The Greek in John 1:29 that is translated as “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” or similar in English is translated in Swedish Sign Language as “There is Jesus, called God’s lamb. Jesus lifts off the sins from the globe.” Christer Åsberg (in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 71ff. ) explains: “Personal pronouns (…) must be replaced with the intended proper name. [This] example from the Gospel of John, which also illustrates the reluctance in sign language towards metaphorical language and the need to avoid hypotaxis and transform it into parataxis. In the Swedish Sign Language (SwedSL) translation the ‘world’ is conceived of as a strictly geographical concept. The extended meanings or connotations of ‘creation,’ ‘mankind,’ etc. are not possible to convey.”
John as a first-person evangelist (John 1:29)
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: “The next day John saw Jesus coming where he was and he said to us who were there. . .”
world
The Greek that is translated as “world” in English is translated as “all the people who sleep in all the places of the earth” in Samo (source: Shaw / Van Engen 2003, p. 178) or “world people” in Lisu (source: Cooke 1947, p. 29).
See also world (Chinese).
Lazarus (of Bethany)
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
For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .
See also Lazarus raised (image).
Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Jesus, Lazarus, and Friendship and Lazarus .
Honorary "rare" construct denoting God ("come")
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, ko-rare-ru (来られる) or “come” is used.
(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
who takes away the sin of the world
lamb
The term that is translated as “lamb” in English is typically translated as “offspring of a sheep” in Ixcatlán Mazatec since there is no specific word for “lamb.” Since this could distract readers with thoughts of God being the sheep when the “lamb” refers to Jesus the translation into Ixcatlán Mazatec chose “little (individual) sheep” for those cases. (Source: Robert Bascom)
In Dëne Súline the native term for “lamb” directly translated as “the young one of an evil little caribou.” To avoid the negative connotation, a loan word from the neighboring South Slavey was used. (Source: NCEM, p. 70)
For the Kasua translation, it took a long process to find the right term. Rachel Greco (in The PNG Experience ) tells this story:
“To the Kasua people of Western Province, every four-legged animal is a pig. They call a horse a pig-horse, a cow, a pig-cow, and a sheep, a pig-sheep, because all of these animals have four legs, which is kopolo, or pig, in their language.
“When the translation team would translate the word, ‘sheep’ in the New Testament, they would translate it as ‘pig-sheep’. So when Jesus is referred to as the ‘Lamb,’ (John 1:29; Rev. 12:11; Rev. 17:14), they translated as ‘pig-sheep’ so that in John 1:29 it would read: ‘Behold, the pig-sheep of God.’
“When some members of the translation team attended the Translators Training Course, they had the opportunity to observe and study sheep for the first time. As they watched and learned more about the animals’ behavior, their understanding of these creatures—and God’s Word—rotated on its axis.
“Once during the course, Logan and Konni — the translation team’s helpers — were driving with the team to a Bible dedication when Amos, one of the team members, said passionately, ‘We can’t use the word kopolo in front of the word, ‘sheep’! Pigs know when they’re about to die and squeal and scream.’ The team had often watched villagers tie up pigs so they wouldn’t escape.
“’But,’ Amos said, ‘Jesus didn’t do that.’ The team had learned that sheep are quiet and still when death walks toward them. They had observed, as they translated the New Testament, the words of Isaiah 53 fulfilled: ‘Like a lamb led to the slaughter, he did not open his mouth.’ And now they understood what it meant. For this reason, the team decided not to put pig-sheep in the New Testament for the word ‘sheep,’ but used sheep-animal or, in their language, a:pele sipi.
“The Kasua translation team also chose to discard the word ‘pig’ before sheep because pigs are unclean animals to the Jews. The team knew that Jesus was called the ‘Lamb of God’ in the New Testament to show that he is unblemished and clean. Hopefully the Lord will open up the Kasua villagers’ eyes to these same truths about Jesus as they read of Him in their own language.”
See also The Paschal Lamb, sheep, and sheep / lamb.
complete verse (John 1:29)
Following are a number of back-translations of John 1:29:
- Uma: “The next day, Yohanes saw Yesus arrive coming towards him. He said to the people: ‘Look! Here comes the Lamb [lit., sheep’s child] that was prepared by God. He is the one who will be the redemptive sacrifice [lit., body substitute] who takes-away the sins of man.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “The next day Yahiya saw Isa coming towards him. When he saw Isa, Yahiya said to the people who were there, ‘This is hep the one figuratively the substitute sheep that God gives to-be-made-a-sacrifice for mankind. This is the one who takes away the sin of all mankind.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The next day after that John saw Jesus coming to him and John said to the people. ‘This is that person who is like a sacrificial young sheep whom God gives for by means of him the bad doings of mankind will be removed.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “The next day (lit. on its tomorrow), Juan saw Jesus coming and he said by-illustration, ‘There is the sheep that God gave to be offered-in-sacrifice to remove the sins of people.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “Next day, Juan saw Jesus approaching him. Seeing him he said, ‘There he is now, he who has been given by God, who is like a young of sheep which is used for sacrificing, because he is the one who will remove the sin of the people.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “The next day John saw Jesus coming to where he was standing. He said, ‘that man coming here will be like a sacrifice, just like the lamb which is killed at the church for a sacrifice. For God has sent him to take a way the sins of the people all over the world.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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