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.
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 2:19:
Noongar: “Mary remembered all these things, and she kept everything in her heart.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “But Maria stored all that happened in her heart, and she continually thought about them.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “But Mariyam remembered everything and always thought about it.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And as for Mary, she did not forget all of these things that she heard, but rather, she very carefully thought about them.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “As for Maria, she stored all these-things that had happened in her mind and kept-thinking-about-them.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “As for Maria, she stored all that well in her head, always/often thinking about it.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
In American Sign Language it is translated with a sign for the letter M and the sign for “virgin,” which could also be interpreted as “head covering,” referring to the way that Mary is usually portrayed in art works. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Mary” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
In Hungarian Sign Language the sign is based on historical images, referring to the veil covering her head: the earliest depictions of Mary (dating back to the 2nd century) already portray her wearing a headscarf or a veil. Its sign in sign language refers to the veil because, within Christian culture, this is her most recognizable visual attribute, distinguishing her from other biblical figures. (Source: Jenjelvi Biblia and HSL Bible Translation Group)
In some Semitic languages, the transliteration for “Mary” is identical to the one for the prophetess “Miriam,” testifying to the fact that these names are identical (Arabic and the many translations that are reliant on Arabic: مَرْيَم, Hebrew: מִרְיָם, Ge’ez / Amharic and related languages: ማርያም).
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.
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.
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®).
hē de Mariam ‘but Mary,’ in contrast with pantes hoi akousantes ‘all who heard’ in v. 18.
panta … ta rēmata tauta ‘all these things’; panta is emphatic, as shown by its position.
rēmata ‘things’ (many translators) or ‘words’ (Dutch versions, An American Translation, Zürcher Bibel); the former interpretation implies a reference to all that Mary had seen, heard and experienced and is, therefore, wider in scope than the latter and as such preferable.
sunēterei ‘(she) treasured up’; as compared with the aorist tense in the preceding verse the imperfect tense here suggests that Mary kept her experiences in mind not for a moment but for a long time.
suntēreō ‘to keep carefully,’ ‘to treasure up in one’s memory.’
sumballousa en tē kardia autēs ‘pondering in her heart,’ scil. all these things; the object is to be taken over from sunetērei ‘she treasured up’; en tē kardia may go with sunetērei, or with sumballousa; because of the word order preferably the latter.
sumballō (also 14.31) transitive ‘to bring together,’ hence ‘to compare,’ ‘to interpret,’ or, in a more weakened sense, ‘to ponder.’
Translation:
Kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. In some receptor languages ‘to keep/to treasure,’ in the sense intended here, requires a reference to the place where the things are kept, whereas ‘to ponder’ can go without; hence such transposition of the locative phrase as ‘placed in her heart and considered’ (Tamil, Kannada), ‘she-put in her breath and … she-thought’ (Tboli, similarly in Tagalog). In other languages both verbs have to be qualified; hence a transposition of the object, e.g. ‘kept and pondered all these things in her heart’ (Bahasa Indonesia RC). — To keep, or, ‘to keep in the heart.’ A connotation of secrecy (which can slip in rather easily because of the esoteric tendencies of many religions) must be avoided. Ponder, or, ‘continually think-about’ (Tboli), ‘turn around in the mind’ (Batak Toba), a reiterative form of ‘think’ (several other Indonesian languages), ‘puzzle forth, puzzle back’ (Sranan Tongo).
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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