Visitation

He Qi © 2021 All Rights Reserved.

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 an artwork by Sister Marie Claire , SMMI (1937–2018) from Bengaluru, India:

For more information about images by Sister Marie Claire and ways to purchase them as lithographs, see here . For other images of Sister Marie Claire paintings in TIPs, see here.

Following is a 1973 painting of the JESUS MAFA project, a response to New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings was selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made, and these were then transcribed to paintings:

From Art in the Christian Tradition , a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. Image retrieved March 23, 2026. Original source: librairie-emmanuel.fr.

The following is a stained glass window depicting Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth. It was created by Ateliers Maréchal de Metz between 1848 and 1860 for the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Luxembourg.

Photo by Marcin Szala, hosted by Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Stained glass is not just highly decorative, it’s a medium which has been used to express important religious messages for centuries. Literacy was not widespread in the medieval and Renaissance periods and the Church used stained glass and other artworks to teach the central beliefs of Christianity. In Gothic churches, the windows were filled with extensive narrative scenes in stained glass — like huge and colorful picture storybooks — in which worshipers could ‘read’ the stories of Christ and the saints and learn what was required for their religious salvation. (Source: Victoria and Albert Museum )

Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth (icon)

Following is a contemporary Ukrainian Orthodox icon of the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth by Kateryna Shadrina.

 

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 )

For purchasing artworks by Kateryna Shadrina go to IconArt Gallery .

making implicit plural form explicit (Luke 1:40)

In many, if not most of the languages in the Philippines, proper nouns, such as personal names, are tagged with a marker that signals their grammatical role within a sentence. For Tagalog and the Visayan languages , this typically includes si to mark the proper noun as the actor or subject (nominative case), ni to mark the proper noun as an owner (genitive case), and kay to mark the proper noun as as an indirect object, i.e. the one to or toward whom an action is directed (dative case). All of these also have plural forms — sina, nina and kina respectively — and unlike in the biblical languages or in English, the plural form has to be used when only a single proper name is mentioned but implicitly that proper name includes more than just one.

In this verse, where English translates “(the house of) Zechariah,” the Tagalog translation translates “nina Zacarias” because the context of the text makes clear that it’s the house of Elizabeth as well. (Source: Kermit Titrud and Steve Quakenbush)

Elizabeth / Elisabeth

The name that is transliterated as “Elizabeth” or “Elisabeth” in English means “God of the oath,” “God is her oath,” a worshiper of God,” “my God has sworn.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )

In Spanish Sign Language it is translated through the relationship with Mary, i.e. “cousin of Mary.” (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. )


“Elizabeth” 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 Visitation (image), Mary (mother of Jesus) and Zechariah.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Elizabeth .

Zechariah

The name of the father of John the Baptist that is transliterated as “Zechariah” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language as “beard (the sign for a patriarch)” + “mute.” (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. )


“Zechariah” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

In French Sign Language it is “temporarily mute.” (Source: Lexique – Explications en langue des signes)

For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .

The following is a stained glass window depicting Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth. It was created by Ateliers Maréchal de Metz between 1848 and 1860 for the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Luxembourg. Zechariah is shown on the right:

Photo by Marcin Szala, hosted by Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Stained glass is not just highly decorative, it’s a medium which has been used to express important religious messages for centuries. Literacy was not widespread in the medieval and Renaissance periods and the Church used stained glass and other artworks to teach the central beliefs of Christianity. In Gothic churches, the windows were filled with extensive narrative scenes in stained glass — like huge and colorful picture storybooks — in which worshipers could ‘read’ the stories of Christ and the saints and learn what was required for their religious salvation. (Source: Victoria and Albert Museum )

More information on Zechariah (New Testament figure) .

complete verse (Luke 1:40)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 1:40:

  • Noongar: “Mary entered the house of Zechariah, and she greeted Elizabeth.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “When she arrived at the house of Zakharia, she went in and greeted Elisabet.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “When she arrived there, she went to the house of Jakariya and said to Elisabet, ‘Assalamu alaikum.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when she arrived there to Zechariah and Elizabeth, she spoke-in-greeting.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “When she arrived there, she entered their house and greeted Elizabet.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “On her arrival at the home of Zacarias and spouse, she greeted Elisabet at once.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Luke 1:40

Exegesis:

kai ēspasato tēn Elisabet ‘and she greeted Elizabeth.’

aspazomai (also 10.4) ‘to greet,’ here of the person who enters, as the substantive aspasmos in 1.29, 41.

Translation:

And. Because the story leaves untold Mary’s arrival in the city it may be necessary to make the transition less abrupt, e.g. by preparing it in v. 39, cf. .’.. she arrived at a city in Judah, (40) and then she entered’ (Navajo); or by starting v. 40 with, ‘there,’ or, ‘on her arrival there.’

She entered and greeted, or, ‘having entered she greeted,’ ‘on-entering she greeted’ (Balinese). For greeted cf. on v. 29 and on “hail” in v. 28; Tboli has here, ‘called to,’ as one does when coming up the stairs of a house but not seeing anyone right away; Navajo has, ‘said peace/friendship to,’ a common way of reporting a friendly greeting, although ‘peace/friendship’ is not part of the actual formula of greeting.

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.