unleavened bread

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “unleavened bread” in English is translated in various ways:

  • Chichimeca-Jonaz: “bread that doesn’t have its medicine that makes it puff up”
  • Teutila Cuicatec: “bread without its sour”
  • Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “bread that has no mother” (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Mairasi: “bread without other ingredient” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Chichewa: “non-puffed-up bread”
  • Chitonga: “bread without fermented grain” (source for this and above: de Regt / Wendland 2016)
  • Hiligaynon: “bread that has-none of that-which-causes-to-expand” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

leaven

The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “leaven” (or “yeast”) in English is translated in Tzotzil as “the thing that swells the stomach of bread” and in Mairasi “bread cooking ingredient” (source: Enggavoter 2004)

In the occurrences in Mark 8:15 it is translated in Wantoat as “salt.” (Source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.)

See also leaven (1Cor 5:6).

remove - cut off

The Hebrew that is translated as “remove (leaven)” and “cut off (from Israel)” in English is translated in the Hausa Common Language Bible with the same verb: kawar da or “do away with.” Even though this is a word play that does not exist in the Hebrew text, it gives the text a poetic ring and emphasis. (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

complete verse (Exodus 12:15)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 12:15:

  • Kupsabiny: “Be eating bread which has not risen for seven days. Remove those things (yeast) that makes the bread swell/rise in your houses early on the first day, because if anyone eats something that has risen/swollen in those seven days, they will be chased/excluded from where the people of Israel are.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “For seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. On the first day you must remove the yeast from your house. If anyone eats anything with yeast in it during the seven days he must be cast out from the community of Israel.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Within-a-period-of seven days you (plur.) should-eat bread that does-not-have that-which-causes-to-expand. On the very first day, you (plur.) are-to-remove/take all of that which-causes-to-expand from your houses, for whoever eats the bread which has that-which-causes-to-expand from the first day until the seventh day, (he/she) is- not -to-be-considered under-the-jurisdiction of Israel.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “It came about that God spoke again like this, ‘For a duration of seven days, you (pl.) will eat bret not having yis existing in it. And on that day which goes first, you must throw [away] whatever yis is existing in your houses so that it’s rubbish. And on that day which goes first and up until the seven[th] day, if anyone eats some food having yis existing in it, you must dissociate with him so that he goes far from you Israel people.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “you shall eat bread which lacks yeast for days seven. On day of first, carry on head [away] yeast out from house your, because one who eats that which has yeast inside of days seven those, they not him also will count among people of Israel.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “For seven days you must eat bread that has no yeast in it. On the first day of that week you must get rid of all the yeast that is in your houses. During those seven days, if anyone eats bread that is baked with yeast in it, you must consider that person to be no longer an Israeli.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )