dog

Dogs were domesticated very early and were used for hunting and as watchdogs in the ancient world. In Egypt as early as 4000 B.C. people made pottery images that indicate that sleek fast hunting dogs were bred which looked like the modern greyhound. From Babylonian sculpture we know that around 2500 B.C. large hunting dogs that looked like the modern bull-mastiff were kept by people in the Mesopotamian civilizations.

Among the Jews however while dogs were kept mainly as watch-dogs they were held in contempt and left to feed themselves by scavenging. This habit of scavenging and the fact that dogs were possibly associated with some Egyptian gods meant that dogs were seen as very unclean animals by the Jews. The dog found in Jewish settlements in Bible times was probably the pariah dog Canis familiaris putiatini which looked something like a small light brown Alsatian or German shepherd. This type of dog in its wild and domesticated forms is found all over the Middle East and on the mainland coasts of South and Southeast Asia (where it is known as the crab-eating dog). The Australian dingo is also very similar.

Small pet dogs were kept in homes in the Greek and Roman civilizations by gentiles but not by Jews. This is probably the type of dog referred to by the Greek word kunarion in Matthew 15:26 and Mark 7:27.

[Sarah Ruden (2021, p. 27), who translates kunarion as “little doggy,” says the following: “In the entire Greek Bible, only [these two passages] use this diminutive (kunarion) of the word for ‘dog,’ a rare and largely comical word. This word choice weakens the usual sense of dogs as dirty and uncivilized and excluded from the home, much less from the table that symbolized God’s providential bounty.”]

As mentioned above dogs were held in contempt as unclean. To call someone a dog was therefore very derogatory and to refer to someone as a “dead dog” was even more so. Israelites viewed dogs as second only to pigs as unclean animals. Dogs as scavengers around the villages ate anything from household refuse to animal carcasses and human excreta. They even ate human corpses that lay unburied after battles. Furthermore the dog was possibly one of the symbols of the Egyptian god Anubis (although many modern scholars believe the symbol to be the jackal).

With all of the above in mind it is understandable that dying and then being eaten by unclean dogs was seen as the worst of all possible fates.

In the first century A.D. gentiles were considered to be unclean and were referred to by Jews in a derogatory way as “dogs.” There is therefore strong irony in the expression in Philippians 3:2 where Judaizing Christians are referred to as dogs.

One additional connotation associated with dogs in the Bible is sexual perversion and promiscuity a connotation probably arising from the fact that sexually aroused male dogs do not always differentiate between sexes as they seek to mate and the fact that dogs of both sexes mate repeatedly with different partners.

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

complete verse (Exodus 22:30)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 22:30:

  • Kupsabiny: “Also do like that with your firstborn cattle and sheep. Let them suckle their mothers for seven days and on the eighth day you give them to me.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Do the same with your first-born cattle and sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days, offer them to me on the eighty day.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “as-well-as your (plur.) first-born cows and sheep. The newly born cow or sheep should stay with its mothers for seven days. But from the eighth day, it is- now -allowed to-be-offered to me.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “And you (pl.) must offer your firstborn bulmakaos and sipsips to me also. The firstborn bulmakaos and sipsips will stay with their mothers for a duration of seven days. But on the eighth day, you must offer them to become mine.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “Give me firstborn children of cows and sheep/goats your also. Let it be with its mother for days seven. Give me it on day eighth.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “You must dedicate your firstborn sons to me. Similarly, your firstborn male cattle and sheep belong to me. After those animals are born, allow them to stay with their mothers for seven days. On the eighth day, offer them to me as a sacrifice.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

1st person pronoun referring to God (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 first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

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

See also pronoun for “God”.

Translation commentary on Exod 22:29 - 22:30

This is a difficult half-verse, for the Hebrew has just four words, and two of them are rare. Literally the Hebrew seems to say “Your fullness and your dripping you [singular] shall not delay.”

You shall not delay to offer may be expressed as “You shall not withhold” (Translator’s Old Testament) or “Do not hold back” (New International Version), with the idea of “offerings” added for clarity. Good News Translation changes this negative command to a positive one, “Give me the offerings.”

The word for “fullness” probably refers to the fulness of your harvest, but not all scholars agree. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh considers this word to be related to the word for “dripping,” with both terms referring to “the first yield of your vats.” Good News Translation interprets this as “your grain,” and Durham has “your bumper crop.” New International Version simply has “your granaries.” Translators are urged to follow Good News Translation‘s interpretation.

The word for “dripping” suggests juice that is squeezed from the grapes. Good News Translation interprets this word to refer to both “your wine, and your olive oil.” Durham also has “your vintage wine and your richest oil.” Revised Standard Version tries to cover them both with the outflow of your presses, and New International Version simply has “vats.” It is better to be more specific, however, since most readers will not know that the juice of the grape and the oil of the olive were basic to the life of the ancient Israelite. “Wine” is the product of fermented grape juice and was thus an alcoholic beverage. In some cultures “palm wine” will be the closest natural equivalent. Where “olive oil” is unknown, one may use a general term for vegetable oil, or say, for example, “oil from the fruit ‘olive.’ ”

The first-born of your sons is addressed to the Israelite (your is singular). You shall give to me uses the broad word for give, with no suggestion of how the firstborn sons were to be given. Living Bible interprets this to mean giving the “redemption payment,” thereby rejecting any suggestion of child sacrifice. This is clearly stated in 13.13, but there is no textual basis for this interpretation here. Contemporary English Version‘s “Dedicate” doesn’t appear warranted in this context. In certain languages there will be special terms for giving or offering something to deity, royalty, or a chief; such terms should be used here.

You shall do likewise, literally “thus you shall do,” begins a new verse, but it refers to what has just been said about the sons. With your oxen and with your sheep therefore means “The same rule applies to your oxen, sheep and goats” (tot). Again Good News Translation puts it positively, “Give me the first-born of your cattle and your sheep.” As in 13.12, the “first-born male” (Good News Translation) is intended. The word for sheep really means “flocks” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), or smaller animals, including both sheep and goats. (See the comment on “cattle” and “flocks” at 9.2-3.)

Seven days it shall be with its dam means that the newly-born animal should not be taken away from its mother (dam) for seven days. On the eighth day means when the animal is eight days old. You shall give it to me uses the same word for give, but here it probably means “offer” in the sense of a sacrifice, either by the family (Deut 15.19-20) or by the priest (Num 18.17-18).

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .