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)

complete verse (Exodus 34:18)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 34:18:

  • Kupsabiny: “Be preparing the Festival of bread which is not risen. Be eating bread which has not risen for seven days as I told you. Be doing this festival in the month which was set apart and that is the month Abib because that is when you left Egypt.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Celebrate the festival of bread without yeast. For seven days eat bread without yeast at the appointed time in the month of Abib as I commanded you. In the month of Abib You came out of Egypt.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘Celebrate the Feast of the Bread which causes-to-Expand- was Not -put-in-(it). According to what I had commanded you, you (plur.) should-eat bread which causes-to-expand- was not -put-in-(it) within seven days. You (plur.) do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you (plur.) came-out of Egipto.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “‘You (pl.) must do the feast of Bret Having no Yis Existing in it as I spoke to you about. In these seven days, you must eat bret not having yis existing in it. Do this feast precisely on its day in the month of Abip. For in this month, you left Isip and came.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “And Day of Joy of Bread which Lacks Yeast, you shall remember it. you shall eat bread which lacks yeast for days seven, as I have said to you. you remember it on day which I before put down, on month one, because that is what be month which you left [body] from Egypt.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “Each year, during the month of/named Abib, celebrate the Festival of Eating Bread Made Without Yeast. During that festival, for seven days you must not eat bread made with yeast, as I commanded you, because it was in that month that you left Egypt.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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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 34:18

This verse begins a series of laws that deal more directly with the observance of cultic festivals and rituals. It is almost identical with 23.15. (See the comment there.) The only differences are: 1) the wording of as I commanded you is slightly different; 2) in the month of Abib is mentioned twice; 3) there is an additional sentence in 23.15 which is repeated in verse 20 below, but not here. (For the meaning of feast see the comment at 23.14.)

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 .