first-fruits

The Hebrew that is often translated as “first-fruits” in English is translated in Nyamwezi as ntomolwa or “first benefits of anything you bring in.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

wheat

Two kinds of wild wheat have grown in the open deciduous oak woodland in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent for several thousand years: Einkorn Wheat Triticum monococcum and Emmer Wheat Triticum dicoccum. Both came into cultivation together with barley. Just before the time of the Romans, the Naked Bread Wheat or Hard Wheat Triticum durum started replacing the hulled varieties. This then became the favorite type of wheat for bread and macaroni. Spelt is a sub-member of the Triticum aestivum species.

In New Revised Standard Version, updated edition and some other versions, the generic Hebrew word bar has been rendered “wheat” in Jeremiah 23:28 et al. This is legitimate, since the grain referred to by bar was probably wheat. However, it might be better to say “grain” in these passages.

The most important early wheat for the Israelites was emmer, probably the only wheat known in Egypt, and referred to in Hebrew as chittah. However, according to Hepper (Baker Encyclopedia of Bible Plants: Flowers and Trees, Fruits and Vegetables, Ecology. Baker Book House, 1992), the seven-headed wheat of the Egyptian king’s dream (Genesis 41:5ff.) suggests that there may also have been Triticum turgidum (rivet wheat) in the emmer group. The Hebrew word kusemeth probably refers to a type of emmer wheat that the Egyptians called swt.

Wheat is a type of grass like rice and barley, growing to around 75 centimeters (2.5 feet) in height and having a head with many small grains in rows.

Bread made from wheat was the staple food for the people of ancient Israel, so God punished them by breaking “the staff of bread” (see, for example, Ezekiel 4:16).

If wheat is unfamiliar, translators can transliterate from a major language in non-rhetorical contexts (for example, English witi, Portuguese trigo, French ble or froment, Swahili ngano, Arabic kama/alkama). The transliteration may add a generic tag such as “grain.” The New Testament passages are mostly rhetorical, opening the possibility for a metaphorical equivalent.

Wheat head, photo by Gloria Suess

Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

complete verse (Exodus 34:22)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 34:22:

  • Kupsabiny: “Be (plur.) making a Festival of Harvest when you harvest the firstfruits of the wheat. Also be preparing a festival for picking fruits when harvesting season is finishing.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Celebrate the festival of harvest. Again, celebrate the festival of ingathering after finishing picking your fruits in the seventh month.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘You (plur.) should-celebrate the Feast of the Harvest when you (plur.) harvest the first crop of wheat, and you (plur.) also should-celebrate the Feast of the Final Harvest at the end of the year.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “‘Be counting the Days of Rest and then do another big feast for offering whichever of your wit is ripe and goes first. And in the month of the season of food [in] which you are bringing the food which is ripe from the garden, you must do another feast for Remembering your Living in Shelters.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “Yearly, you must also remember Day of Joy of Harvest on day which you begin wheat with harvesting, and Day of Joy of Harvest-end on end of year.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “Each year celebrate the Harvest Festival, when you begin to harvest the first crop of wheat, and also celebrate the Festival of Living in Temporary Shelters, when you finish harvesting the grain and fruit.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 34:22

And you shall observe the feast of weeks refers to the second of the three great festivals mentioned in 23.14-17. (The meaning of feast is discussed at 23.14.) It is called “the feast of harvest” in 23.16, but it later came to be known as “Pentecost.” Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version call it “the Harvest Festival” in both places.

The first fruits of wheat harvest refers to the first crop of wheat that was harvested about seven weeks after the barley harvest. (See the comment at 23.15-16.) This does not refer to an additional feast but rather to what the people were to offer in celebrating the feast of weeks. Translator’s Old Testament makes this clear: “You shall celebrate the festival of Weeks by offering the first crop of the wheat harvest.” One may also say “Celebrate the Harvest Festival each spring by offering the first wheat that you harvest.”

The feast of ingathering refers to the third great annual festival, also mentioned in 23.16. (See the comment there.) At the year’s end, literally “at the turning of the year,” refers to the turning of the sun at the autumnal equinox, which was the end of the agricultural year. New Revised Standard Version has “at the turn of the year,” Good News Translation has “in the autumn when you gather your fruit,” and Contemporary English Version has “each autumn when you pick your fruit.”

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 .