the Hebrews

The Greek that is translated as “the Hebrews” or similar in English is translated in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) with “the Aramaic speakers, the so-called Hebrews.”

widow

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “widow” in English is translated in West Kewa as ona wasa or “woman shadow.” (Source: Karl J. Franklin in Notes on Translation 70/1978, pp. 13ff.)

The etymological meaning of the Hebrew almanah (אַלְמָנָה) is likely “pain, ache,” the Greek chéra (χήρα) is likely “to leave behind,” “abandon,” and the English widow (as well as related terms in languages such as Dutch, German, Sanskrit, Welsh, or Persian) is “to separate,” “divide” (source: Wiktionary).

See also widows.

complete verse (Acts 6:1)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 6:1:

  • Uma: “As-time-went-on the more-and-more people who followed Yesus. At first, the followers of Yesus were all Yahudi people. But part of them spoke Yunani and another part spoke Yahudi. At that time, the followers who spoke Yunani complained about their companions who spoke Yahudi, they said: ‘Our(excl.) women who are widows, they are not receiving the portion that is divided every day to the pitiful/poor.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “At that time, when the followers of Isa were increasing in number, Yahudi born in other countries, whose language was Girik were opposing/quarreling with the Yahudi who had not moved from their country, whose language was Hibrani. The Yahudi from other countries complained because they said that their widow-women had been forgotten/neglected and not been given a share of the money distributed every day.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And at that time the people who believed in Jesus increased very much in number. And as for the believers who were Jews who spoke Greek, there was that which made their breath bad toward the other believers who were Jews. The Grecians said that their widow women were not given anything when that which is used to help was distributed every day to the widow women.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “That being so, those who believed in Jesus increasingly became-many. But-then the Jews whose language was Griego, they grumbled concerning the Jews who spoke Hebreo. Their grounds-for-complaint, they said that the many-widows who were their companions were being left-out in the daily distribution of money.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well, at that time, when the number of believers kept on increasing, it happened that there were hard-feelings felt by the Jews whose language was Ginirego against the Jews whose language was Hinebreo. They were saying that when the widows were distributed aid to every day, why were the widows whose language was Ginirego being passed over?” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

disciple

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The Greek that is often translated as “disciple” in English typically follows three types of translation: (1) those which employ a verb ‘to learn’ or ‘to be taught’, (2) those which involve an additional factor of following, or accompaniment, often in the sense of apprenticeship, and (3) those which imply imitation of the teacher.

Following are some examples (click or tap for details):

  • Ngäbere: “word searcher”
  • Yaka: “one who learned from Jesus”
  • Navajo, Western Highland Purepecha, Tepeuxila Cuicatec, Lacandon: “one who learned”
  • San Miguel El Grande Mixtec: “one who studied with Jesus”
  • Northern Grebo: “one Jesus taught”
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: “child (i.e., follower) of the master”
  • Indonesian: “pupil”
  • Central Mazahua: “companion whom Jesus taught”
  • Kipsigis, Loma, Copainalá Zoque: “apprentice” (implying continued association and learning)
  • Cashibo-Cacataibo: “one who followed Jesus”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “his people” (essentially his followers and is the political adherents of a leader)
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl: based on the root of “to imitate” (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Chol: “learner” (source: Larson 1998, p. 107)
  • Waorani: “one who lives following Jesus” (source: Wallis 1973, p. 39)
  • Ojitlán Chinantec: “learner” (Source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
  • Javanese: “pupil” or “companion” (“a borrowing from Arabic that is a technical term for Mohammed’s close associates”)
  • German: Jünger or “younger one” (source for this and one above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • German das Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022). “student” or “special student” (using the traditional German term Gnade)
  • Noongar: ngooldjara-kambarna or “friend-follow” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • French 1985 translation by Chouraqui: adept or “adept” (as in a person who is skilled or proficient at something). Watson (2023, p. 48ff.) explains (click or tap here to see more):

    [Chouraqui] uses the noun “adept,” which is as uncommon in French as it is in English. It’s an evocative choice on several levels. First, linguistically, it derives — via the term adeptus — from the Latin verb adipiscor, “to arrive at; to reach; to attain something by effort or striving.” It suggests those who have successfully reached the goal of their searching, and implies a certain struggle or process of learning that has been gradually overcome. But it’s also a term with a very particular history: in the Middle Ages, “adept” was used in the world of alchemy, to describe those who, after years of labor and intensive study, claimed to have discovered the Great Secret (how to turn base metals like lead into gold); it thus had the somewhat softened meaning of “someone who is completely skilled in all the secrets of their field.”

    Historians of religion often use the term adept with reference to the ancient mystery religions that were so prevalent in the Mediterranean in the centuries around the time of Jesus. An adept was someone who, through a series of initiatory stages, had penetrated into the inner, hidden mysteries of the religion, who understood its rituals, symbols, and their meaning. To be an adept implied a lengthy and intensive master-disciple relationship, gradually being led further and further into the secrets of the god or goddess (Isis-Osiris, Mithras, Serapis, Hermes, etc.) — secrets that were never to be revealed to an outsider.

    Is “adept” a suitable category in which to consider discipleship as we see it described in the Gospels? On some levels, the link is an attractive one, drawing both upon the social-religious framework of the ancient Mediterranean, and upon certain aspects of intimacy and obscurity/secrecy that we see in the relationship of Jesus and those who followed him. The idea that disciples are “learners” — people who are “on the way” — and that Jesus is portrayed as (and addressed as) their Master/Teacher is accurate. But the comparison is unsatisfactory on several other levels.

    First, the Gospels portray Jesus’s ministry as a largely public matter — there is relatively little of the secrecy and exclusiveness that is normally associated with both the mystery cults and medieval alchemy. Jesus’s primary message is not destined for a small, elite circle of “initiates” — although the Twelve are privy to explanations, experiences and teachings that are not provided to “the crowds.” For example, in Matthew 13:10-13:

    Then the disciples came and asked him, “Why do you speak to [the crowds] in parables?” He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’”

    Etymologically, adeptus suggests someone who “has arrived,” who has attained a superior level of understanding reserved for very few. However, what we see in the Gospels, repeatedly, is a general lack of comprehension of many of Jesus’s key teachings by many of those who hear him. Many of his more cryptic sayings would have been virtually incomprehensible in their original context, and would only make sense in retrospect, in the wake of the events of Jesus’s passion, death, and resurrection. The intense master-student relationship is also lacking: the Gospels largely portray “the disciples” as a loose (and probably fluctuating) body of individuals, with minimal structure or cohesion. Finally, there seems to be little scholarly consensus about the degree to which the mystery cults had made inroads in Roman-ruled Palestine during the decades of Jesus’s life. According to Everett Ferguson in his Backgrounds of Early Christianity.

    Although Christianity had points of contact with Stoicism, the mysteries, the Qumran community, and so on, the total worldview was often quite different….So far as we can tell, Christianity represented a new combination for its time…. At the beginning of the Christian era a number of local mysteries, some of great antiquity, flourished in Greece and Asia Minor. In the first century A.D. the vonly mysteries whose extension may be called universal were the mysteries of Dionysus and those of the eastern gods, especially Isis.

    And Norman Perrin and Dennis C. Duling note, in their book The New Testament:

    Examples of such mystery religions could be found in Greece… Asia Minor… Syria-Palestine… Persia… and Egypt. Though the mysteries had sacred shrines in these regions, many of them spread to other parts of the empire, including Rome. There is no clearly direct influence of the mysteries on early Christianity, but they shared a common environment and many non-Christians would have perceived Christians as members of an oriental Jewish mystery cult.56

    Given the sparse archaeological and literary evidence from this period regarding mystery cults in Roman Palestine, and the apparent resistance of many Palestinian Jews to religious syncretism, Chouraqui’s use of the noun adept implies a comparison between the historical Jesus and mystery cults that is doubtful, on both the levels of chronology and religious culture. Personally, I believe this choice suggests a vision of Jesus that distances him from the religious world of ancient Judaism, thus creating a distorted view of what spiritually inspired him. But the idea of the disciples as “learners” on a journey (as the Greek term suggests) is a striking one to consider; certainly, the Gospels show us the Twelve as people who are growing, learning, and developing…but who have not yet “arrived” at the fullness of their vocation.

  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): Jüngerinnen und Jünger or “female and male disciples.” Note that Berger/Nord only use that translation in many cases in the gospel of Luke, “because especially according to Luke (see 8:1–3), women were part of the extended circle of disciples” (see p. 452 and looked up at his disciples).

Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023) translates it into English as apprentice.

In Luang several terms with different shades of meaning are being used.

  • For Mark 2:23 and 3:7: maka nwatutu-nwaye’a re — “those that are taught” (“This is the term used for ‘disciples’ before the resurrection, while Jesus was still on earth teaching them.”)
  • For Acts 9:1 and 9:10: makpesiay — “those who believe.” (“This is the term used for believers and occasionally for the church, but also for referring to the disciples when tracking participants with a view to keeping them clear for the Luang readers. Although Greek has different terms for ‘believers’, ‘brothers’, and ‘church’, only one Luang word can be used in a given episode to avoid confusion. Using three different terms would imply three different sets of participants.”)
  • For Acts 6:1: mak lernohora Yesus wniatutunu-wniaye’eni — “those who follow Jesus’ teaching.” (“This is the term used for ‘disciples’ after Jesus returned to heaven.”)

Source: Kathy Taber in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 9-16.

In American Sign Language it is translated with a combination of the signs for “following” plus the sign for “group.” (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)


“disciples” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor

In British Sign Language a sign is used that depicts a group of people following one person (the finger in the middle, signifying Jesus). Note that this sign is only used while Jesus is still physically present with his disciples. (Source: Anna Smith)


“Disciple in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)

See also disciples (Japanese honorifics).

Translation commentary on Acts 6:1

This is the first time in the book of Acts where disciples is used as a designation of the Christians. Altogether the corresponding Greek term is used more than twenty-five times in Acts: once with the addition “of the Lord” (9.1); and in 9.25 the reference may be limited to the followers of Paul, Saul’s followers.

It may be necessary to employ a term for disciples which is different from the expression used in the translation of the Gospels. If in the Gospels one has used a phrase such as “those whom Jesus taught” or “those who learned from Jesus,” in Acts it is necessary to employ an expression which will indicate indirect association with Jesus, for example, “those who were followers of Jesus” (if the word “followers” means adherents to rather than immediate companions) or “believers in Jesus.” In fact, many translations use simply “believers” for disciples in Acts.

The number of disciples kept growing is rendered in many languages as “there were more people who became believers” or “more and more people believed in Jesus.”

Kept growing accurately translates the continuous aspect of the Greek present tense.

Quarrel is translated by some as “complaint” or “disagreement,” while others understand the word to mean a secret murmuring that was not done openly.

Greek-speaking Jews is rendered by most translations as “Hellenists”; and native Jews is usually translated as “Hebrews.” Although there is fairly unanimous agreement regarding the meaning of this latter term (it refers to Aramaic-speaking Jews of Palestine), there is some disagreement regarding the meaning of the former of these words. However, most commentators understand “Hellenists” to mean Greek-speaking Jews (see New English Bible “those of them who spoke Greek”); compare 9.29 and 11.20.

The phrase native Jews is not complicated in some languages. Some would like to render this simply as “those who lived in Jerusalem,” thus implying that Greek-speaking Jews were visitors from other areas. Others prefer to render this phrase as “Jews who spoke only the Jewish language” or “Jews who spoke only Aramaic.”

In Jerusalem there were many widows of men who had lived most of their lives outside of the Holy City, but had come to Jerusalem to die and to be buried. In order to care for these widows the Jews had set up means whereby they would be given money for food. Evidently the Christian community had adopted a similar custom. The daily distribution of funds is literally “in the daily distribution,” and may be taken to refer either to funds (as in the Good News Translation) or else to food. In light of the manner in which the Jews themselves handled the care for the widows, it is quite likely that the distribution is that of money rather than food.

The passive expression were being neglected may be rendered in some languages by a kind of substitute passive “they did not receive.”

The daily distribution of funds may be rendered as “money that was given to the widows each day” or “money that was given for the widows’ needs of each day.”

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 .