flowers, wreaths

The Greek term that is translated as “wreath” or “flowers” into English is rendered in Purari as “tree flowers” to avoid the implication that they were shell decorations.

sacrifice

The Greek that is translated as “sacrifice” in English is translated in Huba as hatǝmachi or “shoot misfortune.”

David Frank (in this blog post ) explains: “How is it that ‘shoot misfortune’ comes to mean sacrifice, I wanted to know? Here is the story: It is a traditional term. Whenever there were persistent problems such as a drought, or a rash of sickness or death, the king (or his religious advisor) would set aside a day and call on everyone to prepare food, such as the traditional mash made from sorghum, or perhaps even goat. The food had to be put together outside. The king or his religious advisor would give an address stating what the problem was and what they were doing about it. Then an elder representing the people would take a handful of that food and throw it, probably repeating that action several times, until it was considered to be enough to atone for all the misfortune they had been having. With this action he was ‘shooting (or casting off) misfortune’ to restore well-being to his people. As he threw the food, he would say that this is to remove the misfortune that had fallen on his people, and everybody would respond by saying aɗǝmja, ‘let it be so.’ People could eat some of this food, but they could not bring the food into their houses, because that would mean that they were bringing misfortune into their house. There is still a minority of people in this linguistic and cultural group that practices the traditional religion, but the shooting of misfortune is no longer practiced, and the term ‘shoot misfortune’ is used now in Bible translation to refer to offering a sacrifice. Aɗǝmja is how they translate ‘amen.'”

complete verse (Acts 14:13)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 14:13:

  • Uma: “From there, because there was also a house of worship of Zeus outside the town, their religion leaders carried/brought several bulls and flowers to the town gates, along with many people. Their intention was to slaughter the cows as-a-worship-offering to Paulus and Barnabas.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “The prayer-house of/for their god Seus was there outside the gate of that city. The priest of that prayer-house went to the gate leading bulls having garlands (lit. flowers strung) around their necks. This priest and the many people wanted to butcher those cattle as a sacrifice to Paul and company.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And there was there near the town the church of their god Zeus, and the shaman who sacrificed there, he was there already at the gate of the village bringing flowers which were made into a necklace and a cow to sacrifice because he and the people, they would worship Paul and company.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The temple where-they -worshipped Zeus, it was at the edge of town. So their priest, he took male cattle necklaced with flowers to the gate that was the entrance of town, because they all wanted to sacrifice-to plural Pablo.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Outside of that city there was a worship-place of their pretend god who was Zeus. Well, what their priest there did was, he fetched male cows which he necklaced with what was made with flowers, and he took them to the gate of the city. He was thinking that he would lead the crowd in worshipping Bernabe and Pablo. He would sacrifice those cows to make a thank-offering.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Acts 14:13

The god Zeus, whose temple stood just outside the town is the way that most translators understand the meaning of the Greek; however, some think the reference is to the name of a local deity (see Jerusalem Bible “Zeus-outside-the-gate”). The flowers (literally “wreaths of flowers”) were draped around animals to be sacrificed. Commentators differ as to whether the gate referred to was the gate of the city, the gate of the temple, or the gate of the house where the apostles were staying; but it seems more in keeping with the story to suppose that the gate referred to was the gate of the temple. The purpose of the sacrifice that the priest wanted to offer is clearly evident in the context; it was to be offered to the apostles, and for this reason the Good News Translation has made the purpose of his intended sacrifice explicit (see vv. 14 ff.).

The phrase the priest of the god Zeus may need to be somewhat more explicit in some languages—for example, “the priest who served the god Zeus” or even “the priest in the temple of the god Zeus.”

The phrase whose temple may be translated as “the building in which people worshiped Zeus.”

The verb brought must frequently be translated by two quite different verbs, one which would apply to “bulls” and another to “flowers.” In the first instance it may be “caused to be led” or “caused to be driven,” while in the second it would be either “carried” or perhaps “caused to be carried.”

In this instance the term gate may often be rendered as merely “entrance” or “place where people went in.”

For languages which have no sacrificial system, to offer sacrifice to may be translated as “to kill an animal in honor of” or “to kill an animal as a gift to show respect for.” However, there must be direct implication of “worship”—for example, “to kill an animal in order to show worship to.”

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 .