Chaldean

The name that is transliterated as “Chaldean” in English means “astrologer,” “wanderers.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )

In Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) it is translated with the sign that combines “Mesopotamia” (see here) and “spreading out,” since the Chaldeans originated in southern Mesopotamia and spread out from there. (Source: Missão Kophós )


“Chaldean” in Libras (source )

More information about Chaldea .

For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .

Translation commentary on The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men 1:25

If integrated into the book of Daniel: 3.48

It broke through and burned …: The previous verse described the height of the flames. Here they leap out horizontally and consume those standing nearby. It refers to the “flames”; Contemporary English Version has “they.” Broke through is better expressed in Good News Translation “spread out,” Contemporary English Version “shot out” (also Moore), or New Jerusalem Bible “leaping out.”

Good News Translation renders Chaldeans as “Babylonians” (see the comments on Bar 1.2).

Whom it caught about the furnace is reduced in New American Bible to “nearby,” which is quite adequate. Another possible rendering is “who were standing nearby” (Contemporary English Version).

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.