Image taken from He Qi Art . For purchasing prints of this and other artworks by He Qi go to heqiart.com . For other images of He Qi art works in TIPs, see here.
Following is a painting by Kim Ki-chang (1913-2001):
Kim Ki-chang (pen name: Unbo) had been deaf and partially mute since the age of 7. He painted a series of 30 paintings for the “Life of Christ” cycle in 1952 during the Korean War. Kim portrayed Jesus as a seonbi / 선비, or a Joseon Period (1392-1910) gentleman scholar, wearing a gat / 갓 (hat) and dopo / 도포 (robe). For other images of Kim Ki-chang art works in TIPs, see here.
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, translators typically select the inclusive form (including Jesus).
Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.
Following are a number of back-translations of John 8:5:
Uma: “In the Law of Musa, there is a command that says: a woman who acts like that must be stoned until she is dead. So, you (sing.), what is your (sing.) judgment?'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Na, in the law that Musa left with us (incl.), the judgment of women like this one is, they should be thrown on with stones until they die. Na, as for you, what do you say?'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And according to Moses’ law to us long ago, she must be killed by throwing stones at her. And what is your judgment on this?'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Moses’ law says that a woman like this must be stoned until she dies. Now as for you (sing.), what do you (sing.) say?'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well, since it was commanded by Moises in the laws to stone with rocks till they die those who do like she here has done, well now, what do you say?'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “In the law Moses wrote it says a woman like this is to be killed by stoning. How about you, what do you say about this matter?'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The Greek that is translated in English as “Law” or “law” is translated in Mairasi as oro nasinggiei or “prohibited things” (source: Enggavoter 2004) and in Noongar with a capitalized form of the term for “words” (Warrinya) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
In Yucateco the phrase that is used for “law” is “ordered-word” (for “commandment,” it is “spoken-word”) (source: Nida 1947, p. 198) and in Central Tarahumara it is “writing-command.” (wsource: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
American Sign Language also uses the sign depicting the horns but also has a number of alternative signs (see here).
In French Sign Language, a similar sign is used, but it is interpreted as “radiance” (see below) and it culminates in a sign for “10,” signifying the 10 commandments:
The horns that are visible in Michelangelo’s statue are based on a passage in the Latin Vulgate translation (and many Catholic Bible translations that were translated through the 1950ies with that version as the source text). Jerome, the translator, had worked from a Hebrew text without the niqquds, the diacritical marks that signify the vowels in Hebrew and had interpreted the term קרו (k-r-n) in Exodus 34:29 as קֶ֫רֶן — keren “horned,” rather than קָרַו — karan “radiance” (describing the radiance of Moses’ head as he descends from Mount Sinai).
In Swiss-German Sign Language it is translated with a sign depicting holding a staff. This refers to a number of times where Moses’s staff is used in the context of miracles, including the parting of the sea (see Exodus 14:16), striking of the rock for water (see Exodus 17:5 and following), or the battle with Amalek (see Exodus 17:9 and following).
In Vietnamese (Hanoi) Sign Language it is translated with the sign that depicts the eye make up he would have worn as the adopted son of an Egyptian princess. (Source: The Vietnamese Sign Language translation team, VSLBT)
“Moses” in Vietnamese Sign Language, source: SooSL
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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 are (され) 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, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.
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®).
Moses commanded that such a woman must be stoned to death is literally “Moses commanded us to stone such ones.” The Greek phrase “such ones” is feminine and so equivalent to “such women” (New English Bible); Revised Standard Version translates merely “such” and Moffatt “such creatures.” Good News Translation shifts to the singular for the sake of English style. Whether one chooses singular or plural, it should be indicated that “such” refers to women. The command “to stone” such women was a command to put them to death, and Good News Translation makes this clear. Jerusalem Bible does the same, “to condemn women like this to death by stoning.” There may be a complication involved in combining the phrases In our Law and Moses commanded, for in a sense Moses also gave the Law. Therefore it may be necessary to translate “When Moses gave us our laws, he commanded us” or “Moses gave a commandment to us in our laws, saying.” Or it may be necessary to state the content of the commandment as direct discourse, for example, “Moses commanded us, You must stone such a woman to death.”
Several translations fill out the question Now, what do you say?Revised Standard Version translates “What do you say about her?”; New English Bible “What do you say about it?”; and New American Bible “What do you have to say about the case?” In this question the pronoun you is emphatic; the questioners are attempting to set Jesus over against Moses. The conjunctive adverb Now is not understood in a temporal sense but as a kind of adversative, for example, “But what do you say?” or “On the other hand, what do you say?”
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 .
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