The Greek and Hebrew hat is translated as “purple” in English is translated as “blue-red” in Ojitlán Chinantec (source: M. Larson in Notes on Translation 1970, p. 1ff.) and in Elhomwe (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext). In Silimo it is translated with a local reference: “the colour of the wipegen berry” (source: Buzz and Myrna Maxey ).
“The Kasua people of Western Province have no word for the color purple. They have words for many other colors: black, red, white, yellow, green, and blue, but not for the color of royalty.
“About nine New Testament passages mention people placing a purple robe on Jesus. The Kasua translation team always wanted to use the word ‘red,’ or keyalo, to describe the robe. Tommy, one of the translation team helpers, disagreed because this is not historically accurate or signifies the royalty of Jesus.
“One of the main rules of translation is that the team must stick to the historical facts when they translate a passage. If they don’t, then how can the readers trust what they’re reading is true? Other questions about truth could bubble in the reader’s minds about the Scriptures. For this reason, Tommy was not willing to change the word purple. So the team hung up the problem, hoping to revisit it later with more inspiration.
“God did not disappoint.
“Years later, Tommy hiked with some of the men near their village. They saw a tree that possessed bulbous growths growing on the side of it like fruit. These growths were ‘the most beautiful color of purple I’d ever seen,’ explained Tommy.
“’What is the name of this tree?’ Tommy asked the men.
“’This is an Okani tree,’ they replied.
“Tommy suggested, ‘Why don’t you, in those passages where we’ve been struggling to translate the color purple, use ‘they put a robe on Jesus the color of the fruit of the Okani tree’?
“’Yeah. We know exactly what color that is,’ the men said enthusiastically.
“Everyone in their village would also visualize this phrase accurately, as the Okani tree is the only tree in that area that produces this kind of purple growth. So now, among the Kasua people, in his royal purple robe, Jesus is shown to be the king that he is.”
In Numbers 4:13, Gbaya uses the ideophone soi-soi to emphasize the purple color. Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation and soi-soi designates something that has a red or purple color, or a thing with a clear or clean appearance. (Source: Philip Noss)
The Greek in Mark 15:17 that is translated as “they clothed him in a purple cloak” or similar in English is translated in Mezquital Otomias “they clothed Jesus with a purple cloth like kings wear.” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)
En la casa del gobernador romano los soldados agarraron a Jesús y lo llevaron a la plaza. Llamaron a todos los soldados y muchos soldados vinieron.
Los soldados quitaron la ropa de Jesús y la tiraron en el piso, lo pusieron una copa de color vino rojo fuerte.
Los soldados agarraron una planta de espinas, tejieron una corona y la pusieron en la cabeza de Jesús. Las espinas lo pincharon y los soldados se burlaron y se arrodillaron (diciendo): “Tú eres el rey de los judíos.”
Los soldados agarraron una vara y golpearon a Jesús en la cabeza, y los soldados escupieron a Jesús en la cara. Los soldados se arrodillaron y se postraron en honor y reían y burlaron de la chiste.
Le quitaron la ropa de color vino rojo fuerte y la tiraron en el piso, y tomaron la propia ropa de Jesús y se la pusieron (y dijeron): “Vamonos a crucificarlo”. Jesús tomó la cruz en el hombro y la cargó.
The soldiers grabbed Jesus in the house of the roman governor and took him to the square. They called all the soldiers and many soldiers came.
The soldiers took off Jesus’ clothes and threw them on the floor, they put a cape on Jesus of a strong wine-red color.
The soldiers took a thorny plant, wove a crown and put it on Jesus’ head. The thorns pricked in his head and the soldiers laughed at him and knelt (saying): “You are the king of the Jews.”
The soldiers grabbed a stick and beat Jesus on the head, and the soldiers spit Jesus in the face. The soldiers knelt and bowed down in honor and they laughed at the joke.
They took off the clothes of the strong wine-red color and threw them on the floor, and they took Jesus’ own clothes and put them on him (and they said): “Let’s go and crucify him.” Jesus took the cross on his shoulder and carried it.
The Roman soldiers seized Jesus and took him to the soldiers’ quarters. They also called other soldiers; they came and gathered around Jesus. They took a red cloak and put it on him. They took thorny branches and made a crown out of them. They put this crown on Jesus’ head. The crown had thorns, they cut his head, and blood flowed. And the soldiers mocked Jesus, mocked him and shouted:
— We greet you, King of the Jews!
For fun, they knelt before him and bowed low to the ground. Then they took a stick and began to hit him on the head. They spat and mocked him in every way. Then they took the red cloak back from him and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him to the place of crucifixion. They ordered Jesus to carry the cross.
On the way, they met a man named Simon. He was from the city of Cyrene. He had two sons: one named Alexander, the other Rufus. This man named Simon was walking after working in the fields. Some soldiers were passing by. They grabbed Simon and forced him to carry the cross. Simon took the cross of Jesus and carried it. The soldiers took Jesus to a mountain called Golgotha. It means “skull”. Because it looks like a skull. When they got there, the soldiers took bitter wine, poured it into a cup, and offered Jesus to drink. Jesus refused. The soldiers divided his clothes among themselves and nailed Jesus to the cross. They nailed his hands and feet. They took a board, wrote on it “King of the Jews” and nailed this board to the cross, above his head. So they crucified Jesus on the cross. This was at nine o’clock in the morning. That same day, two more people were crucified. They were hung on crosses, one on the right of Jesus, the other on the left. Different people walked past, scolded him, and shouted:
— Hey! You said that in three days you would destroy the temple and then build it again! Save yourself! Come down from the cross, and we will see.
And the chief priests and scribes also mocked him and said to each other:
— He saved other people, but he cannot save himself! He said that he was Christ, the king of Israel. Well, try, come down from the cross, we’ll see how you come down from the cross, then we’ll believe.
Also, the criminals who were crucified on the right and left also scolded Jesus.
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
Римские воины схватили Иисуса, повели в помещение для солдат. Также они позвали других воинов; те пришли, собрались вокруг Иисуса. Они взяли красный плащ и надели на него. Взяли колючие ветки и сделали из них венок. Они надели этот венок на голову Иисуса. У венка были колючие шипы, они ранили голову, шла кровь. А солдаты издевались над Иисусом, глумились и кричали:
— Приветствуем тебя царь иудейский!
Они для потехи вставали перед ним на колени и низко кланялись до самой земли. Потом они взяли палку и начали бить его по голове. Плевались и всячески издевались. Потом сняли с него обратно этот красный плащ и надели на него его собственную одежду. Потом повели его к месту распятия. Они приказали Иисусу нести крест.
По дороге им встретился один человек, которого звали Симон. Он был из города Кирена. У него были два сына: одного звали Александр, другого — Руф. Вот этот человек по имени Симон, шел после полевых работ. Мимо проходили воины. Они схватили Симона и заставили его нести крест. Симон взял крест Иисуса и понес его. Воины привели Иисуса к горе, которая называется Голгофа. Это означает «череп». Потому что она похожа на череп. Когда они пришли к тому месту, воины взяли горькое вино, налили в чашу, и предложили Иисус выпить. Иисус отказался. Воины поделили между собой его одежду и прибили Иисуса ко кресту. Прибили гвоздями руки и ноги. Они взяли дощечку, написали на ней «Царь иудейский» и прибили эту дощечку ко кресту, над его головой. Так они распяли Иисуса на кресте. Это было в девять часов утра. В тот же день, распяли еще двоих человек. Их повесили на крестах, одного справа от Иисуса, другого слева.
Разные люди ходили мимо, ругали его, и кричали:
— Эй! Ты говорил, что за три дня разрушишь храм и потом построишь заново! Спаси себя самого! Сойди с креста, а мы посмотрим.
А первосвященники и книжники тоже издевались над ним и говорили друг другу:
— Других людей спасал, а себя спасти не может! Он говорил, что он Христос, царь Израиля. Ну, попробуй, сойди с креста, мы посмотрим, как ты сойдёшь креста, тогда мы поверим.
Также преступники, которые были распяты справа и слева, тоже ругали Иисуса.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 15:17:
Uma: “They put on him a shirt that was reddish that was like a king’s shirt. They made a hat of thorny vines like a king’s hat and put it on him.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then they dressed Isa in purple clothes like the appearance of a king’s clothes. Then they also twisted thorny vines, making (something) like the crown of a king, and they put it on his head.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “They dressed him a red shirt because they were making fun of him pretending he was a king. And they braided a wreath of thorny vine and placed it on his head.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Then they clothed Jesus in a red robe like what kings wore. They also wove thorns which they put-on-him -as-a-crown.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “What they did was, they cloaked Jesus with red like the clothing of a king. And then they made a circle of a thorny plant for they made a crown of it and crowned Jesus with it.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
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®).
endiduskousin (only here in Mark; cf. enduō 1.6) ‘they clothe,’ ‘they dress’ (after having taken off his own clothes – cf. v. 20)
porphuran (15.20) ‘purple cloth,’ ‘purple robe’; Souter defines it as a red-colored cloak, such as common soldiers wore, which Rawlinson identifies as the paludamentum or the sagum.
perititheasin (cf. 12.1) ‘they place around’: here of the ‘crown’ or, better, ‘wreath’ placed on the head.
plexantes (only here in Mark) ‘having woven,’ ‘having plaited.’
akanthinon (only here in Mark) ‘thorny’: the akantha (cf. Mt. 27.29) was a thorn bush.
stephanon (only here in Mark) ‘wreath,’ ‘crown’: probably an imitation of the laurel wreath worn by the Emperor (cf. Rawlinson).
Translation:
In verse 16 or 17, it may be necessary to make the third person singular reference clear by using ‘Jesus’ in place of ‘him.’
The color of purple is treated in a number of ways, of which the following are the most common: (1) an indigenous term which is approximately the color of purple (or dark red, as some believe the Greek term implies); (2) an approximation of the color, employing other terms which identify colors which are reasonably near in the spectrum, e.g. ‘a kind of blue’ (Amganad Ifugao), ‘dark red’ (Tzeltal), ‘burnt red’ (Huastec), ‘a kind of red’ (the choice of one or another such expression depends upon the way in which people in a receptor language actually speak of purple); (3) the identification of the color by some bird or flower, e.g. ‘cloth of the color of…,’ at which point the name of some commonly employed object is used, provided, of course, this is a normal way of speaking about the color in question; and (4) the use of a phrase identifying the process of dyeing cloth, e.g. ‘cloth like that dyed in…,’ with the introduction of the proper plant used as dye stuff (Piro).
Crown is difficult to translate in the sense of a circular object worn by royalty, for this type of artefact is not very common. However, the object may be described as ‘put a circle of thorns on his head’ (Tzeltal) or ‘wove thorn branches together into a wreath (or ‘circle’) and put them on his head.’
Put it on him must in many instances be amplified so as to specify where the thorns were placed, namely, ‘on his head.’
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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