In Aekyom, years are counted as “turtles” (ambum).
Norm Mundhenk tells this story:
“Recently I was checking some New Testament material in the Aekyom language of western Papua New Guinea. It seemed relatively clear until suddenly we came to a passage that started, ‘When Jesus had 12 turtles, …’ Surely I had misunderstood what they said.
“‘Did you say that Jesus had 12 turtles?’
“‘Let us explain! Around here there is a certain time every year when river turtles come up on the banks and lay their eggs. Because this is so regular, it can be used as a way of counting years. Someone’s age is said to be how many turtles that person has. So when we say that Jesus had 12 turtles, we mean that Jesus was 12 years old.’
“It was of course the familiar story of Jesus’ trip with his parents to Jerusalem. And certainly, as we all know, Jesus did indeed have 12 turtles at that time!”
In Tok Pisin, krismas (derived from “christmas”) is taken as the fixed annual marker, so Jesus had 12 “christmases” (Jisas i gat 12-pela krismas pinis) or Abram (in Gen. 12:4) had 75 (Abram i gat 75 krismas) (source: Norm Mundhenk). In Noongar it is biroka kadak or “summers had” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
The name that is transliterated as “Isaac” in English is signed in Spanish Sign Language and French Sign Language with a sign that is linked to his mother’s laughter when she hears that she will be pregnant with him (referring to Genesis 18:12 – 18:15) and also is the meaning of the Hebrew “Isaac” (Yitschaq — “he laughs”):
The Hebrew and Greek that is transliterated as “Rebekah” or “Rebecca” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign that signifies “bracelet,” referring to the gift that she receives in Genesis 24:22. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 25:20:
Kankanaey: “Now as for Isaac, forty were his years when-were-married he and Rebeka the younger-sibling of Laban the child of Betuel (who was an Arameo who came-from Mesopotamia).” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Newari: “When Isaac was 40 years old, he married Rebekah [who was] the daughter of Bethuel and Aramean and the younger sister of Laban. They were of Paddan-aram.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Isaac was-aged 40 years when he married Rebeka the child of Betuel who [was an] Arameanhon who came-from Padan Aram. Rebeka was the sibling of Laban an Arameanhon also.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “and when Isaac was 40 years old, he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel. Bethuel was one of the descendants of Aram from Paddan-Aram. Rebekah was the sister of Laban, who belonged to the Aram people-group.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
And Isaac was forty years old … Rebekah: in many languages this information provides the time element that needs to be expressed as “When Isaac was forty years old…” or “When Isaac reached the age of forty….” When he took to wife Rebekah has been revised in New Revised Standard Version to say “when he married Rebekah.” See Good News Translation.
The remainder of verse 20 identifies Rebekah as the daughter of Bethuel and the sister of Laban. It further identifies the two men as being Aramean and Bethuel as being associated with Paddan-aram. For Aramean see the discussion of “Aram” at 10.22. Paddan-aram occurs for the first time here but is repeated a number of times later in Genesis. In 24.10 it is called in Hebrew Aram-Naharaim “Aram of the two rivers.” See there for comments. It is another name for Mesopotamia, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern Iraq.
Good News Translation has placed “an Aramean from Mesopotamia” between parentheses. However, parentheses or other punctuation marks may not be useful in some languages. It is sometimes necessary to form two sentences; for example, “Rebekah was the daughter of Bethuel and the sister of Laban. They were Arameans from Mesopotamia.” Sister may need to be expressed by a term meaning “younger sister”; in some languages this relationship is expressed by a term that means “sibling of the opposite sex” (that is, sister of a man or brother of a woman).
It is probably not necessary to say that Laban was an Aramean, since that information can be gathered from his father being Aramean. Bible en français courant places Laban before Bethuel: “Rebekah, sister of Laban and daughter of Bethuel, an Aramean from Upper-Mesopotamia.” Translators may wish to follow this model.
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 .
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