The different Hebrew and Greek terms that are translated as “(olive) oil” and “(animal) fat” in English are translated in Kwere with only one term: mavuta. (Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Joppa
The name that is transliterated as “Joppa” (or: “Jaffa”) in English is translated in Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) with the sign for “whale,” referring to Joppa that is mentioned as the starting point of the sea voyage of Jonah that ends up in the belly of a large fish (see Jonah 1:3). (Source: Missão Kophós )
“Joppa” in Libras (source )
More information on Jaffa
king
Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:
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- Piro: “a great one”
- Highland Totonac: “the big boss”
- Huichol: “the one who commanded” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
- Ekari: “the one who holds the country” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
- Una: weik sienyi: “big headman” (source: Kroneman 2004, p. 407)
- Pass Valley Yali: “Big Man” (source: Daud Soesilo)
- Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
- Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
- Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))
Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo was determined:
“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”
(Source: Faye Edgerton in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 25ff. )
See also king (Japanese honorifics).
cedar
Long ago the majestic cedars of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) completely covered the upper slopes of the Lebanon Mountains on the western and northern sides. Now only a few pockets of these mighty cedars remain. At that time they were mixed, as they are today, with other trees such as Cilician fir, Grecian juniper, cypress, and Calabrian pine.
We know from 1 Kings that Solomon used cedar wood in his palace and in the Temple. Cedar was used for beams, boards, pillars, and ceilings. Historians tell us that the Assyrians also hauled cedars to their land for use in buildings. Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon also imported cedars from Lebanon. In some versions of Isaiah we read that people made idols of cedar and oak (44:14-20). Finally, when the Temple was rebuilt by the returning exiles (Ezra 3:7), they again cut down cedar trees to grace the house of God.
In 2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles and Ezra, when Lebanon is specifically mentioned, there can be no doubt that ’erez is Cedrus libani, the “cedar of Lebanon,” although it is possible that sometimes the word was used loosely to include various evergreen trees.
In the description of the purification rituals (Leviticus 14:4 at al.), the word ’erez probably refers to the Phoenician juniper tree, since that was the only cedar-like tree in the Sinai Desert.
Description Cedar trees can reach 30 meters (100 feet) high with a trunk more than 2 meters (7 feet) in diameter. The leaves of true cedars are not flat like those of most trees, but consist of tufts of dark green, shiny spines. (The cedars in North America have a flatter type of spine than the biblical cedar.) The wood is fragrant and resistant to insects. Cedars bear cones and can live to be two or three thousand years old.
The cedar of Lebanon is famous for its large size (see Isaiah 2:13 et al.), and for the fragrance of its wood. Psalm 92:12 links the cedar to righteousness, that is, presumably, to its straightness and height above other trees. The cedar is the national emblem of Lebanon.
Cedrus species are found in the mountains of North Africa, in the Himalayas, in India, and in North America. Translators in these places, should, of course, use the local name in nonfigurative references. In sub Saharan Africa, translators can transliterate from Hebrew (’erez), Greek (kedar), English (sedar), or another major language, or they can take a generic solution such as “large, beautiful tree.” In poetic passages (wisdom literature and prophecy), some translators may wish to use a cultural equivalent with these traits. In Africa, according to Burkhill (The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa, volume 4. Kew: Royal Botanic Gardens, 1985), the Pink Mahogany Guarea cedrata is also called the pink African cedar because of the cedar-like scent of its timber. Likewise, some people in India and Australia use “cedar” to refer to the toon because of its reddish wood. I do not recommend such substitutes in historical passages, since the ’erez is not related to these trees. In some figurative passages, however, the substitution could be effective, since all are large trees with reddish wood. However, each passage has to be evaluated to determine the intended effect of the image.
Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)
sea / lake
The various Greek, Aramaic, Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Translation commentary on Ezra 3:7
As noted in the discussion on the heading for this section, Good News Translation considers this to be the beginning of a new section and gives it the heading “The Rebuilding of the Temple Begins.” Some versions insert a paragraph break here to indicate a break in discourse structure (Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible). However, the punctuation in the Hebrew text supports the Revised Standard Version paragraph division after verse 7.
So signifies the response of the community to the realization that nothing had been done to rebuild the Temple when sacrifices were already being made on the altar. Good News Translation begins the verse without any transitional word as though this action is not directly related to the preceding information (also New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Nouvelle version Segond révisée, La Sainte Bible: La version Etablie par les moines de Maredsous). Some versions use the transitional word “Then” (New International Version, Bible de Jérusalem) or an expression of time (Bible en français courant with “Following that”) to indicate that the actions related here follow what took place earlier.
They gave money to the masons and the carpenters: Money is literally “silver,” but the Hebrew word is used generally for money. It can be translated with any general term that is used for monetary exchange in the form of payment. The meaning may be that the money was paid to the workmen as Revised Standard Version suggests (also New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, Bible de Jérusalem, Nouvelle version Segond révisée, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) or it may be as Good News Translation interprets the text, that is, the community contributed money to be paid to workmen (also New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible). In the technical terminology of employment, the money was used to “hire” the needed workmen (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, La Sainte Bible: La version Etablie par les moines de Maredsous).
Masons were the men who quarried and worked with stone. Carpenters were those who worked with stone, brick, metal and wood. Bible en français courant restructures the clause to say “Following that they paid workmen to hew rocks and beams.”
Food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon: Food, drink, and oil refer to grain, wine, and olive oil. Compare the payment made by King Solomon to King Hiram of Tyre when building the Temple in 2 Chr 2.10. They bartered these products for cedar trees; that is, they gave these products as payment in kind for what was given by the Sidonians and the Tyrians, who were the people of Sidon and Tyre. Sidon and Tyre were Gentile city-states in Phoenicia in what is the present-day country of Lebanon. Thus, for Sidonians and Tyrians it may be helpful to say “people of the cities of Sidon and Tyre.” The Sidonians and Tyrians brought cedar trees for the Temple. These are tall and strong evergreen trees whose wood is ideal for roof beams. They grow in Lebanon, the coastal area north of Palestine and west of Syria. This area includes the Anti-Lebanon Mountains from Mount Hermon in the south, extending 160 kilometers (about 100 miles) north.
For food translators may use a general term for foods or foodstuffs that do not easily perish. A general term for drink may be used, or to avoid ambiguity and possible misunderstanding, it may be necessary to translate it as wine (see the comments at Ezra 6.9). Oil may be translated by a general term for cooking oil. It is not necessary to specify “olive oil.” However, another type of oil should not be substituted that could not have existed in the place and time referred to in this text. In some languages items in a list like this may be stated in plural forms to indicate indefinite objects and not specific foods that would be provided for a meal. Where cedar trees are not known, translators may substitute the name of a similar and related tree, they may borrow the name “cedar” or its equivalent, they may say “a tree called cedar like such and such a tree,” or they may describe the cedar’s use, for example, “special trees used for building.”
To the sea, to Joppa: In Hebrew this is an elliptical expression meaning that the trees were to be brought from the mountainous area down to the seaports of Tyre and Sidon and then fastened together like rafts and floated on the Mediterranean Sea to the port of Joppa to the south. From Joppa it was 58 kilometers (36 miles) by land to Jerusalem (see 2 Chr 2.16). The phrase to the sea can be translated “by sea” (Good News Translation, New International Version).
According to the grant which they had from Cyrus king of Persia: The English word grant usually refers to a donation or gift of money, but here it refers to official authorization (Nouvelle version Segond révisée, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, La Sainte Bible: La version Etablie par les moines de Maredsous, Osty-Trinquet). New English Bible says “licence.” Cyrus gave permission for the trees to be brought from Lebanon by sea to Joppa (New King James Version ). Good News Translation makes this permission refer to all that was done by the Israelites as recounted in this verse, but it is preferable to relate it only to the transport of building materials from Lebanon to Judah. This phrase may be rendered “according to the permission that Cyrus king of Persia had given to them.” For Cyrus king of Persia, see Ezra 1.1.
Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Ezra. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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