John 12:13 – TIPs

blessed (Jesus' entry into Jerusalem)

The Greek that is translated in English as “blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord” is translated in Mazagway with a phrase that can be back-translated to “God puts the hand of the chief on the man who has come in his name.” (Source: Ken Hollingsworth)

Hosanna

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The Hebrew that is typically transliterated as “Hosanna” in English is translated in various ways:

Aguaruna: “Happily let him come”
Asháninka: “Here is this one who will save us, this one who comes”
Yanesha’: “Let him be saved”
Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac: “Worship God”
Chol: “Greetings”
Waffa: “The one who saves us”
Navajo (Dinė): “Let him be praised!”
Yatzachi Zapotec: “God will help us now” (source for this and above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125)
Western Highland Chatino: “Thanks be to God that you have come here” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Bariai: “Chief, we lift up your name!” (source: Bariai Back Translation)

God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord (image)

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Holy entrance (image)

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in the name of, on the account of his (or: my) name

Some of the Hebrew and Greek phrases that are translated in English in association with “name,” including “in the name of,” “in my name,” “in your name,” “on the account of my name,” “on the account of your name” (according to a classification by Robert Bratcher in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 72ff. , phrases that belong to the categories of “Agency or instrumentality” and “Representation”) present a number of challenges in other languages.

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Eugene Nida (1947, p 178ff.) explains this way:

“The biblical attitudes toward human personality are of great theological importance. There is, however, only one word which produces any considerable difficulty in other languages. This is the word ‘name.’ The great difference attached to the significance of the name of a person in the Bible times in contrast with our own culture is very important. Note such phrases as ‘whatsoever ye shall ask in my name,’ John 14:13, ‘believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God,’ John 3:18, and ‘life through his name,’ John 20:31. These expressions are generally difficult for us to understand, for the word ‘name’ does not mean the same to us as it meant to those of Bible times. To them the name was the symbolization of the authority and personality of the individual who possessed the name. To us a name is far less important. It may be changed whenever one can convince a judge that another name might be more economically advantageous. The name is also a legal method of giving one’s written assent to certain business transactions, but to us it is not the symbol of the personality.”

The translation in Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl typically is “in someone’s authority” (for instance “I have come in my Father’s name” in John 5:43 becomes “I have come on my Father’s authority”) (source Nida 1947, p. 179), or in Highland Puebla Nahuatl with the more paraphrastic equivalent “as though on orders from you” or in Tzeltal as “by your authority, so he said” (both examples for Mark 9:38 and 39, see Bratcher / Nida).

In Guhu-Samane, Mark 11:9 (in English: “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord”) is translated as “Blessed is the Lord’s namesake who comes.” “In the name of the Lord” caused “puzzlement [because] “has he just assumed the name of the Lord, valid or otherwise? [But] with ‘blessed is the Lord’s namesake who comes’ the strong bond between the namesake and the important ancestor for whom named entitles the namesake to the deference due the ancestor. Thought very proper in this context.” (Source: Ernest L. Richert in Notes on Translation December 1963: p. 4-7; reprinted in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 198ff. )

Barclay Newman (see The Bible Translator 1974, pp, 432ff. ) reports on different solutions for the translation of the Today’s Malay Version (Alkitab Berita Baik, 1987):

In Malay “the phrase ‘in my name’ is problematic (…) since it sounds like the use of magic. For this reason [the English] Today’s English Version (Good News Bible) was followed at such passages as John 5:43 and 10:25, where ‘in the name of my Father’ is translated as ‘with my Father’s authority’ and ‘by my Father’s authority’ [respectively]. In John 12:13 ‘in the name of the Lord’ has become ‘in his (the Lord’s) behalf,’ following the common language German translation Die Gute Nachricht. In John 14:13, ‘because you are my followers’ is used, in John in 15:16, 16:23 and 24 ‘as my followers,’ in John 17:11 ‘by your own power, the power you gave me,’ and in John 14:26 ‘in my place.'”

Other translations for “in the name of Jesus Christ” include “in the authority of Jesus Christ” (Isthmus Mixe), “calling on Jesus Christ” (Teutila Cuicatec), “calling the name of Jesus Christ over you” (Ayutla Mixtec), “because of Jesus” (Tepeuxila Cuicatec), “by the power of the name of Jesus Christ” (Chichimeca-Jonaz), “the word of Jesus Christ is strong” (Lalana Chinantec) (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), and “mentioning the name of Jesus” (Elhomwe — source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext).

The triumphal entry in Jerusalem (image)

Hand colored stencil print on momigami by Sadao Watanabe (1982).

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take branches of palm trees

The Greek that is translated as “take branches of palm trees” or similar is translated in

Aguaruna: “cut palm leaves”
Waffa: “break off and held leaves like coconut leaves”
Alekano: “break off leafy decorative things” (source for this and above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “get some leafy branches” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Tagbanwa as “get fronds from a plant like a badangan (note: a local palm like coconut but smaller)” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi as “pick palm branches” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

complete section (John 12:12-19)

The translator of the Wichí Lhamtés Nocten New Testament rearranged the chronology of John 12:12-19, because he found the traditional order of verses confusing. The new order is 12a, 14a, 17, 18, 12b, 13, 14b, 15, 16, 19.

The back-translation of this section is as follows:

The next day, when many people had already gone to Jerusalem to gather for the festival of Passover, Jesus mounted a donkey and then he too went into that city. And the people who had been with him the day recently when he called Lazarus who was in the tomb to rise from amongst the dead, they told others what they had seen Jesus do. And that’s why the people, when they heard that Jesus was about to enter Jerusalem, cut palm leaves and went to meet him and kept crying out saying:

“God is great!” “Blessing is with the man who comes with the word (authority) of the Lord! Blessing is with him who is the King of the people of Israel!”

Just as the age-old Writing says:

“People of Zion, don’t be afraid.
Look upon your King, he comes on a little donkey.”

But at first his disciples did not understand such things. But later when Jesus entered his greatness, then they remembered that all things that had been done thus were indeed what the age-old Writing had said about Jesus.

But the Pharisees, when they saw those things, spoke amongst themselves saying:

“You see this. If it is so, we can do nothing. Because look, everybody is going with him!”

Source: Robert Lund in The Bible Translator 1987, 445f.

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Verse: John 12:13