ἐποίησαν οὖν αὐτῷ δεῖπνον ἐκεῖ, καὶ ἡ Μάρθα διηκόνει, ὁ δὲ Λάζαρος εἷς ἦν ἐκ τῶν ἀνακειμένων σὺν αὐτῷ.
2There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him.
The name that is transliterated as “Martha” in English is translated in Finnish Sign Language with the sign signifying “hostess” (referring to Luke 10:40). (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
“Martha” in Finnish Sign Language (source )
In Spanish Sign Language it is translated with the signs for “woman” and “clean.” (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
“Martha” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España
See also Mary (of Bethany).
Text under painting translated from Literary Chinese into English:
The Seventh Commandment
The holy woman washes the Lord, a wicked disciple chastises her
Image taken from Chinese Christian Posters . For more information on the “Ars Sacra Pekinensis” school of art, see this article , for other artworks of that school in TIPs, see here.
The Greek that is transliterated as “Lazarus” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign depicting that he is bound in clothes, referring to John 11:44. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
“Lazarus” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España
See also Lazarus raised (image).
In the Yatzachi Zapotec translation of the Gospel of John, any reference to the evangelist and presumed narrator is done in the first person.
The translator Inez Butler explains (in: Notes on Translation, September 1967, pp. 10ff.):
“In revising the Gospel of John in Yatzachi Zapotec we realized from the start that the third person references of Jesus to himself as Son of Man had to be converted into first person references, but only more recently have we decided that similar change is necessary in John’s references to himself as ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved.’ As I worked on those changes and questioned the informant about his understanding of other passages in the Gospel, I discovered that the reader misses the whole focus of the book as an eyewitness account unless every reference to the disciples indicates the writer’s membership in the group. In view of that we went back through the entire book looking for ways to cue in the reader to the fact that John was an eyewitness and a participant in a many of the events, as well as the historian.
“When the disciples were participants in events along with Jesus, it was necessary to make explicit the fact that they accompanied him, although in the source language that is left implicit, since otherwise our rendering would imply that they were not present.”
In this verse, the Yatzachi Zapotec says: “. . . And Lazarus was sitting at the table with Jesus and with us and the other people.”
Following are a number of back-translations of John 12:2:
There is no way to identify the they of the statement they prepared a dinner for him there. New English Bible makes this impersonal: “There a supper was given in his honor.” According to the account in Mark and Matthew, this meal took place at the home of Simon the leper, and a least one commentator takes this Simon to be the father of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. However, it is impossible to read that meaning into the present account. Others assume that Lazarus was the host, but from the fact that he was one of those at the table, it is better to assume that he was a guest. If it is necessary in translation to identify they, such an expression as “Jesus’ friends” or “some of Jesus’ friends” may be used. It would also be possible to say “some people there” or “some people in that town.” The difficulty is that such a pronoun as “they” suggests a definite identification, and the reader tends to associate “they” with some preceding reference. The nearest such reference is the chief priests and the Pharisees of 11.57, which certainly would not fit the they of 12.2.
Which Martha helped serve (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “Martha helped serve”) is more literally “Martha served”; New English Bible and New American Bible have “at which Martha served.” Moffatt is too limiting in his translation (“Martha waited on him”); Goodspeed seems to have the proper focus (“Martha waited on them”).
Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (“Lazarus lay at the table with Jesus and the others”) is close to New English Bible (“Lazarus sat among the guests with Jesus”), though it retains the literal rendering “lay” instead of translating “sat.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch then adds a cultural note, explaining the particular situation at the time of Jesus, according to which people “lay at the table” rather than “sat at the table.” If it seems necessary to give readers the proper cultural picture, this should be done in a footnote, and the text rendered in terms of the table customs of the readers. Good News Translation (so also New English Bible and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) substitute Jesus for the pronoun “him” of the Greek text.
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .