Gethsemane (image)

Hand colored stencil print on momigami by Sadao Watanabe (1962).

Image taken with permission from the SadaoHanga Catalogue where you can find many more images and information about Sadao Watanabe.

For other images of Sadao Watanabe art works in TIPs, see here.

Following is a painting (“Jesus’ agony in the garden of Gethsemane”) by Kim Ki-chang (1913-2001):

Kim Ki-chang (pen name: Unbo) 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.

Mark 14:32 - 42 in Mexican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 14:32-42 into Mexican Sign Language with back-translations into Spanish and English underneath:


© La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)

El grupo llegó al lugar de Getsemaní y Jesús dijo a los discípulos: “Uds, sientense y queden esperando mientras yo voy a orar.”

Jesús llamó a Pedro, Jacobo y Juan que vinieran con él. Jesús sentió angustiado y triste y dijo: “Mi alma adentro de mi está angustiado y muy triste, siento que ahorita ya he muerto, uds 3 quedense a vigilar.”

Jesús se fue a orar a Dios que quitara su sufrimiento, Jesús caminó y se arrodilló en el suelo, inclinó su cabeza hacia el suelo y se prostró.

Oró: “Padre, mi papá, tú puedes hacer todo, por favor no dejame sufrir, es como beber una copa amarga, por favor, quitamela, pero no (haga) mi voluntad sino tú voluntad.”

Se paró y caminó hacia los discípulos y vio a los tres acostados durmiendo, y cuando vio que Pedro también estaba dormido, dijo: “Simón, ¿estás dormido? ¿No puedes mantener los ojos abiertos por un ratito, una mera hora?

Uds vigilen y oren que no caigan en tentación. El espíritu adentro de uds tiene ganas, pero la carne del cuerpo es débil.”

Otra vez Jesús caminó en la otra dirección y oró lo mismo. Adentro, los ojos de los discípulos gradualmente se cerraron y durmieron fuerte.

Jesús caminó (hacia los discípulos) y vio que estaban dormidos. Los discípulos abrieron los ojos: ¡caray! no sabían qué decirlo.

Jesús caminó hacia el otro lado y oró por tercera vez, y regresó diciendo: “Uds sigan dormidos y descansen, ya basta.

Mira, un poco por allá ya están las personas que arrestarán al hijo del hombre y lo llevarán ante pecadores.

Ya viene el hombre que me traicionará, ya levantense y vamonos.”

The group arrived at the place (called) Gethsemane and Jesus said to the disciples: “You sit down and stay here waiting while go to pray.”

Jesus called Peter, James and John to go with him. Jesus felt distressed and sad and said: “My soul is distressed in me and very sad, I feel as if I have already died now. You three stay here and keep watch.”

Jesus went off to pray that God would take away his suffering, Jesus walked and knelt down on the ground, inlcined his head to the ground and prostrated himself.

He prayed: “Father, my Dad, you can do everything, please don’t let me suffer, it’s like drinking a bitter cup, please, take it away from me, but not my will, but yours.”

He got up and walked to the disciples and saw the three of them sleeping, and when he saw that Peter also was sleeping, he said: “Simon, are you sleeping? Can you not keep your eyes open for a little while, not even one hour?

“Keep watch and pray that you don’t fall in temptation. The spirit inside you is willing but the flesh of the body is weak.”

Again, Jesus walked the other way and prayed the same way. Inside, the eyes of the disciples were gradually closing and they slept deeply.

Jesus walked over (to the disciples) and saw they were sleeping. The disciples opened their eyes: oh no!, they didn’t know what to say.

Jesus walked the other way and prayed a third time and he walked back saying: “Continue sleeping, and resting, it’s enough.

“Look, over there just a little ways off are the people who will arrest the Son of Man and will take him before sinners.

“The man who will betray me is already coming, it’s time to get up, let’s go.”

Source: La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

<< Mark 14:27-31 in Mexican Sign Language
Mark 14:43-52 in Mexican Sign Language >>

pray

The Greek that is translated as “pray” in English is often translated as “talking with God” (Central Pame, Tzeltal, Chol, Chimborazo Highland Quichua, Shipibo-Conibo, Kaqchikel, Tepeuxila Cuicatec, Copainalá Zoque, Central Tarahumara).

Other solutions include:

  • “to beg” or “to ask,” (full expression: “to ask with one’s heart coming out,” which leaves out selfish praying, for asking with the heart out leaves no place for self to hide) (Tzotzil)
  • “to cause God to know” (Huichol)
  • “to raise up one’s words to God” (implying an element of worship, as well as communication) (Miskito, Lacandon) (source of this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Shilluk: “speak to God” (source: Nida 1964, p. 237)
  • Mairasi: “talk together with Great Above One (=God)” (source: Enggavoter, 2004)
  • San Blas Kuna: “call to one’s Father” (source: Claudio and Marvel Iglesias in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 85ff. )
  • Ik: waan: “beg.” Terrill Schrock (in Wycliffe Bible Translators 2016, p. 93) explains (click or tap here to read more):

    What do begging and praying have to do with each other? Do you beg when you pray? Do I?

    “The Ik word for ‘visitor’ is waanam, which means ‘begging person.’ Do you beg when you go visiting? The Ik do. Maybe you don’t beg, but maybe when you visit someone, you are looking for something. Maybe it’s just a listening ear.

    When the Ik hear that [my wife] Amber and I are planning trip to this or that place for a certain amount of time, the letters and lists start coming. As the days dwindle before our departure, the little stack of guests grows. ‘Please, sir, remember me for the allowing: shoes, jacket (rainproof), watch, box, trousers, pens, and money for the children. Thank you, sir, for your assistance.’

    “A few people come by just to greet us or spend bit of time with us. Another precious few will occasionally confide in us about their problems without asking for anything more than a listening ear. I love that.

    “The other day I was in our spare bedroom praying my list of requests to God — a nice list covering most areas of my life, certainly all the points of anxiety. Then it hit me: Does God want my list, or does he want my relationship?

    “I decided to try something. Instead of reading off my list of requests to God, I just talk to him about my issues without any expectation of how he should respond. I make it more about our relationship than my list, because if our personhood is like God’s personhood, then maybe God prefers our confidence and time to our lists, letters, and enumerations.”

In Luang it is translated with different shades of meaning (click or tap here to read more):

  • For Acts 1:14, 20:36, 21:5: kola ttieru-yawur nehla — “hold the waist and hug the neck.” (“This is the more general term for prayer and often refers to worship in prayer as opposed to petition. The Luang people spend the majority of their prayers worshiping rather than petitioning, which explains why this term often is used generically for prayer.”)
  • For Acts 28:9: sumbiani — “pray.” (“This term is also used generically for ‘prayer’. When praying is referred to several times in close proximity, it serves as a variation for kola ttieru-yawur nehla, in keeping with Luang discourse style. It is also used when a prayer is made up of many requests.”)
  • For Acts 8:15, 12:5: polu-waka — “call-ask.” (“This is a term for petition that is used especially when the need is very intense.”)

Source: Kathy Taber in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 9-16.

complete verse (Mark 14:35)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 14:35:

  • Uma: “After that, he went off a ways, and he fell/lay on his face on the ground to pray. In his prayer he requested that if possible he wouldn’t have to have that suffering.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Then he went a-little-ways-away and he prostrated on the ground and he prayed to God that if possible the persecution which would soon come to him would not come.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And he went on a little bit father and fell on his face on the ground and prayed to God that if it were possible, he would not be caused to pass through that torment which was destined for him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Then he went a little-ways-off and lay-face-down praying that if it were possible koma, what was to happen to him would not be-continued-with.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Jesus went away a bit from them. He went down prone and then prayed that if only it were possible/acceptable, that hardship/suffering which he would experience would-not -be-caused-to-be-carried-through.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

pronoun for "God"

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 ta (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential ta (祂) is used.”

In Kouya, Godié, Northern Grebo, Eastern Krahn, Western Krahn, and Guiberoua Béte, all languages of the Kru family in Western Africa, a different kind of systems of pronouns is used (click or tap here to read more):

In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one 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 in the following way: “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 <em>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 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, but most translations, especially those published in the 21st century, do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both 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. ).

See also first person pronoun referring to God.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Gender of God .

Translation: Chinese

在现代汉语中,第三人称单数代词的读音都是一样的(tā),但是写法并不一样,取决于性别以及是否有生命,即男性为“他”,女性为“她”,动物、植物和无生命事物为“它”(在香港和台湾的汉语使用,动物则为“牠”)。这些字的部首偏旁表明了性别(男人、女人、动物、无生命事物),而另一偏旁通常旁提示发音。

到1930年为止,基督教新教《圣经》经过整整一百年的翻译已经拥有了十几个译本,当时的一位圣经翻译者王元德新造了一个“神圣的”代词“祂”,偏旁“礻”表示神明。一般汉语读者会立即知道这字的发音是tā,而这个偏旁表示属灵的事物,因此他们明白这个字指出,三位一体的所有位格都没有性别之分,而单单是上帝。

然而,最重要的新教圣经译本(1919年的《和合本》)和天主教圣经译本(1968年的《思高圣经》)都没有采用“祂”;虽然如此,许多其他的圣经译本采用了这个字,另外还广泛出现在赞美诗和其他基督信仰的书刊中。(资料来源:Zetzsche)

《吕振中译本》的几个早期版本也使用“祂”来指称“上帝”;这个译本的《新约》于1946年译成,整部《圣经》于1970年完成。克拉默斯(Kramers)指出:“‘他’的这种新写法(即‘祂’)产生了一个小问题,就是在指称耶稣的时候,是否一律使用这个敬语代词?《吕振中译本》遵循的原则是,在称呼耶稣这个人的时候,用一般的‘他’,而在称呼耶稣神性的时候,特别是升天之后的耶稣,则用尊称‘祂’。”

Translator: Simon Wong

Honorary are / rare constructs denoting God (“pray”)

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 show different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morphemes rare (られ) or are (され) are 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, ino-rare-ru (祈られる) or “pray” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Mark 14:35

Exegesis:

proselthōn mikron ‘going ahead a little,’ ‘going forward a bit.’

proserchomai (cf. 1.31) ‘approach,’ ‘advance,’ ‘go (or, ‘come’) forward.’

mikron (14.70) ‘a little’: used here adverbially, of space.

epipten epi tēs gēs (cf. 9.20) ‘he fell upon the ground,’ ‘he prostrated himself on the ground’: an attitude of supplication and prayer.

prosēucheto hina (cf. 13.18) ‘he prayed that’: the hina clause indicates the content of the prayer which follows, in indirect form.

ei dunaton (cf. 13.22) ‘if possible,’ ‘if it could be done.’

parelthē ap’ autou hē hōra ‘the hour might pass from him’: the verb parerchomai (cf. 6.48) here means to pass by, or away (without affecting him). Lagrange: ‘make it pass far away from me.’

hē hōra (14.41) ‘the hour’: not simply an indication of time, but supremely of the content, or nature, which makes it critical. ‘The hour’ is the approaching Passion. The word has, as Lagrange says, “a nuance of divine predestination.”

Translation:

Fell on the ground must not be translated so as to imply that Jesus stumbled and fell, but rather that he ‘caused himself to fall’ or ‘prostrated himself on the ground,’ e.g. ‘lay down flat on the ground.’

The idiom the hour might pass from is an extremely complex and unusual expression, especially in those parts of the world which do not speak of ‘hours.’ Moreover, one may often speak of people passing a time, but rarely of a time passing from a person. Furthermore, it is often necessary to specify the relationship of the person to the period of time in a somewhat more specific manner. The following translations are typical of the adaptations which may be made: ‘allow me to pass this time’ (Central Mazahua); ‘that pass which would happen to him in that hour’ (Copainalá Zoque); ‘might not experience that hour’ (Highland Puebla Nahuatl); and ‘that this hour might change’ (Navajo).

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 .