxlan waj. The first term literally means anything made from corn meal, while the second term literally means ‘foreigner’s waj,’ and refers to the local wheat-based sweet breads which are so popular within the broader European-influenced culture of the region. On the one hand, waj would be a better dynamic equivalent in cases where ‘bread’ meant ‘food,’ but in cases where the focus is literal or the reference well-known, kaxlan waj would preserve a flour-based meaning (though in biblical times barley was more in use than wheat) and not insert corn into a time and place where it does not belong. On the other hand kaxlan waj is not the staff of life, but refers to a local delicacy. In cases such as these, it is even tempting to suggest borrowing pan, the Spanish word for ‘bread,’ but native speakers might respond that borrowing a foreign word is not necessary since both waj and kaxlan waj are native terms that cover the meaning (though in this case, perhaps not all that well).”

bless(ed)

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The Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Aramaic that is translated into English as “(to) bless” or “blessed” is translated into a wide variety of possibilities.

The Hebrew term barak (and the Aramaic term berak) also (and originally) means “kneel” (a meaning which the word has retained — see Gen. 24:11) and can be used for God blessing people (or things), people blessing each other, or people blessing God. While English Bible translators have not seen a stumbling block in always using the same term (“bless” in its various forms), other languages need to make distinctions (see below).

In Bari, spoken in South Sudan, the connection between blessing and knees/legs is still apparent. For Genesis 30:30 (in English: “the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned”), Bari uses a common expression that says (much like the Hebrew), ‘… blessed you to my feet.'” (Source: P. Guillebaud in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 189ff. .)

Other examples for the translation of “bless” when God is the one who blesses include (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight):

  • “think well of” (San Blas Kuna)
  • “speak good to” (Amganad Ifugao)
  • “make happy” (Pohnpeian)
  • “cause-to-live-as-a-chief” (Zulu)
  • “sprinkle with a propitious (lit. cool) face” (a poetic expression occurring in the priests’ language) (Toraja Sa’dan) (source for this and above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • “give good things” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • “ask good” (Yakan) (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • “praise, say good things” (Central Yupik) (source: Robert Bascom)
  • “greatly love” (Candoshi-Shapra) (source: John C. Tuggy)
  • “showing a good heart” (Kutu) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • “good luck — have — good fortune — have” (verbatim) ꓶꓼ ꓙꓳ ꓫꓱꓹ ꓙꓳ — ɯa dzho shes zho (Lisu). This construction follows a traditional four-couplet construct in oral Lisu poetry that is usually in the form ABAC or ABCB. (Source: Arrington 2020, p. 58)

In Tagbanwa a phrase is used for both the blessing done by people and God that back-translates to “caused to be pierced by words causing grace/favor” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).

Ixcatlán Mazatec had to select a separate term when relating “to people ‘blessing’ God” (or things of God): “praise(d)” or “give thanks for” (in 1 Cor. 10:16) (“as it is humans doing the ‘blessing’ and people do not bless the things of God or God himself the way God blesses people” — source: Robert Bascom). Eastern Bru and Kui also use “praise” for this a God-directed blessing (source: Bru back translation and Helen Evans in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) and Uma uses “appropriate/worthy to be worshipped” (source: Uma back translation).

When related to someone who is blessing someone else, it is translated into Tsou as “speak good hopes for.” In Waiwai it is translated as “may God be good and kind to you now.” (Sources: Peng Kuo-Wei for Tsou and Robert Hawkins in The Bible Translator 1962, pp. 164ff. for Waiwai.)

Some languages associate an expression that originally means “spitting” or “saliva” with blessing. The Bantu language Koonzime, for instance, uses that expression for “blessing” in their translation coming from either God or man. Traditionally, the term was used in an application of blessing by an aged superior upon a younger inferior, often in relation to a desire for fertility, or in a ritualistic, but not actually performed spitting past the back of the hand. The spitting of saliva has the effect of giving that person “tenderness of face,” which can be translated as “blessedness.” (Source: Keith Beavon)

Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the Danish Bibelen 2020, comments on the translation of this term: “As for ‘blessing’, in the end we in most instances actually kept the word, after initially preferring the expression ‘giving life strength’. The backlash against dropping the word blessing was too hard. But we would often add a few words to help the reader understand what the word means in a given context — people often understand it to refer more to a spiritual connection with God, but in the Hebrew texts, it usually has to do with material things or good health or many children. So when e.g. in Isaiah 19:25 the Hebrew text says ‘God bless them’, we say ‘God bless them’ and we add: ‘and give them strength’. ‘And give them strength’ is not found in the overt Hebrew text, but we are again making explicit what we believe is the meaning so as to avoid misunderstanding.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )

See also bless (food and drink), blessed (Christ in Mark 11:9), and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.

See also “Blessed by ‘The Blessing’ in the World’s Indigenous Languages” and Multilingual version of “The Blessing” based on Numbers 6:24-26 .

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (1Cor. 10:16)

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 the addressee).

Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.

complete verse (1 Corinthians 10:16)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Corinthians 10:16:

  • Uma: “When we drink wine to remember the blood of Kristus that was poured-out on the cross, we say thank you to the Lord God, and we drink it together. Isn’t that a sign that we are Kristus’s people, whom he redeemed with his death? And when we distribute the bread and eat it together to remember Kristus dying on the cross, isn’t that a sign that we are portions of the body of Kristus?” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “When we (incl.) gather to remember the death of Isa Almasi we (incl.) drink from the glass, the one we (dual) have given thanks for to God as a sign that we (dual) are one already with Almasi because of his blood that was spilled. Likewise the bread that is broken. We (dual) eat that bread as a sign that we (dual) belong now to Almasi.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “As for us (incl.) believers, when we gather together in order to carry out the remembering the death of Christ, there is that which we drink which we give thanks for to God. This is a symbol that we have been cleansed by the blood of Christ (the word cleansed here, is a word referring to what any kind of a sacrificial sacrifice does, that is, what the blood of sacrificial offering does, and it, in Manobo culture, removes evil). And the bread which we break and we eat, this is our sharing in the body of Christ.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “When we join-in-taking-communion (makikumulgar), when/if we drink from what is in the glass for-which-we -give-thanks to God and we also eat from the bread that has been broken-into-pieces, we join-in-experiencing/sharing the blessing that comes-from the blood and body of Cristo, isn’t that so?” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For is it not so that when we give thanks to God for what we drink when we eat-the-communion-meal, what it means is that we are one mind/inner-being-entity joining-in-fellowship with Cristo, for we have a share in the good which will be ours because of his blood which was shed? And also when we eat the bread which is broken-up, like that too, we are one mind/inner-being-entity joining-in-fellowship with Cristo for we have a share in the good which will be ours because of his body which was sacrificed.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “When we ask God to bless the cup when we have the Holy Supper, does it not signify that those people who drink it are the people for whom Christ’s blood flowed there on the cross in order to save them? And concerning the bread which we break in order to eat, does it not signify that all who eat it are the people for whom Christ gave up his body there where he was killed to save them.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on 1 Corinthians 10:16

The two halves of this verse are similar in construction, though the first half is made more complicated by the clause which we bless. The difficulties of translating this verse are shown by the fact that both Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible use many more words than are in the Greek.

These two sentences are rhetorical questions. Translators in many languages will need to translate them as statements, as Good News Bible has done.

In 16a The cup (with the article The) suggests, as in verse 1, that Paul’s reader already knows which cup he is referring to. The reference is to a common practice in the church. The situation is, however, complicated by the fact that in Jewish meals, especially the Passover, the phrase “cup of blessing” was also used.

The we is not emphasized. It almost certainly refers to Christians in general, but without implying any contrast between Christians and Jews (compare verse 18).

In a Jewish setting the phrase The cup of blessing would mean “the cup over which a prayer of blessing is spoken,” and to bless a material object would mean “to give thanks to God for it.” So translators would be wise to adopt a translation similar to that of Good News Bible, “the cup we use in the Lord’s Supper and for which we give thanks to God” or “the cup we use in the Lord’s Supper, over which we say a prayer of thanksgiving to God.”

The difference between participation (also New International Version) and “communion” (Revised Standard Version footnote) is that participation means “sharing” with one another, while “communion” focuses on the relation between the believer and Christ, which is certainly also involved. (New Jerusalem Bible, New Revised Standard Version have “sharing”; Revised English Bible “means of sharing.”) The following verses suggest that Paul is thinking mainly about the union of Christians with one another. However, the idea of participation is also required by the reference to Christ’s blood and body. Perhaps one could combine these ideas as Barrett does: “a common participation in the body of Christ”; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates more fully: “Think of the communion cup over which we speak the prayer of thanksgiving. Does it not enable us to share in the blood that Christ poured out for us?”

Blood here should be translated literally, since the comparison is between two liquids. Similarly, in 16b it is probably best to keep the literal translation of body.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• When we drink (wine) from the cup that we use in the Lord’s supper, for which we give thanks to God, we are really sharing in the blood of Christ. And when we break the bread and eat it, we are really sharing in the body of Christ.

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .