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.”
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “Sabbath” in English is rendered as “day we rest” in Tzotzil, in Mairasi as “Jew’s Rest Day,” in Quiotepec Chinantec as “day when people of Israel rested,” in Shilluk as “day of God,” in Obolo as Usen Mbuban or “Holy Day,” and in Mandarin Chinese as ānxírì (安息日) or “rest day” (literally: “peace – rest – day”). (Sources: Tzotzil: Marion Cowan in Notes on Translation with Drill, p. 169ff; Mairasi: Enggavoter 2004; Quiotepec Chinantec: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.; Shilluk: Nida 1964, p. 237; Obolo: Enene Enene; Chinese: Jost Zetzsche)
In Matumbi it is translated as Sabato ya Ayahudi or “Sabbath of the Jews,” to distinguish it from the Islamic Sabbath (which is Friday) or the Christian Sabbath (which is Sunday). (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
In the old Khmer version as well as in the first new translation this term was rendered as “day of rest” (Thngai Chhup Somrak / ថ្ងៃឈប់សំរាក). Considered inadequate to convey its religious meaning (not only about cessation of work, but also in honor of Yahweh as the Creator), the committee for the Today’s Khmer Version (publ. 2005) decided to keep the Hebrew word and use its transliterated form Thgnai Sabath (ថ្ងៃសប្ប័ទ). “The Buddhist word Thngai Seil ‘day of merits’ used by some Catholics was once under consideration but was rejected because it did not receive unanimous support.” (Source: Joseph Hong in The Bible Translator 1996, p. 233ff. )
In Spanish, the translation is either día de reposo (“day of rest”) or sábado (usually: “Saturday,” derived from the Greek and Hebrew original. Nida (1947, p. 239f.) explains that problem for Spanish and other languages in its sphere of influence: “In translation ‘Sabbath’ into various aboriginal languages of Latin America, a considerable number of translators have used the Spanish sábado, ‘Saturday,’ because it is derived from the Hebrew sabbath and seems to correspond to English usage as well. The difficulty is that sábado means only ‘Saturday’ for most people. There is no religious significance about this word as the is with ‘Sabbath’ in English. Accordingly the [readers] cannot understand the significance of the persecution of Jesus because he worked on ‘Saturday.’ It has been found quite advantageous to use the translation ‘day of rest,’ for this accurately translated the Hebrew meaning of the term and resolves the problem in connection with the prohibitions placed upon some types of activities.”
In French Sign Language it is translated with a sign that depicts closing of the blinds of a store:
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 1:12:
Uma: “From there, his apostles returned from Mount Zaitun going to Yerusalem. That Mount Zaitun, [was] about one kilometer distance from Yerusalem.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Then they went away from the hill Jaitun and returned to Awrusalam, about one kilometer distance.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then the apostles left the mountain which is called Olive Place, and they returned to the town of Jerusalem. (That hill, it is very near to Jerusalem. Maybe one kilometer is its distance.)” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the mountain Olivo. The distance, it is almost one kilometer.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well, without anything further, they then left the Hill of Olibo and returned to Jerusalem. That hill wasn’t far from Jerusalem, only about a kilometer.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
The name that is transliterated as “Jerusalem” in English is signed in French Sign Language with a sign that depicts worshiping at the Western Wall in Jerusalem:
While a similar sign is also used in British Sign Language, another, more neutral sign that combines the sign “J” and the signs for “place” is used as well. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Jerusalem” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
The concepts of distance that are translated in English with “long,” “wide,” and “high/tall” are translated in Kwere with one word: utali. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The olive family has over four hundred species in the world. Many of them grow in Africa, India, and Australia, but it is the one in the Bible, the European Olive Olea europaea, that has become famous. It is likely that the olive was domesticated in Egypt or the eastern Mediterranean basin in the third millennium B.C. The botanist Newberry argued that Egypt was its original home. We know from the Bible that olives grew in the hills of Samaria and in the foothills. There is a wild variety, called Olea europaea sylvestris, that is smaller than the domestic one; it produces a smaller fruit with less oil. The Apostle Paul refers to this wild variety in Romans 11:17 and 11:24. Olives are easily propagated by cuttings and by grafting fruitful species into less fruitful ones. They grow best on hillsides where the rain drains off quickly. The fruit forms by August but does not ripen until December or January.
The olive is not a big tree, reaching up to perhaps 10 meters (33 feet), but with pruning it is usually kept to around 5 meters (17 feet) tall. The leaves are grayish green above, and whitish underneath. The bark of young trees is silvery gray but gets darker and rougher as the tree ages. The trunk also gets twisted and hollow and may reach over a meter in thickness. Olives grow for hundreds of years, and some in Israel have possibly reached two thousand years.
The fruit of the olive is about 2 centimeters (1 inch) long and a bit more than a centimeter (1/2 inch) thick. It has a hard stone inside and a soft skin that covers the oily flesh. Today a mature tree may yield 10-20 kilograms (22-44 pounds) of fruit, which, when processed, will yield 1.3-2.6 kilograms (3.6 pounds) of oil.
For the Jews the “big three” trees were the vine, the fig, and the olive. People ate olive fruits, but more importantly, they squeezed the oil from the fruits, and used it for cooking, for lamps, for rubbing on the body, for medicine, and in religion. Jacob poured olive oil on the stone where he saw a vision of angels, declaring it a holy place (Genesis 28:18). Moses, similarly, anointed the Tabernacle and its equipment with olive oil mixed with sweet-smelling resins (Exodus 40:9). Aaron and the priests who served in the Tabernacle were also anointed (Exodus 29:21).
Some types of wild olive grow in Africa, India, and Australia, but are not well-known. The so-called “African olive” produces a black, oil-bearing fruit much like an olive. It is common as a snack in northern Nigeria. The “Chinese olive” is also a species of Canarium and may be a possible cultural substitute, if it produces edible fruit and oil. The “Russian olive” grown in dry regions of the world is a member of the Elaeagnus family and not a true olive. A variety of olive (Olea cuspidate) is used for building in India and Nepal, but it is probably not possible to use it in the Bible except perhaps in a study Bible where you could say that the biblical olive was related to this tree.
Since most of the kinds of olive trees in the world do not have edible fruit, it may not be possible to substitute a local variety. If it is done, however, a footnote would be required saying that the Palestinian kind produced edible fruit and oil. If a variety of Canarium is eaten in your area, you could use the local name for it. Otherwise transliterate from a major language.
In speaking of the Mount of Olives it is most important to avoid a name which may be misleading. For example, in some languages a literal rendering of this phrase name would imply that the mountain consisted of olives. In other languages, such a rendering suggests that the mountain consisted of olive trees. A more appropriate rendering suggests that the “mountain called ‘Olive Grove’,” “mountain on which there were olive groves,” “mountain known for its olive trees,” or “mountain with olive trees.” One or another of these basic structures is almost always represented in the structure of place-names in various languages.
In some languages it is useful to employ a classifier, for example, “city,” with a proper name such as Jerusalem, but this should normally be done at the first occurrence of a name in a discourse, such as in verse 4, and it is not necessary to repeat the classifier at this point.
Although the Greek does not make the subject of went back explicit, it is evident that the apostles are meant.
About half a mile away from the city translates “which is near Jerusalem the distance of a Sabbath day’s journey.” The expression “a Sabbath day’s journey” is regarded as having originated during the time Israel was wandering through the desert. The calculation was ostensibly based on the distance from the place of worship to the tent in the camp farthest from it. In later times the phrase was often used merely as an expression of distance, and that is how Luke has used it in this passage. For this reason, the Good News Translation translates the phrase as about half a mile away from the city (of Jerusalem). In metric measurements this is “about one kilometer.”
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 .
In this section, the believers were waiting for the Holy Spirit to come. They regularly prayed together. One day Peter said that they needed to choose a replacement for Judas. So they selected two men who had been with Jesus throughout his entire ministry. Then they asked God to help them know which of the two men he would choose. The method they used was to cast lots. (See 1:26 for this.) The lots indicated that God chose Matthias.
Here are some other possible headings for this section:
Matthias Chosen to Replace Judas (New International Version) -or-
Judas’ Successor (Good News Translation) -or-
Judas is replaced (New Jerusalem Bible)
Paragraph 1:12–14
1:12a
the Mount of Olives: The Greek words that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the Mount of Olives are literally “the mountain/hill being-called of-olives.” People called it that because it had olive trees growing on it. It is about 85 meters (280 feet) above the city of Jerusalem, as it was at that time. Use the correct word for that size of a hill. It is next to the east side of the city.
If olive trees are not known in your area, you may want to:
• Use the word that means Olives from the major language. If this word is not well known, you may want to add a descriptive phrase. For example:
Olive Hill ⌊where those fruit trees are⌋ -or-
Hill of ⌊the⌋ olive ⌊trees⌋
• Use the word that means Olives from the major language. Describe the word in a footnote. For example:
The olive tree has a small (about 2.5 centimeters, or one inch), oval fruit with a smooth skin and a hard seed inside. The olive was an essential food in ancient times. It was pressed into oil that was used in cooking and in some rituals. The oil was also used as fuel for lamps and in medicine and cosmetics.
• Use a general word for fruit. For example:
Hill of fruit trees
See how you translated this phrase in Matthew 21:1, Mark 11:1, or Luke 19:29.
Olives: This kind of tree has a small (about 2.5 centimeters, or one inch), oval fruit with a smooth skin and a hard seed inside. The olive was an essential food in ancient times. It was pressed into oil that was used in cooking and in some rituals. The oil was also used as fuel for lamps and in medicine and cosmetics.
1:12b
a Sabbath day’s journey away: The phrase a Sabbath day’s journey refers to a distance of about one kilometer. It is the distance that Jewish laws allowed people to walk on a Sabbath, a Jewish rest day. Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away (English Standard Version) -or-
a short distance away, no more than a Sabbath walk (New Jerusalem Bible)
The word Sabbath here does not indicate that Jesus went to heaven on the Sabbath. So, you do not need to include Sabbath in your translation here. For example:
a half-hour walk from the city -or-
a walk of a kilometer from the city -or-
which is about half a mile away from the city (Good News Translation)
You may then want to explain the literal phrase in a footnote. Here is an example footnote:
Literally “being a Sabbath’s journey.” It is the distance that Jewish laws allowed people to walk on a Sabbath, a Jewish rest day.
Sabbath: The word Sabbath is the name of the seventh and last day of the week for the Jews. The Sabbath was the special day of the week when the Jews rested and worshiped God. The Law of Moses said that the Jews must not do any work on that day (Deuteronomy 5:12–15).
Here are some ways to translate Sabbath:
the ⌊Jewish⌋ day of rest and worship -or-
the day for resting and worshiping -or-
the day to rest and worship God
If the word Sabbath is already known in your area, you may write it according to the sounds of your language. You may also want to include a phrase to explain the meaning. For example:
the Sabat, ⌊the Jews’ worship and rest day⌋
The term you choose should not make people think the Sabbath is on Sunday, the day when Christians worship. The Sabbath for the Jews began at sundown on Friday and ended at sundown on Saturday. You may want to include a footnote to give more information. For example:
“Sabbath” is the name for the seventh day of the Jews’ week. God told them to rest from work and worship him every week on that day.
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