The Greek terms that are used for what is translated as “net” in English are translated in languages like Navajo (Dinė) where fishing with nets is not known as “instruments to catch (or: bring out) the fish.” (Source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
“[People living close to lakes] produced further problems for us over fishing terms when we reached the revision of the Gospels. Fishing is practically unknown in the mountain streams and rivers, so there is hardly any vocabulary for it up-country. In Mat. 4:18 we read that Jesus saw two brethren “casting a net into the sea.” The word we used for net (urusenga) is used all over Rundi for a fishing net, whatever it is like, but when I read this to some people who live by the lake they said it was the wrong word, as from the context this happened during the daytime, and urusenga-fishing is only done at night. It appears that the urusenga is something like a shrimping net, and is used on moonless nights, when the fishermen hold flares over the side of the boat and attract a certain variety of very small fish which swim about in shoals. The net they use for day-time fishing is something like a drag-net and is called urukwabu. On enquiry inland, I never discovered a single person who knew this word. It was obviously the right one, technically speaking, but we felt that the few thousand lake-dwellers could not be weighed against almost the entire population of the country, so we had to employ the up-country word, putting an explanatory note in the margin that by the lake this net is called urukwabu.”
In Matthew 13:47 the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) translates it as “drag net” (Schleppnetz).
Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing net-fishing in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)
The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated “boat” or “ship” in English is translated in Chichimeca-Jonaz as “that with which we can walk on water” (source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.), in Chitonga as a term in combination with bwato or “dugout canoe” (source: Wendland 1987, p. 72), and in Tangale as inj am or “canoe-of water” (inj — “canoe” — on its own typically refers to a traditional type of carved-out log for sleeping) (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin).
In Kouya it is translated as ‘glʋ ‘kadʋ — “big canoe.”
Philip Saunders (p. 231) explains how the Kouya team arrived at that conclusion:
“Acts chapter 27 was a challenge! It describes Paul’s sea voyage to Italy, and finally Rome. There is a storm at sea and a shipwreck on Malta, and the chapter includes much detailed nautical vocabulary. How do you translate this for a landlocked people group, most of whom have never seen the ocean? All they know are small rivers and dugout canoes.
“We knew that we could later insert some illustrations during the final paging process which would help the Kouya readers to picture what was happening, but meanwhile we struggled to find or invent meaningful terms. The ‘ship’ was a ‘big canoe’ and the ‘passengers’ were ‘the people in the big canoe’; the ‘crew’ were the ‘workers in the big canoe’; the ‘pilot’ was the ‘driver of the big canoe’; the ‘big canoe stopping place’ was the ‘harbour’, and the ‘big canoe stopping metal’ was the ‘anchor’!”
In Lokạạ it is translated as ukalangkwaa, lit. “English canoe.” “The term was not coined for the Bible translation, but rather originated in colonial times when the English arrived in Nigeria on ships. The indigenous term for a canoe was modified to represent the large, ocean-going ship of the English.” (Source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 5:2:
Noongar: “Jesus saw two boats on the shore; fishing people had left the boats and were washing their fishing nets.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “He saw two boats at the edge of the lake. At the time the fishers had come down from their boats to the land/shore to wash their nets.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Isa saw two boats at the shore of the lake but the fishermen were not in the boats. They were there washing their nets.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Jesus saw two boats on the shore and no one was riding on them because the owners had gotten out and were cleaning their nets.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Jesus then saw two boats at the edge of the lake that some net-fishermen had left to go wash their nets.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “He saw two boats at the shore. The fishermen had got out. They were washing their trawl-net.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God or a person or persons to be greatly honored, the honorific prefix go- (御 or ご) can be used, as in go-ran (ご覧), a combination of “behold / see” (ran) and the honorific prefix go-.
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system, one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and others for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are Twents as well as the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In the latter two languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
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®).
kai eiden duo ploia hestōta para tēn limnēn ‘and he saw two boats standing by the lake.’ This clause is the beginning of the story proper. hestōta para tēn limnēn means that the boats are on the shore of the lake, just as Jesus himself was (cf. v. 1). hestōta ‘standing’ is a very general word which means here little more than ‘being.’
hoi de halieis ap’ autōn apobantes eplunon ta diktua ‘the fishermen having gone out of them were washing the nets.’ de is best understood as continuative and the clause describes the second part of the picture: the boats on the shore and the fishermen washing the nets. eplunon is durative because it describes a situation.
apobainō (also 21.13) ‘to go away,’ ‘to get out,’ fig. ‘to lead to,’ ‘to result in’ (21.13).
diktuon (also vv. 4f) ‘net’ for catching fish.
Translation:
Differences in cultural setting may cause considerable difficulties for the translator. Thus, if fishing in general is unknown in the receptor culture, he may have to coin short descriptive phrases, where necessary giving supplementary explanation in a footnote or picture. Or, if it is the particular method of fishing mentioned in the narrative that is unknown, he may have to adapt terms belonging to a method that, though different, is well known in the culture, carefully expanding their meaning by contextual conditioning, or combining description and adaptation (as in Navajo). Or again, some kind of fishing may be known, but certain concomitant features do not fit, e.g. where fishing is done only by women (Ekari), or at night; in some such cases an explanatory note will again be required.
Boats. The reference probably is to rather small, relatively shallow boats, holding from six to twelve persons, propelled by oars and/or sail. A descriptive phrase used in Chichimeca Central Pame is, ‘that with which we can walk on water.’ That these boats were fishing-boats may have to be made explicit, e.g. ‘boats used for fishing, or, catching fish.’
By the lake. In some languages one has to add a verb to indicate how the boat lies moored, cf. ‘tied’ (i.e. to a pole planted at the edge of the lake) (Ekari), cf. also, “pulled up on the beach” (Good News Translation).
Fishermen. In some cases, especially if fishing has been referred to already, one may say, ‘the sailors,’ ‘the crew,’ ‘those who owned/used them (or, the boats).’
Washing, or, ‘rinsing’ (Sundanese, Dutch), ‘making-clean’ (Bahasa Indonesia).
Nets. Some descriptive phrases possible are, ‘large fish traps made of strings,’ ‘instruments for catching fish (or, to bring up out fish, cf. Navajo)’; if one has to choose between terms for ‘dragnets’ or ‘casting nets,’ the former should be used.
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.
He saw two boats at the edge of the lake: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as at the edge of the lake indicates the location of the boats. The fishermen had pulled the boats up out of the water. They did this so that the boats would not drift away. These boats may have been partly on dry land and partly in shallow water.
Some other ways to translate this are:
He saw two boats pulled up on the beach (Good News Translation) -or-
Jesus saw two boats on the shore (God’s Word)
boats: The boats were wooden boats used for fishing. They were probably big enough for four to fifteen people to sit inside.
If you do not have a word for boats in your language, some ways to translate it are:
• Use a phrase that describes the function of boats. For example:
vehicles for crossing water -or-
something/vehicles for carrying people on top of water
• Use the word for a specific kind of boats in your culture. For example:
canoes -or-
fishing boats
5:2b
The fishermen had left them: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as The fishermen had left them is literally: “the fishermen having gone away from them.” This phrase indicates that the fishermen were not in the boats but that they had gone a short distance away from them. They had done this some time earlier, before Jesus saw the boats.
Some other ways to translate this are:
the fishermen were not in them -or-
the fishermen had left them there
fishermen: The word fishermen refers to men who catch fish and sell them as their job.
5:2c
were washing their nets: The fishermen were standing by the lake cleaning the nets that they used for catching fish.
nets: The nets were probably large fishing nets. The fishermen dragged them through the water to catch fish.
General Comment on 5:1–2
In the Greek, 5:1–2 is one long sentence. The Berean Standard Bible divides it into two sentences. You may want to divide this sentence into several sentences. For example:
1aOne day Jesus was standing by the sea of Galilee. 1bThe people crowded around him as they listened to God’s word. 2aJesus saw two boats on the shore. 2bThe fishermen had stepped out of them 2cand were washing their nets. (God’s Word)
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