Following are a number of back-translations of John 13:30:
Uma: “When Yudas took that bread, he went out going outside. At that time, it was dark.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then when Judas had taken the bread, he immediately went out. And it was night already.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when Judas had eaten that bread, he went out and it was night at that time.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “When Judas had then finished eating the bread, he immediately-went-out. And it was already night.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “When Judas had eaten that bread which he’d been given, he went. It was night already at that time.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “After Judas ate the bread which had been given him, he went. It was now night time.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Willy Wiedmann, the artist, commented on this picture: “In spite of some difficulty, and unlike Leonardo da Vinci [see here ] I did not set my last supper in a theatrical scene with Jesus in the center behind an elongated table with all the disciples, with two at each end so that that there are 11 seated behind the table. And not like the panel by Juan de Juanes (1623-79) [see here ] in which the six disciples left and right are very dynamic figures. And also not like Martin Schongauer’s Last Supper [see here ] with a slightly shorter table (also incidentally very similar to Juanes in the attitudes of the figures) and two figures seen from the back in the foreground of the panel. Instead I have given the Master the middle place to the foreground, with his back to us to finally leave the controversial Jesus-existential questions unanswered. Slightly symbolically it means that he is leaving his world. The iris color is meant to transfer the rainbow to Jesus, that God once linked to Noah (my kingdom is not of this world). I attempted to present answers that correspond to the characters of each individual.”
Image and text taken from the Wiedmann Bible. For more information about the images and ways to adopt them, see here .
For other images of Willy Wiedmann paintings in TIPs, see here.
Following is a painting by Wang Suda 王肅達 (1910-1963):
Copyright by the Catholic University Peking, China.
Text under painting translated from Literary Chinese into English:
Beginning of the Holy Communion
You have this as food and this is my body.
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.
Following is an acrylic on canvas painting by Hanna-Cheriyan Varghese:
Used with permission by the Overseas Ministries Study Center (OMSC) at Princeton Theological Seminary. You can purchase this and many other artworks by artists in residence at the OSMC in high resolution and without a watermark via the OSMC website .
“Hanna-Cheriyan Varghese (1938 – 2009) of Selangor, Malaysia, was the artist in residence at OMSC for the 2006–2007 academic year. She was born to Christian parents, and she remembered her mother taking her to a different worship service every week: ‘My parents encouraged me to attend different churches so that my siblings and I would appreciate the liturgy and traditions of the Christian believers of different denominations. Christians are a minority in Malaysia so we continue to struggle for our identity in a Muslim society. There is no open conflict as such.’
“She always had a passion for painting and drawing. She worked in the mediums of acrylic paint and Batik dye.
“‘All creative work, be it the spoken word, the written word or the sung word, are essentials in praise and worship, meditation, education, inculturation and evangelism. This also includes art and pictures, which is universal seeing.’ Hanna Varghese.” (Source )
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 )
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®).
In Greek Judas is literally “he,” and accepted is a participle which Good News Translation makes into a finite verb.
It may be necessary to translate the bread as “the small piece of bread,” to avoid the impression that Judas received a loaf of bread.
John’s statement it was night has more than a temporal connotation; it is theological as well.
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 .
The Greek begins this verse with a conjunction that indicates a return to the main story after the parenthetical comment in 13:28–29. Most English translations, including the Berean Standard Bible, do not explicitly translate this word. Indicate this return to the main story in a way that is natural in your language.
As soon as he had received the morsel, Judas went out: The verb received here mean “taking” or “accepting.” Judas accepted the bread that Jesus gave to him.
As soon as…Judas went out: This phrase indicates that Judas at once left the meal and the house where the disciples were eating. Here are other ways to translate this clause:
immediately went outside (God’s Word) -or-
As soon as Judas had taken the piece of bread he went out. (New Jerusalem Bible)
the morsel: See how you translated this in 13:26a, c.
General Comment on 13:30a
In some languages it may be natural to translate 13:30a using two independent verbs. For example:
Judas accepted the bread and went out at once. (Good News Translation)
13:30b
into the night: This clause indicates that the sun had set and it was now dark. The night in this gospel represents Jesus’ death. See 9:4b and the note there. Not only was it dark when Judas went out, but it was the time for Jesus to die.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.