Canaan

The term that is transliterated as “Canaan” in English is translated in American Sign Language with the sign loosely referencing the act of hiding/covering one’s face in shame. The association of “shame” with the name “Canaan” comes from Genesis 9, specifically verse 9:25. This sign was adapted from a similar sign in Kenyan Sign Language (see here). (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)


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

Click or tap here to see a short video clip about Canaan in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)

complete verse (Acts 7:11)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 7:11:

  • Uma: “From there, arrived a big famine all over the land of Mesir and the land of Kanaan. When this big famine arrived, many people suffered, and our ancestors also no longer had food.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Then a famine came/arrived throughout the country of Misil and including the country Kana’an, the place of Yakub and company. The people were very short-of-food. Our (incl.) forefathers could not find any food.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “So,’ said Stephen to the leaders, ‘a great famine took place in all of the land of Egypt and also in the land of Canaan, and the inhabitants there were having a hard time. And our ancestors, there was no place where they could get food.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘That being so, a famine arrived in the many-towns in Egipto and in Canaan, and people were excessively hardshipped. Our ancestors, they had no place-to-get what they would eat.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well, some years passed, then a painful famine occured in Egipto. It was the same in Canaan where our fore-fathers, the sons of Jacob, were living. They really had big hardship for it was hard to find where they could get food.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Acts 7:11)

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 Stephen and his listeners).

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

Translation commentary on Acts 7:11

“A famine and much suffering” would be a Jewish way of saying a famine … (which) caused much suffering, and so the Good News Translation has translated it in this way (see Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, Phillips; and also An American Translation* and Moffatt). The word translated food appears only here in the New Testament; in the Septuagint and the papyri it refers specifically to food for domesticated animals, but the meaning in this context seems to be food in general.

An expression for famine is usually readily available, but in some areas it is translated as “the people had no food.”

A rendering of could not find any food should not be translated to imply that they were hunters and gatherers; rather, they “could not obtain any food” in the sense that there was no food even to be bought.

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 .