Housed in the Société des Auxiliaires des Missions Collection – Whitworth University
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 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.
There are three different levels of speech in Burmese: common language, religious language (addressing and honoring monks, etc.), and royal language (which is not in active use anymore). Earliest Bible translations used exclusively royal and religious language (in the way Jesus is addressed by others and in the way Jesus is referred to via pronouns), which results in Jesus being divine and not human. Later editions try to make distinctions.
In the Common Language Version (publ. 2005) the human face of Jesus appears in the narrative of the angel’s message to Joseph and what Joseph did in response (Matthew 1:21-25). The angel told Joseph that Mary was going to give birth to a son, not a prince.
Likewise in Luke 2:6-7 the story of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem is told simply using the Common language. Again in the description of the shepherds’ visit to the baby Jesus (Mark 1:21-25), in the story of Jesus’ circumcision (Luke 2:6-2:7), and in the narrative of the child Jesus’ visit to Jerusalem (Luke 2:46-51), the human face of Jesus comes to the forefront.
On the other hand, the child Jesus is clearly depicted as a royal or a divine child in the story of the wise men (Matthew 2:9-12), the story of the flight to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-14), and the return to Nazareth (Matthew 2:20-21).
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 2:17:
Noongar: “When the shepherds saw the baby, they told the couple what the angel had said about the child.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “When they saw that child, they told what the angel had said to them about him.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “When they saw the child, they told about what the angel had said to them about that child.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when they had seen the child, they told Joseph and company all that the angel had told them about that child.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “When they saw the baby, they related what the angel had said concerning him,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “When the shepherds had seen, they related all which the angel had said concerning that child.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Illustration by Horst Lemke (1922-1985) for the GermanGute Nachricht für Sie – NT68, one of the first editions of the Good News Bible in German of 1968. Lemke was a well-known illustrator who illustrated books by Erich Kästner , Astrid Lindgren and many others.
Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Luke 2:8-20:
At night in the fields near Bethlehem,
some shepherds were guarding their sheep,
when suddenly an angel came down from the Lord,
and the glory of the Lord flashed all around.
The shepherds were shaken, but the angel encouraged them,
“Don’t be afraid! I have good news for you —
news that will bring happiness to all who hear.
Today a Savior was born for you in King David’s hometown.
This Savior is Christ the Lord, and you’ll recognize him —
he’s a newborn baby on a bed of hay.”
At that very moment a multitude of angels
descended from heaven, singing:
“Praise! Shout praises to God in heaven!
Peace to everyone who pleases God!”
After the angels had returned to heaven,
the shepherds said to each other,
“Let’s go to Bethlehem and see what this is all about.”
They wasted no time, and when they arrived,
Mary and Joseph were there —
and a newborn baby on a bed of hay.
The shepherds told the baby’s parents
what the angel had said about Jesus.
They and everyone else were surprised,
but Mary kept all this in mind
and never stopped wondering what it meant.
With praises to God flowing from their lips,
the shepherds returned to their sheep.
Everything had happened exactly as the angel had said.
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®).
idontes ‘having seen,’ the object has to be supplied from the preceding clause and is either Mary, Joseph and the child, cf. “them” (Williams), or the child only, cf. “him” (New English Bible), “it” (Revised Standard Version), preferably the former.
egnōrisan peri tou rēmatos tou lalēthentos autois peri tou paidiou toutou lit. ‘they made known about the word that had been spoken to them about this child’; peri tou rēmatos has the function of a direct object in the accusative with egnōrisan (cf. v. 15); when connected with a form of the verb laleō ‘to speak’ rēma means ‘word,’ not ‘thing,’ but here it refers rather to the content of the word than the word itself: hence many translators render tou rēmatos tou lalēthentos autois as “what had been told them” (Translator’s New Testament) or a similar translation. egnōrisan has no indirect object, which is supplied variously: (a) “them”, i.e. Mary and Joseph (Williams); this seems the natural supplement when the omission of the indirect object is not intentional; (b) “everybody” (Phillips), this is in accordance with the following verse which presupposes that the story has been spread. In the order of the story it is only logical to think of Joseph and Mary as the first persons to receive the message of the shepherds, but Luke has already in mind what follows, i.e. the reaction of all who heard that message, and in order to prepare the reader for what follows he does not mention the indirect object of egnōrisan ‘they made known.’ According to this interpretation Luke’s omission of the indirect object is intentional.
paidion ‘little child,’ cf. on 1.59. The term brephos ‘babe’ (vv. 12, 16), paidion (here, v. 27 and v. 40) and pais ‘boy’ (v. 43) apparently are used to suggest phases of Jesus’ growth, the end of which is indicated by the use of ‘Jesus’ without a qualifying apposition (v. 52). But this is not to be pressed, as is shown by the facts that brephos can also mean ‘embryo’ (1.41, 44), and that paidion here has the same referent as brephos (v. 12), although its general range of meaning is wider, covering the whole period of childhood.
Translation:
When they saw it, or ‘them,’ as preferred in Exegesis.
They made known, the same verb as in v. 15, probably in order to suggest that God’s message brought by the angels now finds its parallel in the message brought by the shepherds. New English Bible has “made known” in v. 15, but here “recounted”, another way to refer the reader to the first message; similarly Toraja-Sa’dan, ‘go-along-the-whole-length,’ i.e. tell again, keeping exactly to the original message. Some translators, taking the indirect object here to be ‘everybody’ (as preferred in Exegesis) have chosen a somewhat more encompassing expression, ‘to tell all’ (Tboli), ‘to make-widely-known’ (Bahasa Indonesia), ‘to make known everywhere’ (Ekari).
The saying which had been told them, or, ‘what the angels had told them.’ Tboli renders ‘that which they had heard,’ probably to avoid repetition of ‘to tell.’
Child, cf. on 1.7. The series “babe”–“child”–“boy” will require careful handling in receptor languages that have a different division and/or a different number of grades, or no grading at all, as in Tae.’ In some other cases a grading term, though existing, is unacceptable in this context for various reasons, stylistic, as in Dutch (where the usual term for the first grade, a borrowing from English “baby”, would sound ridiculous), or honorific, as in Balinese (which, though possessing a word for “babe”, cannot use it when referring to a child of high rank), or semantic, as in Bahasa Indonesia (where the term ‘boy’ came to be primarily associated with the concept ‘servant’).
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.
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