Sarai / Sarah

The Hebrew and Greek that is transliterated as “Sarai” and “Sarah” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the sign depicting coins on a headband, referring to women from the Middle East and North Africa who wear a headband decorated with small coins. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)


“Sarai” and “Sarah” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Sarah .

Abraham

The name that is transliterated as “Abraham” in English is translated in the vast majority of sign languages, including American Sign Language with the sign signifying “hold back arm” (referring to Genesis 22:12).


“Abraham” in American Sign Language (source )

In Vietnamese (Hanoi) Sign Language it is translated with a sign for that demonstrates his new destiny. Previously, he had been called to wander from his home, and the name “Abram” reflected this movement (see here). The new sign name is in one location and stays there, showing Abraham will be given a land to call his own. At this time, Abraham was in the southern part of Canaan, which is shown on the base arm by the location near the elbow. (Source: The Vietnamese Sign Language translation team, VSLBT)


“Abraham” in Vietnamese Sign Language, source: SooSL

In Tira it is transliterated as Abaram. The choice of this, rather than the widely-known “Ibrahim,” as used in the Tira translation of the Qu’ran, was to offset it against the Muslim transliteration which originates from Arabic. (Source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )

Click or tap here to see two short video clips about Abraham (source: Bible Lands 2012)

See also our ancestor Abraham and Abram.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Abraham .

complete verse (Genesis 25:10)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 25:10:

  • Kankanaey: “His children Isaac and Ismael buried (him) in the place-where- Sara -was-buried in the cave at Makpela which was near Mamre, because that just the same was the land that Abraham had bought previously from Efron the child of Zohar who was Heteo.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Newari: “This was the field Abraham managed to buy from the Hittities. Abraham and Sarah, the two of them, were buried here.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “That farm was bought by Abraham in the presence of the Hithanon. There Abraham and his wife Sara were-buried.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Isaac and Ishmael buried his body there, where Abraham previously buried his wife Sarah.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Genesis 25:10

The field which … the Hittites: see 23.16.

There Abraham was buried, with Sarah his wife: There refers to the cave of Machpelah. We may say, for example, “In that cave,” “That is the cave where.” The passive may have to be expressed as active; for example, “Abraham’s sons buried him.” With Sarah his wife may need to be expressed as “where Sarah had also been buried” or “where Abraham had buried his wife Sarah.” Another way of expressing this whole sentence is “The body of Abraham and the body of Sarah were both there in that cave.”

Since there is a good deal of repetition of information in verses 9 and 10, some translators find it easier to combine the two verses. One example of the way verses 9-10 may be translated is:

• Isaac and Ishmael, the two sons of that old man, put his body in the cave that he had bought a long time before near Mamre. In that cave that old man had buried his wife Sarah before. They called that cave Machpelah Cave…, and that was where the two sons buried that old man’s body.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .