rebels

The Greek that is translated as “rebels” or “criminals” in English is translated in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) with Straßenräuber or “muggers.”

crucify

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The Greek that is translated into English as “crucify” is translated in various ways:

  • Naro: xgàu or “to stretch” (as is done with a skin after slaughtering in order to dry it. The word is also widely accepted in the churches.) (Source: Gerrit van Steenbergen)
  • Balinese / Toraja-Sa’dan: “stretch him” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Rendille: lakakaaha or “stretched and nailed down” (source: Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 33)
  • Ghari: “hammer to the cross” (source: David Clark)
  • Lambya: “to nail on a cross” (source: project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Loma: “fasten him to a spread-back-stick” (source: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Sundanese: “hang him on a crossbeam” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Aguaruna: “fasten him to the tree”
  • Navajo: “nail him to the cross”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “fasten him to the cross” (source for this and two above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125)
  • Noongar: “kill on a tree” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Apali: “nail to a tree piece put cross-wise, lift up to stand upright (for the crucified person) to die (and in some contexts: “to die and rise again”)” (source: Martha Wade)

In British Sign Language it is signed with a sign that signifies “nails hammered into hands” and “arms stretched out.” (Source: Anna Smith)


“Crucify” or “crucifixion” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)

See also the common sign language sign for Jesus.

Following is a painting by Wang Suda 王肅達 (1910-1963):

Housed by Société des Auxiliaires des Missions Collection – Whitworth University
(click image to enlarge)

Image taken from Chinese Christian Posters . For more information on the “Ars Sacra Pekinensis” school of art, see this article , for other artworks of that school in TIPs, see here.

Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing how crucifixion was done in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)

See also cross, hang on a tree, and this devotion on YouVersion .

Mark 15:21 - 27 in Mexican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 15:21-27 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)

Los hombres Alejandro y Rufo, su padre era Simon de Cirene. Él estaba caminando en el campo y se acercó a la multitud, y los soldados lo mandaron a ayudarle (a Jesús).

Simón de Cirene fue y subió la cruz en el hombro y la cargó, y la multitud caminó hacia el lugar de Gólgota, que significa ‘lugar de la calavera’.

Los soldados mezclaron mirra en una copa de vino y se la dieron a Jesús, pero él la rehusó.

Después los soldados quitaron la ropa de Jesús y la dieron a un soldado, y hicieron una apuesta, uno tiró los dado y ganó, entonces otro soldado tiró las dados y así tomaron la ropa.

En la mañana a las nueve crucificaron a Jesús y colgaron un letrera arriba de él diciendo: ‘El rey de los judíos’. Porque de esto recien antes lo habían acusado y castigado, por eso lo apodaron ‘rey de los judíos’

Jesús estaba colgado en la cruz y en dos otras cruces, a la derecha y a la izquierda, estaban dos hombres que eran rateros, ladrones.

Mucho antes, un profeta esscribió un rollo que dice: “Las personas lo insultarán, estarán en contra de él, lo apodarán ‘criminal’, y lo que fue escrito lo dice exactamente.


The men Alexander and Rufus, their father was Simon of Cyrene. He was walking in the fields and approached the multitude, and the soldiers sent him to help (Jesus).

Simon of Cyrene went and took the cross on his shoulder and carried it, and the multitude walked towards the place Golgotha, which means ‘place of the skull.’

The soldiers mixed myrrh in a cup of wine and gave the cup to Jesus, but he refused it.

Then the soldiers took Jesus’ clothes off and gave them to a soldier, and they gambled, one threw the dice and won, then another threw the dice and so they took his clothes.

In the morning at nine o’clock they crucified Jesus and they put a sign above him saying: ‘the king of the Jews’, because that’s why just before they had accused him and punished him, therefore they nicknamed him ‘king of the Jews’.

Jesus was hanging on the cross and on two other crosses, one on the left and one on the right, were two men who were villains, thieves.

Long before, a prophet wrote a scroll which says: “The people will insult him, be against him and nickname him a ‘criminal,'” and what was written says it exactly./em>

Source: La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

<< Mark 15:16-20 in Mexican Sign Language
Mark 15:28-32 in Mexican Sign Language >>

complete verse (Mark 15:27)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 15:27:

  • Uma: “There were also two robbers crucified with him, one on his right one on his left.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “And there were two outlaws nailed onto their posts at-the-same-time/together with Isa.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “There were two robbers that were also nailed to crosses. They set up the cross of one on the right side of Jesus, and the other on his left side.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “There were also two criminals whom they nailed to other crosses, one to the right and one to the left of Jesus.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Two people who were robbers were nailed to crosses at the same time as he. One was set up on his right and the other on his left.” (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

Translation commentary on Mark 15:27

Exegesis:

duo lēstas (cf. 11.17) ‘two bandits,’ ‘two robbers’: perhaps, like Barabbas, insurrectionists.

ek dexiōn (cf. 10.37) ‘on the right.’

ek euōnumōn (cf. 10.40) ‘on the left.’

Translation:

With him must be translated spatially, but with caution, e.g. ‘at the same place.’ A literal rendering of ‘with him’ might imply three men on one cross.

One on his right and one on his left is somewhat elliptical, therefore requiring some additions in certain languages, e.g. ‘they crucified one man at Jesus’ right side and another man was crucified at Jesus’ left side.’ In some circumstances, however, a much more natural and meaningful translation would be ‘one on each side of Jesus.’

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 .

SIL Translator's Notes on Mark 15:27

15:27a

Along with Jesus, they crucified two robbers: The clause Along with Jesus, they crucified two robbers means that the soldiers nailed a robber to a cross on each side of Jesus. The two robbers were on their own crosses near Jesus. They were not all crucified on the same cross.

robbers: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as robbers refers to people who steal from other people in a violent manner. (An alternative interpretation prominent in the commentaries is to understand the word translated “robbers.” If you have more than one word for “robber,” use a word that describes a dangerous robber. This kind of robber may hurt people when he steals from them. Do not use a word that describes someone who secretly steals small things.

15:27b

one on His right and one on His left: In some languages it may be necessary to repeat your word or phrase for “crucified.” For example:

They nailed one man/robber to a cross and placed it to the right of Jesus, and they nailed one man/robber to a cross and placed it to the left of Jesus.

In some languages it may be more natural to say “one on each side of Jesus” instead of one on His right and one on His left.

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