The name that is transliterated as “Isaac” in English is signed in Spanish Sign Language and French Sign Language with a sign that is linked to his mother’s laughter when she hears that she will be pregnant with him (referring to Genesis 18:12 – 18:15) and also is the meaning of the Hebrew “Isaac” (Yitschaq — “he laughs”):
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 3:34:
Uma: “Yehuda the child of Yakub, Yakub the child of Ishak, Ishak the child of Abraham, Abraham the child of Terah, Terah the child of Nahor,” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Yuda was a son of the prophet Yakub, Yakub was a son of the prophet Isahak, Isahak was a son of prophet Ibrahim, Ibrahim was a son of Tera, Tera was a son of Nahor.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “and Judah was the son of Jacob, and Jacob was the son of Isaac, and Isaac was the son of Abraham, and Abraham was the son of Terah, and Terah was the son of Nahor,” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “And Juda, he was the child of Jacob who was the child of Isaac who was the child of Abraham who was the child of Tera who in-turn was the child of Nahor.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “who was the son of Jacob, Jacob being the son of Isaac who was the son of Abraham, who was the son of Tare who was the son of Nacor.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
The name that is transliterated as “Abraham” in English means “father of a multitude,” “father of mercy,” “father of many nations.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )
In the vast majority of sign languages, including American Sign Language it is translated with the sign signifying “hold back arm” (referring to Genesis 22:12).
In Vietnamese (Hanoi) Sign Language it is translated with a sign for that demonstrates his new destiny. Previously, he had been called to wander from his home, and the name “Abram” reflected this movement (see here). The new sign name is in one location and stays there, showing Abraham will be given a land to call his own. At this time, Abraham was in the southern part of Canaan, which is shown on the base arm by the location near the elbow. (Source: The Vietnamese Sign Language translation team, VSLBT)
“Abraham” in Vietnamese Sign Language, source: SooSL
In Tira it is transliterated as Abaram. The choice of this, rather than the widely-known “Ibrahim,” as used in the Tira translation of the Qu’ran, was to offset it against the Muslim transliteration which originates from Arabic. (Source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )
Click or tap here to see two short video clips about Abraham (source: Bible Lands 2012)
The Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Greek that is transliterated as “Jacob” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign that signifies “lentil,” referring to the soup he gave his brother in exchange for his birthright (see Genesis 25:34). Note that another Spanish Sign Language sign for Jacob also users the sign for Jewish. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
In Finnish Sign Language it is translated with the signs signifying “smooth arm” (referring to the story starting at Genesis 27:11). (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
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®).
archomenos ‘when beginning.’ No object stated but to be supplied from what follows in Ch. 4, i.e. his service.
ēn … hōsei etōn triakonta ‘was about thirty years (old).’ The main clause, to which is attached the long genealogy in the form of a participial clause, cf. next note.
hōsei with numbers ‘about,’ ‘approximately.’
ōn huios, hōs enomizeto, Iōsēph ‘being the son, as was supposed, of Joseph.’ The participial clause introduces the subsequent genealogy. hōs enomizeto has no logical subject but a subject like ‘people’ may be supplied if necessary. nomizō, cf. on 2.44.
Vv. 23b-38 present a genealogy of Jesus in the form of a series of genitives successively dependent upon one another. For a discussion of the theological and historical problems involved in these names the reader is referred to the commentaries. For translational purposes it will be sufficient to list the names in their Greek and Hebrew form. For the Greek form the text of GOOD NEWS BIBLE is followed. Variant spellings in the Greek are mentioned only when they have influenced the transliteration in English. Latin transliterations are given only when they have influenced the transliteration in modern languages. Column 5 lists (a) the passages where the persons named in Luke are first mentioned in the Old Testament., and (b) the passages containing the name in question but referring to another person than the one meant in Lk. 3; category (b) is given in brackets.
Translation:
Jesus, when he began … was…, or, ‘When Jesus began … he was…,’ or, ‘Jesus was … when he began….’
When he began his ministry, or, ‘his work,’ ‘his teaching,’ ‘to preach (lit. to transmit the way, Chinese Union Version, L),’ ‘to act-as-guru’ (Tae’). Some languages possess an expression for a person’s (first) appearance in a certain role, which requires no further qualification, e.g. ‘raised his head’ (Chinese BT), ‘made-his-appearance’ (Dutch, Zürcher Bibel), cf. also lors de ses débuts (Bible de Jérusalem).
Jesus … was about thirty years of age, or, ‘Jesus’/his age was about thirty (years),’ ‘Jesus/he was about thirty years old.’ See also 2.42.
The position of as was supposed, or, ‘as people saw it (i.e. according to people)’ (Chinese Union Version), must be such that it qualifies the relationship between Jesus and Joseph only, and does not suggest a supposed son, or even a supposed Joseph (as has been the case in one older version); in many cases the phrase is better placed at the head of the sentence, e.g. ‘people thought he was the child of Joseph’ (Manobo). For the verb to suppose see on 2.44. — Several versions make some kind of incision after Joseph, e.g. ‘people regarded him as the son of Joseph. Joseph (was) Heli’s, he (was) Matthat’s … Adam’s, he (was) God’s son’ (Marathi), cf. also Javanese, quoted below.
The long series of proper names in vv. 23-38, connected with each other by the simple device of the genitive case, may have to be rendered less concisely, e.g. by appositional phrases, or relative clauses, of the type of, ‘(who was) the son/child of,’ in some cases even duplicating the names, e.g. ‘Joseph, he the son of Heli, Heli, he the son of…’ (Manobo). In honorific languages a high level honorific equivalent of ‘son’ may have to be used in the very last phrase, ‘son of God’ (e.g. in Balinese). Some versions have made a successful attempt to express the structure of the original by other means than genitives, cf. e.g. “Joseph whose line went back through Eli, Matthat, … to Adam, the son of God” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation), .’.. was reckoned the son of Joseph, whose coming-forth (was) from H., from M., …, from Adam, from Allah’ (Javanese).
For general remarks on transliteration of proper names see above on the name “Luke” (pp. 3f), and references. The proper names in these verses present an additional problem in that most of them are themselves transliterations of Hebrew originals, cf. categories (a) and (b), as given in Exegesis. In the case of the names in category (a) it is clear that Luke wants to refer his readers to persons known from the Old Testament; hence it may be supposed that he intended to reproduce their Hebrew names as faithfully as the Greek permitted him to do. Consequently one should not transliterate the Greek forms of the names in question (as several older and some new versions do), but their Hebrew models. (For a comparable case see above on Gr. Kurēnios—Latin ‘Quirinius’ in 2.2.) In practice this means that the translator, by treating these names as they are treated in the Old Testament (or will presumably be treated when a translation of the O.T. passages concerned is made in the future) best fulfils Luke’s purpose, i.e. to help his readers to identify the Old Testament persons referred to. Names of category (b) can best be treated in analogy with (a). The remaining 14 names (probably transliterations also, but without known O.T. origin) should be treated as other New Testament names.
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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