mustard seed

The Greek that is translated in English as “mustard seed” is translated in Muna as “wonolita seed.” René van den Berg explains: “The mustard plant rarely exceeds 50 cm in height. A wonolita is a big forest tree growing from a tiny seed.”

In the Bislama and Uripiv translations it is translated as “banyan.” “The banyan tree is one of the biggest in the islands, and it grows from a tiny seed. We (Uripiv) added a footnote to explain to more advanced readers what we had done: ‘Here Matthew compares the kingdom of God to a mustard seed, but since mustard doesn’t grow here, we put banyan, so that Matthew’s meaning will be clear.’” (Source: Ross McKerras)

In Elhomwe it is translated as “tree seed.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

In Gbaya is is translated with the ideophone kɛ̧́ɛ̧́ which “denotes a very tiny and barely visible object. (…) The Gbaya team applied it to faith instead of referring to a mustard seed which is unknown to Gbaya readers.” Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

See also mustard.

mulberry tree

The Greek in Luke 17:6 that is translated as “mulberry tree” in English is translated in North Tanna as neegɨn tree (Latin: Barringtonia edulis, see here). That species of tree, native to Vanuatu and Fiji, has much like the mulberry tree a very big tap-root (source: Greg Carlson).

See also mulberry.

small quantities

In Gbaya, the notion of small quantities (often in relation to divisions) or something very small (such as a mustard seed) is emphasized in the referenced verses with the ideophone kɛ̧́ɛ̧́.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

mulberry

The references to mulberry in the Scriptures are all controversial. However, Zohary (Plants of the Bible. Cambridge University Press, 1982) on the basis of cognate words in Sumerian (messikanu, sukannu) confidently associates the Hebrew word mesukan in Isaiah 40:20 with the mulberry tree, as did Thompson before him. Further, they take the Greek word sucaminos in Luke 17:6 as also cognate with Sumerian sukannu. Like the apple, the pomegranate, the fig and the pistachio, the Black Mulberry Morus nigra may have been introduced into the Holy Land from one of the neighboring countries like Persia (now Iran).

The black mulberry is a large, broad tree (6 meters [20 feet] high) that produces flowers and leaves in spring and loses its leaves every year in winter. The crown is broad and low. The trunk gets twisted as it grows old and may rot away, only to be replaced by another one from the same root. People pile stones up in order to support the low branches of old trees. The leaves are stiff, rough, and hairy. The flowers are pollinated by the wind, and the fruit is a rather tart, black berry about the size of a large cashew nut. In Europe and North America, people use mulberries mostly to make pies and wine. A different species, the white mulberry, has a whitish fruit.

The black mulberry tree is similar in size and shape to the sycomore fig. In fact, the translators of the Greek Septuagint introduced considerable confusion by translating the Hebrew word shiqmah as sucaminos (1 Kings 10:27 et al.)

There are at least eighteen subspecies of mulberry in the world, distributed from China to North America. In the Middle East area two have been cultivated, the black mulberry and the white mulberry. The black mulberry grows well in what is now Iran, and it may have been introduced into Canaan from there. In areas where the mulberry tree is found, the local name should be used in Luke 17:6. Where it is not found (for example, most of Africa), transliteration from a major language is advised, for example, muluberi or sikamayin. (French mûrier, Spanish mora, Portuguese amoreira, Arabic tut).

Black mulberry, Wikimedia Commons

Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

See also mulberry tree.

mustard

There is by no means full agreement about the precise identity of the plant in Jesus’ famous references to the mustard seed. Two types of mustard grow in the Holy Land and probably grew there in Bible times: Black Mustard Brassica nigra and White Mustard Sinapis alba. Both species were either cultivated or gathered in Bible times, probably more for the oil, which was used in medicine and cooking, than as a spice. Both types are cultivated today.

Mustard plants are related to some other well-known food plants, such as collards, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, rutabaga, and Chinese cabbage. They are planted and harvested each year. They grow to 2 meters (7 feet) in height and have branches like a tree. At the ends of the branches there are bright yellow flowers with four petals, like nearly all the members of the Brassicaceae family. The seeds are small among the seeds of garden plants, being about 2 millimeters (1/12 inch) in diameter, but they are not by any means the smallest of all seeds.

The point of the mustard seed parable of Jesus is that something small can produce something very large and complex, like the kingdom of God, or like the amazing deeds of a person with faith.

At least thirty kinds of mustard are known in the world, twenty-one of them in Europe. Others are found in Northeast Africa, India, Japan, and China. The quality in focus in all of the Gospel references is the smallness of the mustard seed compared to the large size of the resulting plant. The translator must keep that in mind, even if a relative of the mustard is found. If no effective equivalent is available, it will be necessary to transliterate “mustard” from a major language.

White mustard plants, photo by Nigel Hepper
Mustard seeds with pin, photo by Ray Pritz

Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

See also mustard seed.

complete verse (Luke 17:6)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 17:6:

  • Noongar: “Jesus said, ‘If you had faith like a tiny seed, you could tell this tree, ‘Pull yourself up with the roots and plant yourself in the sea’. And the tree would do what you said.'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “The Lord Yesus said: ‘If you have faith even just [the size of] a chigger, you can say to this big tree: ‘Pull yourself up from there, move over there into the sea!’ it would definitely really move according to your command.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Their Lord answered, he said, ‘If you trust God even just a little, figuratively if it’s size is only like the mustard seed, you can say to that big tree over there, ‘Uproot yourself and change your place going into the sea,’ and it will do what you say.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus answered, ‘If you have faith which is as big as even one small mustard seed, you can say to this big tree, ‘Go away from there, and be transferred into the sea.’ And that will be that, and it will obey you.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “And he said, ‘Even though your faith is small like the smallest seed, you can say to this large tree, ‘Pluck-out your (sing.) roots and go to the ocean so that that will be your (sing.) growing-place,’ and it will go and obey.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “The Lord Jesus replied, saying, ‘Hopefully your believing will become like a little mustasa’ seed which keeps on growing until it is a big plant. For if your believing in me is like this, really even supposing you will say to that tree to be pulled up and stand next in the sea, it’s certain it would do as you say.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Kabwa: “Even if you were to have small faith like a small mustard seed, you would tell a big fig tree thus, ‘Uproot here, you should go, you should plant yourself in the lake!’ it would obey you.”
  • Suba-Simbiti: “Whenever you have just small faith, [even] if it were like a small mustard seed, you would tell this fig tree thus, ‘Uproot, you should go, you should be planted in the lake!’ and it would obey you.” (Source for this and above: R.M. Mészároš in Journal of Translation 18/2022, p. 115ff. )

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing his disciples and common people

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

Here, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.

In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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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 formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )