Orthodox Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )
Following is a hand colored stencil print on momigami of Peter by Sadao Watanabe (1970):
Image taken with permission from the SadaoHanga Catalogue where you can find many more images and information about Sadao Watanabe. For other images of Sadao Watanabe art works in TIPs, see here.
Following are a number of back-translations of John 13:8:
Uma: “Petrus said: ‘No, Lord! Don’t wash my feet!’ Yesus said: ‘If I do not wash you (sing.), you (sing.) will have no connection/relationship with me.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Petros said, ‘I will really not let you wash my feet.’ ‘If I do not wash your feet,’ said Isa, ‘you are no longer my disciple.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Peter said, ‘It cannot be that you are the one to wash my feet.’ And Jesus answered, ‘If I do not wash you, you are not my disciple.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Whereupon Pedro said, ‘Don’t, don’t you (sing.) wash my feet.’ But Jesus said, ‘If I don’t wash your (sing.) feet, you (sing.) will also not be counted as my disciple.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Pedro said again, ‘It’s really like it’s not fitting that I let you wash my feet.’ Jesus again said, ‘But if I don’t cleanse you, it’s certain you are not my disciple. You have no share which comes from me.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “But Peter said, ‘No. You cannot wash my feet.’ Jesus said, ‘If I do not wash your feet, then you are not my companion then.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Following is a painting by Chen Yuandu 陳緣督 (1902–1967):
Image is housed in the Société des Auxiliaires des Missions Collection – Whitworth University and 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.
Following is a painting by Ketut Lasia (b. 1945):
Ketut Lasia is one of the last traditional Balinese painters in the Ubud style. As an adult, Lasia converted from Hinduism to Christianity, and he paints primarily biblical scenes. You can find artwork from Ketut Lasia in a variety of formats for sale at Fine Art America .
The Greek in the referenced verses that is typically translated as “age,” “(for)ever / eternity / eternal / permanent,” “of old / long ago” in English is translated in the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) consistenty as “world (or: “cosmic”) time” (Weltzeit).
Sarah Ruden (2021, p. lxii) explains the complexities of the translation of aiōn: “Trickiest of all [the words relating to time] is aion, most simply an ‘age’ or ‘era’ but sometimes denoting either the whole present world or the whole world to come. The same word can allude to all the limits of material existence (or to dangerous worldly distractions in particular), or to their absence in the eternal age to come. Looking forward, especially to ‘ages of ages’ (in the pattern of ‘King of Kings’), the meaning is ‘eternity.’”
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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 choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
Peter declared (New American Bible “Peter replied”) is rendered “Peter said” in most translations. The Greek verb “to say” covers a wide spectrum of meaning, and Good News Translation gives it the proper shade of meaning in the context.
Never at any time expresses a very strong negation in Greek. Moffatt translates “You will wash my feet never!” (note also Jerusalem Bible “ ‘Never!’ said Peter. ‘You shall never wash my feet.’ ”) In some languages this strong negation is not properly expressed by a future tense, such as “You will never wash.” The closest equivalent would be some expression of necessity, for example, “You must never wash.”
If I do not wash your feet is literally “If I do not wash you.” Most translations here are literal, but the reference is obviously to Peter’s feet, not to his whole body (see verse 9). Good News Translation makes this information explicit.
You will no longer be my disciple is more literally “You have no part with me.” Moffatt renders “you will not share my lot”; Phillips “you cannot share my lot”; Goodspeed “You will have no share with me”; New English Bible “you are not in fellowship with me”; and Jerusalem Bible “you can have nothing in common with me.” New American Bible assumes that the background of the Greek word “part” is to be found in the Hebrew term that describes the God-given heritage of Israel. That is, New American Bible takes the analogy to represent the “heritage” or “share” in the promised land that God gave to the individual tribes. In light of this background, New American Bible translates “you will have no share in my heritage.” Whatever the source of the imagery, Jesus uses these words to affirm that if Peter is not “washed” he will not share in the benefits of Jesus’ death, and so will have no place among God’s people.
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 .
Never shall You wash my feet!: In the Greek this is a strong statement. Peter rejected the idea that he would ever let Jesus wash his feet. Here are other ways to translate this statement:
Never at any time will you wash my feet! (Good News Translation) -or-
I will never let you wash my feet. (Revised English Bible) -or-
You may/must never wash my feet!
Peter told Him: Here Simon Peter is referred to as just Peter.
13:8b
Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me: This statement here means “If I do not wash you, you will not have fellowship or inheritance with me.” This sentence says that the washing was figuratively a necessary condition for belonging to Jesus or being saved. It refers to the washing that cleanses people of their sins (see 13:10), not to washing his feet. However, you should not make the figurative sense explicit. Here is another way to translate this sentence:
If I don’t wash you, you don’t really belong to me. (Contemporary English Version)
Unless I wash you: This phrase here means “If I do not wash your feet.” Here Jesus referred to literally washing Peter’s feet. You may want to make this explicit. For example:
If I do not wash your feet…. (Good News Translation)
But Jesus also spoke figuratively of cleansing Peter from his sins. It is good to translate this literally but use words that suggest or allow the possibility of the figurative meaning.
you have no part with Me: This clause refers to having no fellowship or communion with Jesus, nothing in common with him. Here are other ways to translate this clause:
you don’t belong to me (God’s Word) -or-
you are not one of my people (New Century Version)
General Comment on 13:8b
In some languages it may be natural to reverse the order of the clauses in 13:8b. For example:
You will not be one of my people unless I wash you. -or-
You will not belong to me if I do not wash you.
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