years (age)

In Aekyom, years are counted as “turtles” (ambum).

Norm Mundhenk tells this story:

“Recently I was checking some New Testament material in the Aekyom language of western Papua New Guinea. It seemed relatively clear until suddenly we came to a passage that started, ‘When Jesus had 12 turtles, …’ Surely I had misunderstood what they said.
“‘Did you say that Jesus had 12 turtles?’
“‘Let us explain! Around here there is a certain time every year when river turtles come up on the banks and lay their eggs. Because this is so regular, it can be used as a way of counting years. Someone’s age is said to be how many turtles that person has. So when we say that Jesus had 12 turtles, we mean that Jesus was 12 years old.’
“It was of course the familiar story of Jesus’ trip with his parents to Jerusalem. And certainly, as we all know, Jesus did indeed have 12 turtles at that time!”

In Tok Pisin, krismas (derived from “christmas”) is taken as the fixed annual marker, so Jesus had 12 “christmases” (Jisas i gat 12-pela krismas pinis) or Abram (in Gen. 12:4) had 75 (Abram i gat 75 krismas) (source: Norm Mundhenk). In Noongar it is biroka kadak or “summers had” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

See also advanced in years.

the Jews (people)

In the English Good News Bible (2nd edition of 1992), this occurrence of the Greek hoi Ioudaioi, traditionally “the Jews” in English, is translated with “people,” “crowd,” or “they” in contexts that imply that the referred groups are hostile to Jesus For an explanation of the differentiated translation in English as well as translation choices in a number of languages, see the Jews.

The German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) also often translates here as jüdische Gegner or “Jewish adversaries.”

See also the Jews who were with her in the house.

complete verse (John 8:57)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 8:57:

  • Uma: “The Yahudi people said: ‘Your (sing.) age is not yet fifty years. How can you (sing.) have seen Abraham?'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “They answered, they said, ‘How have you and Ibrahim seen each other? You are not even fifty years old.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then the Jews said to Jesus, ‘you are not yet 50 years old, and how can it be that you have overtaken Abraham?'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The Jews said, ‘You (sing.) are not yet fifty years old. Is it indeed-the-case that (sarc. RQ) you (sing.) have seen Abraham?'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Because of that which Jesus said, the Judio said to him, ‘Your age isn’t yet fifty. So how could you have seen Abraham?'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “the Jews said to Jesus, ‘You are not yet fifty years old — and here you say that you saw Abraham!'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on John 8:57

In some Greek manuscripts you have seen Abraham is “Abraham has seen you,” which probably represents a scribe’s attempt to harmonize the Jews’ question with Jesus’ statement of verse 56, he saw it. The reading followed by Good News Translation has the best manuscript support, and it is more natural in the context. Because the Jews assumed that Abraham is superior to Jesus (verse 53), they would more naturally speak of Jesus as seeing Abraham than of Abraham as seeing Jesus. Most modern translations are based upon the Greek text followed by Good News Translation. Moffatt and Phillips base their translations on the alternative Greek text.

In some languages it may be necessary to modify the exclamatory question you have seen Abraham? One may translate, for example, “You are not even fifty years old yet; therefore how can you say you have seen Abraham?” or “… how is it possible that you have seen Abraham?”

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 .