τῇ δὲ μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων ὄρθρου βαθέως ἐπὶ τὸ μνῆμα ἦλθον φέρουσαι ἃ ἡτοίμασαν ἀρώματα.
Luke 24
The Resurrection of Jesus
1But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.
In Gbaya, the notion of early morning is emphasized with the ideophone sút as in the referenced verses.
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)
The Greek that is translated as spices in English is translated in Tabasco Chontal as “medicine/spices which pertained to rubbing on the body” and in Seri as “a substance that smelled like perfume. It was for pouring on the dead, one to keep his body from stinking.” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
The following is a stained glass window from 1855 by artist H. Beiler over the altar of the Evangelische Stadtkirche Bad Rappenau, Bad Rappenau, Germany:
Photo by Llez, 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 )
The different Hebrew and Greek terms that are translated as “(olive) oil” and “(animal) fat” in English are translated in Kwere with only one term: mavuta. (Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 24:1:
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 24:1-12:
Before Sunday dawned, the women rushed to the tomb,
carrying spices they had prepared.
The stone had been rolled away from the entrance,
and they rushed right in.
Where was the body of the Lord Jesus?
It was nowhere to be seen,
and they didn’t know what to think.
Two men there in shining white garments!
Where did they come from?
Shocked, the women fell to the ground, but the men said:
“The living don’t dwell in tombs of the dead!
Jesus has been raised to life,
and now he’s long gone.
While you were still in Galilee, don’t you remember
he told you he’d be arrested, then executed on a cross,
but three days later he’d rise to life?”
At that very moment, the women recalled
what Jesus had said to them.
Quite a crowd of women had gone to the tomb,
among them: Mary Magdalene, Joanna,
and Mary the mother of James.
They hurried off and informed others,
including the closest followers of Jesus,
who refused to believe such nonsense.
However, Peter raced to the tomb,
but after stooping and looking carefully inside,
he saw only burial clothes.
Still confused, he returned to the others.
Exegesis:
23.56b may be taken as a part of the sentence of v. 56a (cf. New English Bible), or as an independent clause (cf. e.g. Revised Standard Version), or as one sentence with 24.1 (cf. e.g. Translator’s New Testament). The third alternative is preferable.
to men sabbaton ‘during the sabbath,’ accusative of time.
hēsuchasan ‘they rested,’ cf. on 14.4.
kata tēn entolēn ‘according to the commandment,’ scil. of the Law of Moses.
(24.1) tē de mia tōn sabbatōn ‘but on the first day of the week.’
orthrou batheōs ‘at early dawn,’ genitive of time.
orthros ‘dawn,’ ‘early morning.’
bathus ‘deep,’ here in a figurative sense ‘early.’
epi to mnēma ēlthon ‘they went to the tomb.’
pherousai ha hētoimasan arōmata ‘bringing (with them) the spices they had prepared.’ The word order (relative clause before the antecedent) does not influence the meaning.
Translation:
(23.56b) They rested. The verb may have to be expressed by ‘not to work’; an idiomatic rendering found in Tzeltal is, ‘to let the heart live.’
According to the commandment, or, “in obedience to the commandment” (An American Translation, New English Bible), “as the Law commanded” (Good News Translation), ‘as the law says’ (Sranan Tongo). For the noun see on 1.6.
(24.1) On the first day of the week. Where a literal rendering of the phrase would present difficulties one may shift to ‘on the next day,’ ‘on the day after (the sabbath).’
At early dawn, or, ‘very early.’ Toraja-Sa’dan uses an idiomatic phrase, lit. ‘night not yet (probably elliptical for, not yet ended).’
Taking, i.e. ‘taking/carrying with them.’
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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