The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “widow” in English is translated in West Kewa as ona wasa or “woman shadow” (source: Karl J. Franklin in Notes on Translation 70/1978, pp. 13ff.) and in Newari as “husband already died ones” or “ones who have no husband” (source: Newari Back Translation).
The etymological meaning of the Hebrewalmanah (אַלְמָנָה) is likely “pain, ache,” the Greekchéra (χήρα) is likely “to leave behind,” “abandon,” and the Englishwidow (as well as related terms in languages such as Dutch, German, Sanskrit, Welsh, or Persian) is “to separate,” “divide” (source: Wiktionary).
The now commonly-used German idiom sein Scherflein beitragen (literally “to contribute ones part of a mite”), which today is used with the meaning “to contribute ones share,” originates in the 1522 German New Testament translation by Martin Luther. A Scherflein was the smallest possible coin value which n medieval Germany was created by physically cutting the smallest coin into pieces. (Source: Günther 2017, p. 107)
Likewise in Russian, the phrase внести свою лепту (vnesti svoyu leptu) or “contribute one’s mite” is widely used as an idiom, despite the archaic word for “mite. The wording of the quote originated in the Russian Synodal Bible (publ. 1876). (Source: Reznikov 2020, p. 106ff.)
For other idioms or terms in German that were coined by Bible translation, see here.
Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)
Jesús se sentó a ver la caja en la cual las personas daban dinero para el templo. Varias personas ricas iban y daban dinero.
Una viuda pobre fue y dio dos centavos y se fue. Jesús la vio y dijo a sus discípulos: “Yo les digo la verdad, esta viuda pobre ha dado más dinero que las otras personas.
Porque todas las personas dan dinero y les sobra suficiente dinero, pero ella es una mujer pobre, ha dado dinero y ahora se agotó el dinero, no tiene dinero para comer.”
Jesus sat down to watch the box in which all the people gave money for the temple. Several rich people came and gave money.
A poor widow went and gave two cents and left. Jesus saw her and said to his disciples: “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more money than the other people.
“Because all the people give money and have enough money left over, but she is a poor woman, she has given money and now has no money left, she has no money for food.”
In the temple there is a collection box. Jesus sat down at a distance from the box and began to watch as people threw their offerings into the box. People came. There were many rich people. They brought large heavy purses with money, took a full handful of money from there and threw it into the box. The rich people walked one after another. But there was one woman, a poor widow. And she had only two small coins. She took these two small coins and threw them into the box. Jesus saw this and said to the disciples:
— I tell you for sure, this poor widow just put in more than everyone else! Why? Because the other people had more money, they put only a small part of it in the box. But this poor woman had only these two coins, and she threw both into the box.
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
В храме есть ящик для сбора пожертвований. Поодаль от ящика сел Иисус и стал смотреть, как люди бросают свои пожертвования в ящик. Люди приходили. Было много богатых людей. Они приносили большие тяжелые кошельки с деньгами, брали оттуда полную пригоршню денег и бросали в ящик. Шли богачи друг за другом. Но была одна женщина, бедная вдова. И у нее были только две маленькие монетки. Она взяла эти две маленькие монетки, да и бросила их в ящик. Иисус это увидел и сказал ученикам:
— Точно вам говорю, вот эта бедная вдова сейчас положил больше, чем все остальные! Почему? Потому что у остальных людей были еще деньги, они клали в ящик лишь небольшую их часть. А у этой бедной женщины были только эти две монетки, и обе она бросила в ящик.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 12:42:
Uma: “At that time, a widow also came who was poor [lit., whose life was pitiable], she also put in her offering money. What she put in was two bronze coins, worth very little.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then a widow woman arrived, very poor. She dropped two red coins, very little in value.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “There came there a widow woman who was very poor. She put in two copper coins of very little value.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “But then a poor widow arrived who inserted two five-centavo-pieces whose value is the lowest.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “There approached a widow who dropped just a few centavos.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
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®).
mia ‘one’: the pronoun is here equivalent, as often in Mark, to the indefinite pronoun tis ‘a’ (only here, however, does it function as an adjective: elsewhere it is a pronoun – cf. 5.22; 9.17; 10.17; 12.28).
ptōchē (cf. 10.21) ‘poor.’
lepta duo ‘two small copper coins’: the lepton was the smallest coin in circulation. It is impossible precisely to determine the actual value of the coin. Manson estimates it to have been worth 1/96 of a denarius (cf. 6.37 for the denarius).
ho estin kodrantēs ‘which is a quadrans’: this is added for the benefit of Graeco-roman readers, who would not have been acquainted with the lepton. The word kodrantēs is a Latin loan word quadrans, i.e. ‘one-fourth’ of an assarion (the assarion was estimated to be one-sixteenth of a denarius). As may be seen, the equivalence between two lepta and one kodrantēs is not exact.
Translation:
The relationship between the two copper coins and a penny is described in Inupiaqas ‘put in two little copper pieces of money which is equal to only the cheapest kind of money.’ In Cashibo-Cacataibo one may say ‘two little pieces of money which have the value of a centavo,’ in which case centavo is borrowed from Spanish.
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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