The Hebrew that is transliterated as “Japheth” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign that signifies “Europe,” referring to the fact that Japheth traditionally is seen as the forefather of the European people. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
The Hebrew and Greek that is transliterated as “Shem” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign that signifies “Arab,” referring to the fact that Shem traditionally is seen as the forefather of Semitic people, including Abraham and his descendants (see Genesis 11:26 et al.)(Source: Steve Parkhurst)
Note that the terms “Semite” and “Semitic” are derived from “Shem.”
In the Tuvan Bible translation project, the official policy (…) was to keep the spelling of names of major characters the same as in the Russian Synodal translation. However, the translation team and representatives of local Tuvan churches agreed that deviation in proper name spelling from the RST would be allowed on a case-by-case basis if there was a concrete need to do so.
Such a need arose with the name of Noah’s son Ham (חָ֥ם) in Genesis and elsewhere in the Old Testament.
In Russian, as in English, this is transliterated with three letters — Хам (Kham). In Russian, the name of this character has entered the language with the meaning of “boorish lout, impudent person” because of how Ham treated his father; in Tuvan, however, the word Хам (Kham) already means “shaman.” Since the Tuvan people continue to practice their traditional religion in which shamans play a major role, the translation team felt that leaving the transliteration of this name with the exact spelling as in Russian might cause needless offense to Tuvan sensibilities by unwittingly causing the text of Gen. 9:20-27 to portray shamans as the targets of Noah’s curse. Therefore, the translation team chose to avoid this potential stumbling block while continuing to maintain a close sound correspondence with the name of the biblical character as Tuvan Christians already knew it from the RST text. This was done by doubling the vowel — Хаам. Tuvan has long vowel phonemes that are written with a double vowel, so this is perfectly acceptable from the point of view of Tuvan orthographic conventions.
The correspondence of the Tuvan version of the name to the Russian Synodal spelling is still recognizable, but hopefully, the wrath of Tuvan shamans and their supporters has been averted by this small disliteration.
The rationale behind such an approach to spelling changes in names is concisely described in the foreword to the Tuvan Bible for the sake of transparency
Apparently, the similarity of the English version of this name to the food item (as in “I’ll have a ham and cheese sandwich”) is not deemed offensive enough to the meat-packing industry for a similar disliteration to be performed in English Bible translations.
The Hebrew, Latin; Ge’ez and Greek that is transliterated as “Noah” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign that combines the letter N + “boat.” (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
The following is a stained glass window depicting Noah by Endre Odon Hevezi and Gyula Bajo from 1965 for the Debre Libanos Monastery, Oromia, Ethiopia:
Photo by Timothy A. Gonsalves, hosted by Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license
Stained glass is not just highly decorative, it’s a medium which has been used to express important religious messages for centuries. Literacy was not widespread in the medieval and Renaissance periods and the Church used stained glass and other artworks to teach the central beliefs of Christianity. In Gothic churches, the windows were filled with extensive narrative scenes in stained glass — like huge and colorful picture storybooks — in which worshipers could ‘read’ the stories of Christ and the saints and learn what was required for their religious salvation. (Source: Victoria and Albert Museum )
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 6:10:
Kankanaey: “Here is the story about him. There were three male children of Noe who were Sem and Ham and Jafet. At that time, he was the only-one who was a righteous (lit. straight) person who had no faults. Good also was his companioning-with God.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Newari: “He had three sons — Shem, Ham and Japheth.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “He had three male children who were Shem, Ham and Jafet.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
These are the generations of Noah is more than a repetition of 5.32. Generations is used figuratively in the Hebrew to mean “account, narrative, story.” See “Translating Genesis,” page 1, for a discussion of these terms; for discussion of the term generations, see comments on 2.4. Some interpreters take generations here to refer only to Noah’s line of descendants mentioned in verse 10. However, the Hebrew term is used here as it is in 2.4 to refer to a sequence of events—in this case the events of Noah’s life; and therefore the sense is “story, account, narrative,” which is expressed by Good News Translation as “This is the story of Noah.” These words serve as a title or heading for the flood story.
The compiler of these flood stories begins with Noah’s brief genealogy and does not complete it until 9.28 with the number of years he lived. See comment on 5.32. In this way the flood story is placed between the opening and closing of Noah’s genealogy.
Good News Translation and others bring verse 10 forward and place it immediately following the opening words of Gen 6.9. Translators may find this shift helpful or necessary, because the attention of the text is on Noah in the following verses.
Righteous man, blameless in his generation: righteous (Hebrew tsadiq) occurs here for the first time in Genesis. Righteous, unlike blameless, is used not in relation to God but rather in relation to other people. It refers to right conduct with others, and so we may say “he was a man of upright life” or “… a very good man.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “a man of integrity,” and Good News Translation, which reverses righteous and blameless, says “was the only good man….” Blameless translates an adjective that follows righteous with no linking word, and is thought by some interpreters to be a later insertion. The word is also found in Psa 37.37 in parallel with “righteous.” It is used to describe a sacrificial animal as being free from defect, and in reference to a person it is expressed well in Good News Translation, “had no faults.” Blameless describes a person’s relation to God, and therefore Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translates “always obeyed God,” and Bible en français courant “faithful to God.”
In his generation: generation translates a different Hebrew word than that used at the beginning of the verse. This word refers to the time when Noah lived; we may say in English “in his day” or “of his time.” The expression means that Noah was unique, the only one of his kind among all his contemporaries or people who lived at the same time he did. Accordingly we may translate, for example, “Noah was a very good man and the only one in his time who obeyed God” or “Noah was an honest man and the only man of his day who was faithful to God.” One recent translation has “He was a straight man, he was the only one at that time whom God was pleased with.” Another says “Noah was a good man, and his conduct was straight in the sight of God,” continuing in the next sentence with “But everyone else was doing evil….”
Noah walked with God: the same statement is made regarding Enoch in 5.22. See there for comments.
And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: this is best placed immediately following the opening words of Gen 6.9. In this way the flow of discourse as it continues in verse 11 keeps the attention on Noah.
In some languages Noah had three sons may suggest that the three sons were dead when this statement was made. It may be necessary to say, for example, “Noah was the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth” or “Noah was the father of three sons. Their names were Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” In some languages the order of the names will mean that the one named first is the one born first. On the translating of names, see “Names in Genesis” in “Translating Genesis,” page 8.
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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