Orthodox Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )
Following is a hand colored stencil print on momigami of Peter by Sadao Watanabe (1970):
Image taken with permission from the SadaoHanga Catalogue where you can find many more images and information about Sadao Watanabe. For other images of Sadao Watanabe art works in TIPs, see here.
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 exclusive form (excluding the group that Peter speaks to in Jerusalem).
Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.
Apali: “God’s one with talk from the head” (“basically God’s messenger since head refers to any leader’s talk”) (source: Martha Wade)
Michoacán Nahuatl: “clean helper of God” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Noongar: Hdjin-djin-kwabba or “spirit good” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Wè Northern (Wɛɛ): Kea ‘a “sooa or “the Lord’s soldier” (also: “God’s soldier” or “his soldier”) (source: Drew Maust)
Iwaidja: “a man sent with a message” (Sam Freney explains the genesis of this term [in this article ): “For example, in Darwin last year, as we were working on a new translation of Luke 2:6–12 in Iwaidja, a Northern Territory language, the translators had written ‘angel’ as ‘a man with eagle wings’. Even before getting to the question of whether this was an accurate term (or one that imported some other information in), the word for ‘eagle’ started getting discussed. One of the translators had her teenage granddaughter with her, and this word didn’t mean anything to her at all. She’d never heard of it, as it was an archaic term that younger people didn’t use anymore. They ended up changing the translation of ‘angel’ to something like ‘a man sent with a message’, which is both more accurate and clear.”)
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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) is used as in mi-tsukai (御使い) or “messenger (of God).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 11:13:
Uma: “Kornelius recounted to us (excl.) that he had seen an angel appear in his house who said to him: ‘Send people going to Yope to search for a man named Simon Petrus, so that he comes here.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Korneliyus told us (excl.) that he reportedly had seen an angel standing there in his house and speaking to him. The angel reportedly said, ‘Send to the place Joppa to fetch a man named Simon, also named Petros.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “and Cornelius told us that there was an angel of God that appeared to him in his house. And this angel said to him, ‘Send there to the village of Joppa someone to get a person named Simon Peter.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “And then he related the appearing of the angel to him in his house and what the angel told saying, ‘Send-someone to go to Joppa to go call/invite Simon nicknamed Pedro,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “When we (excl.) had entered, he related to us (excl.) how he had seen an angel there in his house. The angel said, ‘Send a few people to go to Jope. Have Simon fetched whose other name is Pedro.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
The name that is transliterated as “Joppa” (or: “Jaffa”) in English is translated in Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) with the sign for “whale,” referring to Joppa that is mentioned as the starting point of the sea voyage of Jonah that ends up in the belly of a large fish (see Jonah 1:3). (Source: Missão Kophós )
The name that is transliterated as “Simon (Peter)” in English is translated in Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) with a sign that combines a reference to “Peter” (see here for the Libras translation of “Peter”) and “son” (of Jonah / John). (Source: Missão Kophós )
It is to be noticed that this in the fourth time in Acts that this particular story has been narrated (see 10.3, 5, 22, 32). Your family (literally “your household”) included not only the immediate family, but all the servants and others who were under the authority of the master of the house (see 10.7).
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.