Painting by Sawai Chinnawong, used with permission by the Overseas Ministries Study Center (OMSC) at Princeton Theological Seminary. You can purchase this and many other artworks by artists in residence at the OSMC in high resolution and without a watermark via the OSMC website .
“Sawai Chinnawong of Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand, [is] an ethnic Mon whose Buddhist ancestors migrated to Thailand from Myanmar, Mr. Chinnawong committed his life to Christ while in his twenties. Today he is a member of the United Church of Christ of Thailand. His love for art began when he was a child in Thailand when he saw some old men painting on a Buddhist temple wall. He says he would watch them for hours each day. Sawai’s interest in art persisted into adulthood, and he studied art in a vocational school in Bangkok, Thailand. It was at this time that Sawai became a Christian. He says that a missionary was witnessing on the street one day, and soon after, he began to study the Bible every day after art class.
“After completing his art studies, Sawai attended the McGilvary Faculty of Theology at Payap University in Chiang Mai. He was deeply influenced by a series of lectures on the history of Christian Art given there in 1984 by artist and professor Nalini Jayasuriya, another of our OMSC artists. He began creating liturgical art while attending seminary, and designed the artwork for the chapel there. Today his art is appreciated in many places for its portrayal of Christian themes through a Thai graphic idiom that is inspired by Thai culture.
“‘My work represents influences from many styles…I believe Jesus Christ is present in every culture, and I have chosen to celebrate his presence in our lives through Thai traditional cultural forms. My belief is that Jesus did not choose just one people to hear his Word, but chose to make his home in every human heart. And just as his Word may be spoken in every language, so the visual message can be shared in the beauty of the many styles of artistry around the world.’ (Sawai Chinnawong).” (Source )
For more images by Sawai Chinnawong in TIPs see here.
Kim Ki-chang (pen name: Unbo) (1913-2001) had been deaf and partially mute since the age of 7. He painted a series of 30 paintings for the “Life of Christ” cycle in 1952 during the Korean War. Kim portrayed Jesus as a seonbi / 선비, or a Joseon Period (1392-1910) gentleman scholar, wearing a gat / 갓 (hat) and dopo / 도포 (robe).
For other images of Kim Ki-chang art works in TIPs, see here.
“Usually, Thai men spend their free time with other men. Women only enter to serve them food, but here a woman has entered into the male social space in a counter-cultural way Not only is she female, she is a lowly prostitute. Although a Thai woman may sometimes wash her husband’s feet, she will never use her hair to dry them The men observing her are shocked at it all.”
The Greek that is translated as “sinner” in English is translated in various ways:
“people with bad hearts” (“it is not enough to call them ‘people who do bad things,’ for though actions do reflect the heart, yet it is the hearts with which God is primarily concerned — see Matt. 15:19“) in Western Kanjobal
“people who are doing wrong things in their hearts” in San Blas Kuna (source for this and above: Nida 1952, p. 148)
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 7:37:
Noongar: “In that town, a badly behaved woman lived. She heard of Jesus eating and drinking inside the house of the Pharisee. So she got a jar, full of perfume,” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “In that town, there was a woman sinner, her actions were immoral/not appropriate. When she heard that Yesus was there eating in the house of that Parisi person, she came carrying a bottle containing fragrant oil.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Na, there was a woman in that town known as a sinner. When that woman knew that Isa was there in the house of that Pariseo to eat, she went there carrying valuable fragrant oil. It’s container was made of alabaster stone.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And in that town there was a woman whose reputation was bad, and when this woman learned that Jesus was eating there in the house of the Pharisee, she went there carrying a white allibaster stone bottle which was filled with fragrant perfume which was very expensive.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “In that town, there was a woman who was a prostitute (lit. the storying-about-whom was bad). When she heard that Jesus was there joining-in-eating in the house of the Pharisee, she went there taking-along a bottle made of alabastro (Ilo. loan) filled-with perfume.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well, there in that town there was a woman who was known by everyone to be sinful. She heard news that Jesus was there in the house of that Pariseo, gone to eat there. When she knew that Jesus was there, she went there, taking a far-from-ordinary container full of perfume.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Amele: There a woman sat in the taun. She [was] a sinful woman. And then she heard that Jisas was eating food in the house of the Farisi man. Therefore she took a small gourd full of very good smelling coconut oil and went.” (Source: John Roberts in this article )
The Greek that is a transliteration of the Hebrew Pərūšīm and is typically transliterated into English as “Pharisee” is transliterated in Mandarin Chinese as Fǎlìsài (法利賽 / 法利赛) (Protestant) or Fǎlìsāi (法利塞) (Catholic). In Chinese, transliterations can typically be done with a great number of different and identical-sounding characters. Often the meaning of the characters are not relevant, unless they are chosen carefully as in these cases. The Protestant Fǎlìsài can mean something like “Competition for the profit of the law” and the Catholic Fǎlìsāi “Stuffed by/with the profit of the law.” (Source: Zetzsche 1996, p. 51)
In Finnish Sign Language it is translated with the sign signifying “prayer shawl”. (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023) translates it into English as Observant. He explains (p. 302): “Pharisee has become a public, universal pejorative term for a hypocrite. Pharisees were observant of the interpretation of the Covenant Code called the ‘tradition of the elders.’ They conformed their behaviors to the interpretation. Among the various groups of Jews at the time of Jesus, they were perhaps closest to Jesus in their overall concern to make a radical commitment to the will of God (as they understood it).”
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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, tsuiteo-rare-ru (着いておられる) or “arriving” is used.
The syntactic structure is as follows: gunē ‘a woman’ is the subject of all verbal forms (except, of course, katakeitai ‘he reclined’); it is followed by a relative clause (hētis ēn … hamartōlos) which serves to introduce the woman, and a participial clause (epignousa, etc.) which denotes something which prepares for what is coming. Then comes the chain of events in the house of the Pharisee in two participial phrases (komisasa and stasa; the present participle klaiousa goes with stasa, see below), preparing the way for the four verbal clauses (ērxato brechein, exemassen, katephilei and ēleiphen), which describe the main events.
gunē hētis ēn en tē polei hamartōlos ‘a woman who was a sinner in the town,’ or ‘a woman who was in the town, a sinner.’ Both interpretations are possible but the former appears to be slightly preferable on stylistic grounds. The relative pronoun hētis is best understood as fully equivalent to the simple hē. en tē polei refers to the town where the Pharisee lived, as shown by the article. hamartōlos is here best understood as ‘a prostitute.’ For the general meaning cf. on 5.8.
kai epignousa hoti katakeitai ‘and having found out that he reclined….’ kai, probably a Hebraism, is omitted by all translations. For epignousa cf. on 1.4. Here it means ‘to learn,’ ‘to find out.’ For katakeitai cf. on 5.25.
komisasa alabastron murou lit. ‘having brought an alabaster flask of ointment,’ describes the first of a series of acts which the woman does upon finding out where Jesus is.
komizō ‘to bring.’ Here it almost means ‘to come with’ (cf. Brouwer, Willibrord).
alabastron murou ‘an alabaster flask of ointment.’
(V. 38) kai stasa opisō para tous podas autou klaiousa lit. ‘and having taken her place behind him at his feet weeping.’ The guests used to recline supporting themselves by their left arm, their feet turned slightly backward. opisō is specified by para tous podas autou. For the meaning of para. klaiousa qualifies not only stasa but also the following verbs. The woman’s tears are explained as tears of repentance (Klostermann) or of gratitude (Grundmann), preferably the latter, see below.
ērxato brechein ‘(she) began to wet,’ cf. on 4.21. Here ērxato suggests that now the main act begins after the preparatory acts.
brechō here and v. 44 ‘to wet,’ in 17.29 ‘to rain’ in a figurative sense.
tais thrixin tēs kephalēs autēs ‘with the hair of her head,’ i.e. ‘with her own hair’ (cf. The Four Gospels – a New Translation), implying that she had let down her hair for that purpose.
exemassen (also v. 44) ‘she wiped,’ ‘she dried,’ with shift to the imperfect which suggests duration.
katephilei tous podas autou ‘she kissed his feet,’ also in the imperfect. The kissing of the feet was an act of reverence.
kataphileō ‘to kiss,’ in Luke the general word, as phileō is in Mk. 14.44.
ēleiphen tō murō ‘she anointed (them) with the ointment.’ This is what she had come for.
Translation:
Some changes in the syntactic pattern may be necessary or preferable, e.g. ‘now there was a woman who was a sinner in the city. As soon as she learned that Jesus was … in the Ph.’s house she came with … flask, and took her stand behind him at his feet, weeping. Thereupon she wetted his feet…, wiped them…, kissed them, and anointed them….’
A woman of the city, who was a sinner, or, ‘a woman who lived as (or, was known as) a sinner in the city.’ Sinner cf. on 5.30, but here in the sense of ‘prostitute’; hence such, more or less outspoken, expressions as, ‘woman leading an immoral/improper life’ (cf. New English Bible, Tae’ 1933), ‘a woman they always make jokes about’ (Tboli); and cf. on “harlot” in 15.30.
Learned, or, ‘came to know,’ ‘found out,’ ‘discovered’ (Sranan Tongo, lit. ‘came see’), or simply, ‘heard’ (Kituba, Shona, Marathi, Tboli, some Indonesian languages).
Brought. Renderings such as ‘came with,’ ‘came carrying,’ ‘came and carried’ have also the advantage of making a better transition to the subsequent events.
Alabaster flask. Some versions, preserving the borrowing, have, ‘jar made of stone called alabaster,’ others have, ‘jar of (white) stone’ (Javanese, Tae’), or simply, ‘small-jar’ (Bahasa Indonesia), ‘small bottle’ (Sranan Tongo), ‘bottle’ (Medumba), ‘container’ (Shona 1966). Such less specific renderings are usually preferable to a borrowing or a long descriptive phrase.
Of, or, ‘full of,’ ‘filled with,’ ‘containing.’
Ointment, or, ‘sweet smelling oil/ointment’; Tboli describes the concept, ‘expensive coconut oil, very beautiful odour.’ What is in focus is the ointment rather than the container, cf. New English Bible‘s “brought oil of myrrh in a small flask”.
(V. 38) When a new sentence is started here a transitional phrase may be required, cf. e.g. ‘on her arrival’ (Shona 1966), ‘when she arrived there’ (Tboli), ‘having entered (the house).’
Standing behind him at his feet. Where kateklithē (v. 36) and katakeitai (v. 37) ‘he reclined’ have been rendered generically (cf. on v. 36) the words ‘behind him’ may better be omitted (unless the translator thinks the matter worth an explanatory note); hence ‘she took her place at (or, near) his feet,’ ‘she knelt down at his feet, or, close to him.’ Tboli uses a specific verb, indicating the (standing or sitting) attitude of a person who is so ashamed he can’t hold up his head.
Weeping, or, ‘while she wept,’ ‘and wept,’ i.e. in silence, as a private expression of emotion.
If the acts described in the following clauses are uncommon in the receptor culture or even offensive, a note stating that in the New Testament culture the woman’s behaviour was expressive of grateful love will be advisable.
She began to wet his feet with her tears refers to an unintended consequence of the woman’s weeping, as is brought out by, ‘her tears dropped down, dropping on Jesus’ feet’ (Tboli), ‘her tears wetted his feet’ (Javanese), ‘His feet (became) wet from trickle of her tears’ (Balinese). It may be preferable then to subordinate the clause to what follows, ‘as her tears were falling on his feet, she wiped them….’ Tear, in Trukese, Pohnpeian, some Indonesian languages literally, ‘water of the eye.’
Wiped them with the hair of her head, or, ‘used her (own) hair to wipe them off’ (cf. Batak Toba). Some languages (e.g. Javanese) have distinctive terms for ‘hair-on-the-head’ and ‘hair-on-the-body.’
Kissed. To avoid sexual associations one may say here, ‘showed her reverence by kissing.’ For to kiss see on 15.20, but some of the renderings mentioned there will not fit this context. Then one may say something like, ‘touched (lovingly),’ ‘caressed.’ An interesting cultural equivalent can be used in Medumba, i.e. ‘massaged his feet,’ as people do to show reverence to a chief, especially when imploring his protection or forgiveness.
Anointed them with the ointment, or, ‘rubbed/poured/put the ointment on 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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