purple

The Greek and Hebrew hat is translated as “purple” in English is translated as “blue-red” in Ojitlán Chinantec (source: M. Larson in Notes on Translation 1970, p. 1ff.) and in Elhomwe (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext). In Silimo it is translated with a local reference: “the colour of the wipegen berry” (source: Buzz and Myrna Maxey ).

In Kasua was a little bit more involved, as Rachel Greco recalls (in The PNG Experience ):

“The Kasua people of Western Province have no word for the color purple. They have words for many other colors: black, red, white, yellow, green, and blue, but not for the color of royalty.

“About nine New Testament passages mention people placing a purple robe on Jesus. The Kasua translation team always wanted to use the word ‘red,’ or keyalo, to describe the robe. Tommy, one of the translation team helpers, disagreed because this is not historically accurate or signifies the royalty of Jesus.

“One of the main rules of translation is that the team must stick to the historical facts when they translate a passage. If they don’t, then how can the readers trust what they’re reading is true? Other questions about truth could bubble in the reader’s minds about the Scriptures. For this reason, Tommy was not willing to change the word purple. So the team hung up the problem, hoping to revisit it later with more inspiration.

“God did not disappoint.

“Years later, Tommy hiked with some of the men near their village. They saw a tree that possessed bulbous growths growing on the side of it like fruit. These growths were ‘the most beautiful color of purple I’d ever seen,’ explained Tommy.

“’What is the name of this tree?’ Tommy asked the men.

“’This is an Okani tree,’ they replied.

“Tommy suggested, ‘Why don’t you, in those passages where we’ve been struggling to translate the color purple, use ‘they put a robe on Jesus the color of the fruit of the Okani tree’?

“’Yeah. We know exactly what color that is,’ the men said enthusiastically.

“Everyone in their village would also visualize this phrase accurately, as the Okani tree is the only tree in that area that produces this kind of purple growth. So now, among the Kasua people, in his royal purple robe, Jesus is shown to be the king that he is.”

In Numbers 4:13, Gbaya uses the ideophone soi-soi to emphasize the purple color. Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation and soi-soi designates something that has a red or purple color, or a thing with a clear or clean appearance. (Source: Philip Noss)

complete verse (Jeremiah 10:9)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 10:9:

  • Kupsabiny: “(People) bring flat (hammered) and amazing silver from Tarshish
    and gold from Ophir.
    When skilled craftsmen have covered (them)
    they dress (them) in red and purple clothes
    that sewers that are skilled in sewing sew.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “They have-had- the carpenters and silversmith -made little-gods/false-gods coated with silver from Tarshish and gold from Ufaz. Then they clothed them with blue and purple cloth sewed by expert tailors.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 10:9

This verse describes the practice of covering idols with silver and gold (see verse 4) and dressing them in expensive garments. Although Tarshish is mentioned a number of times in the Old Testament, its precise identity is not known. A number of scholars favor identifying it with the city of Tartessus in southern Spain or with the island of Sardinia. Translators are probably safest if they simply render it as “the city of Tarshish.” The location of Uphaz (elsewhere mentioned only in Dan 10.5) is not known. Some ancient translations substitute the better known “Ophir” (Revised English Bible, New American Bible), but this is without support in Hebrew manuscripts, and possibly represents an attempt to substitute a known place for an unknown one. Translators should say something like “city [or, region] of Uphaz.”

They (Good News Translation “Their idols”) refers back to “idols” of verse 8. It is important to make this identification in translation, so as not to confuse who the two “They” pronouns in verses 8 and 9 refer to; for example, translators can begin the verse “These idols are made by skilled workers.”

Craftsman, though used of metal workers in Gen 4.22 (referring to “instruments” in Revised Standard Version) and 1Kgs 7.14 (“worker” in Revised Standard Version), may also be used in a broader sense of any type of craftsman.

Violet and purple cloth was expensive. Some languages do not have words for these colors and translators can say “expensive cloth in bright colors” or “cloth dyed with expensive dyes.”

Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch somewhat reorders the verse and translates:

• A wood carver makes them. The goldsmith covers them with silver from Tarshish and with gold from Uphaz. Then they are dressed in garments made from violet and purple cloth. All these gods are the work of skilled men.

Another possible rendering is:

• These idols [or, they] are made by skilled craftsmen and goldsmiths who use silver from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz to make them. Then they dress them with clothing made of violet and purple cloth. These idols are in all ways the work of skilled workers.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .