In Aekyom, years are counted as “turtles” (ambum).
Norm Mundhenk tells this story:
“Recently I was checking some New Testament material in the Aekyom language of western Papua New Guinea. It seemed relatively clear until suddenly we came to a passage that started, ‘When Jesus had 12 turtles, …’ Surely I had misunderstood what they said.
“‘Did you say that Jesus had 12 turtles?’
“‘Let us explain! Around here there is a certain time every year when river turtles come up on the banks and lay their eggs. Because this is so regular, it can be used as a way of counting years. Someone’s age is said to be how many turtles that person has. So when we say that Jesus had 12 turtles, we mean that Jesus was 12 years old.’
“It was of course the familiar story of Jesus’ trip with his parents to Jerusalem. And certainly, as we all know, Jesus did indeed have 12 turtles at that time!”
In Tok Pisin, krismas (derived from “christmas”) is taken as the fixed annual marker, so Jesus had 12 “christmases” (Jisas i gat 12-pela krismas pinis) or Abram (in Gen. 12:4) had 75 (Abram i gat 75 krismas) (source: Norm Mundhenk). In Noongar it is biroka kadak or “summers had” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 2:42:
Noongar: “When Jesus was 12 years old, they went to the Festival as always.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “When Yesus’ age was twelve years, they also went to attend the big day as usual.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “When Isa was twelve years old they went to that feast as they were used to do.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when Jesus was twelve years old, they attended the feast according to their custom.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “When Jesus was twelve years old, he went-with his parents (lit. plural father) to go to Jerusalem, because it was their yearly custom to go attend-the-fiesta at the fiesta called Passed-By.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “When the age of Jesus was twelve years now, they took him with them when they next went to join in the fiesta as they always did.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
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 2:41-52:
Every year Mary and Joseph went to Jerusalem for Passover,
and when Jesus was twelve, they went there as usual.
After Passover, his parents left,
not knowing Jesus had stayed on in the city.
They thought he was traveling with friends,
and they went a whole day before looking for him.
When they could not find Jesus with relatives or friends,
they returned to Jerusalem and for three days
anxiously searched everywhere.
Finally, they found Jesus in the temple,
listening to the teachers, asking them questions,
and surprising everyone by his wisdom and knowledge.
“Son, why have you done this to us?” asked his mother.
“Your father and I’ve been frantically searching for you.”
“Why did you have to search for me?” questioned Jesus.
“Didn’t you know I’d be here in my Father’s house?”
But they didn’t understand what he meant.
Jesus returned home to Nazareth with his parents,
and was always obedient to them.
But his mother never stopped thinking about all of this.
As Jesus grew up, he grew wiser and stronger —
so much so that God and people were pleased with him.
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, na-rare-ru (なられる) or “become” is used.
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®).
The syntactic structure of v. 42 and v. 43 is complicated. These verses contain clauses, telling successively that when Jesus had reached the age of 12 years (a), his parents went up to the feast as usual (b), completed their stay (c) and went back (d), but that Jesus stayed behind (e) and his parents did not know (f). Of these 6 clauses (a) is necessarily a subordinate clause, indicating when the events described subsequently took place, and (e) and (f) are two co-ordinate independent clauses, containing the main information; the remaining 3 clauses (b), (c) and (d) are subordinate to (e), because Luke wants to focus all attention on the fact that Jesus stayed behind without his parents’ knowledge, which is the basis for the subsequent narrative. The necessary details which lead up to the focal clause hupemeinen Iēsous ‘Jesus stayed behind’ are passed over as quickly as possible: (b) and (c) are genitives absolute and (d) is a phrase in the articular infinitive (for a similar syntactic pattern cf. 3.21-22).
kai hote egeneto etōn dōdeka ‘and when he was twelve years old’; the genitive etōn dōdeka is genitive of quality, ‘(a boy) of twelve years.’ At the age of twelve a Jewish boy became a ‘son of the law’ and henceforth had to keep its enactments.
anabainontēn autōn kata to ethos tēs heortēs ‘when they went up according to the custom of the feast.’ autōn refers primarily to hoi goneis autou ‘his parents’ in v. 41 but may be taken to include Jesus. For kata to ethos tēs heortēs ‘according to the custom of the feast,’ cf. on 1.9. The genitive is one of association: the custom that is associated with the feast. The present tense of anabainontōn suggests that they were in the habit of going to Jerusalem every year, as is said explicitly in v. 41. anabainō (cf. on v. 4) is often a technical term for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (cf. 18.31; 19.28; Mt. 20.17; Jn. 2.13; 5.1)
(V. 43) teleiōsantōn tas hēmeras ‘after having completed the days,’ of the feast. The phrase is, like the preceding one, in the genitive absolute, but the tense shifts from the present (suggesting habit, see above) to the aorist; this is done in order to describe an event which immediately precedes the event referred to by the main verb.
teleioō (also 13.32) ‘to complete,’ ‘to bring to an end’; tas hēmeras, ‘the days,’ without further specification, refers to a fixed period, probably the period of seven days prescribed in the law (cf. Ex. 12.15f; Lev. 23.6ff; Deut. 16.3).
en tō hupostrephein autous ‘when they were returning,’ articular accusative and infinitive, in the present tense because the event described is simultaneous with the event referred to by the main verb. autous refers to Joseph and Mary only. The verb here is best taken as durative, referring to a period that covers the first day of the journey.
hupemeinen Iēsous ho pais ‘the boy Jesus stayed behind.’
hupomenō ‘to stay behind,’ while others go away.
pais ‘boy,’ cf. on 1.54 and 2.17.
kai ouk egnōsan hoi goneis autou ‘and his parents did not know’; object of egnōsan is, of course, the fact that Jesus stayed behind.
Translation:
An attempt to imitate the syntactic pattern of the Greek may result in, ‘when his age was twelve years, after they had gone according…, and after they had completed-the-festival, at the going home the son Jesus still was in Jerusalem, but Joseph and his mother didn’t know’ (Javanese). In most receptor languages, however, such constructions are still more heavy than they are in Javanese, or even impossible. Therefore the syntactic pattern usually has to be altered, e.g. by starting a new sentence after clause (b) or clause (c). If the pattern of subordination has to be changed more thoroughly, it is important to mark the principal item of information clearly. To give a (probably purely theoretical) example: ‘In his twelfth year they went up according to the custom of the feast. They completed its days, and then returned. As for the boy Jesus, however, he stayed behind in Jerusalem, and/but his parents did not know it.’
He and the boy Jesus (v. 43) often can better change places, ‘The boy Jesus … he (or, the boy).’
They went up. That Jesus is included is not self-evident for non-Jewish readers; hence specifications of subject such as, ‘the-three-of-them’ (Malay), ‘they together’ (Balinese); cf. also ‘they-took-him-with-them-upward’ (Tae’ 1933). To express the specific meaning that went up has in this context some versions add a goal, e.g. “to the City” (Phillips), ‘to Jerusalem’ (Kituba, Balinese), ‘thither’ (Bible de Jérusalem, Bahasa Indonesia RC, KB); such an addition is based on translational, not on textual considerations. Cf. also “they made the pilgrimage” (New English Bible, taking ‘feast’ with this verb).
According to custom, preferably, “according to the custom of the feast” (cf. Exegesis), or, ‘as was customary at the feast,’ ‘as people used to do (or, which people always did) at the feast.’
(V. 43) And when the feast was ended, preferably ‘when they had completed the days (of the feast)’ (cf. Exegesis), or, ‘they remained (there) to the end (of the feast), or, during all the days (of the feast),’ cf. “and remained there for the days prescribed” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation).
As they were returning. Here the pronoun does not include Jesus; if “they” in v. 42 has been specified it may here be rendered, ‘his (or, the/Jesus’) parents,’ or be taken in an indefinite meaning, e.g. ‘when people were going home,’ cf. ‘at the returning’ (Balinese).
The boy Jesus, or, ‘the boy called Jesus’ (Sinhala), or simply, ‘the boy’; for the combination of noun and proper name cf. on v. 27. Boy indicates a further phase in Jesus’ growth, see on v. 17.
Stayed behind, i.e. remained in the place they had left, i.e. Jerusalem. The act is intentional and of his own doing, not happening by accident or through the agency of others (as suggested in some versions by a rendering that comes close to ‘was left behind’).
His parents did not know it, sometimes better subordinated to the preceding clause, cf. ‘without his parents knowing it’ (cf. Bahasa Indonesia, Batak Toba). Know here means ‘to be aware of,’ ‘to notice’ (Tagalog).
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.
twelve years old: The age of twelve was an important time in a Jewish boy’s life.
they: The pronoun they grammatically refers to Joseph and Mary, but it is clear from the story that Jesus went with them.
To make this clear, you can say:
they went up…⌊and he went with them⌋ -or-
⌊he and⌋ his parents
went up according to the custom of the Feast: The verb went up indicates that they were traveling to a place that was higher in elevation. The city of Jerusalem, where the Feast was held, was located on a hill.
In some languages, it is important to say whether people are traveling to a place that is higher or lower in elevation. However, in other languages, this may be unusual or confusing. If it is confusing in your language, here are other ways to translate the action:
traveled to Jerusalem -or-
went to the feast
according to the custom of the Feast: At that time in Israel’s history, it was the custom for all Jewish men to go to Jerusalem every year for the Passover Festival. The wives often accompanied their husbands.
the Feast: The phrase the Feast refers back to the Feast of the Passover in 2:41. Many English versions do not capitalize the word “Feast” here, and you may follow the rules of capitalization that you normally use. Some versions use a general term such as “celebration” here or leave the phrase implied.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.