Elijah

The name that is transliterated as “Elijah” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language as “whirlwind” (according to 2 Kings 2:11) (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff.)


“Elijah” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

Click or tap here to see how other sign languages are translating “Elijah”

In American Sign Language it is translated with a depiction of being taken up to heaven with a chariot of fire. (Source: ASL Sign Language Directory )


“Elijah” in American Sign Language (source )

Likewise in Estonian Sign Language, but with a different sign (source: Liina Paales in Folklore 47, 2011, p. 43ff.)


“Elijah” in Estonian Sign Language (source )

In Finnish Sign Language it is translated with the sign signifying “fire” (referring to 1 Kings 18:38). (Source: Tarja Sandholm)


“Elijah” in Finnish Sign Language (source )

Following is a Russian Orthodox icon of Elijah from the late 13h century.

 
Orthodox Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )

See also Moses and Elijah during the Transfiguration.

sponge

The Greek that is translated (or transliterated) in English as “sponge” is translated in Chol as “water absorber.” (Source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation, March 1965, p. 2ff.)

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Mark 15:36)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, translators typically select the inclusive form (including the addressee).

Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.

complete verse (Mark 15:36)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 15:36:

  • Uma: “One ran to get a clump of flowers/plants that is like moss, he soaked it in anggur water that was sour, he put it on the tip of a pole and extended it to Yesus’s lips to drink. He said: ‘Wait, we’ll see if Elia indeed comes to take him down from the cross!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Immediately someone ran carrying like cotton and soaked it in a drink. Then he stuck it onto a stick and gave it to Isa to suck on. That person said, ‘Wait a minute. (da’a dahu’) Let us (incl.) see if Nabi Eliyas will come to take him down from that post!'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And one of the people there hurried and got a sponge and dipped it in vinegar and stuck a stick into it and put it up to the mouth of Jesus so that he might suck on it, and he said, ‘Leave him alone. Well see if Elijah will come to take him down.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “One of them instantly-ran to go get something like cotton. He soaked it in vinegar, and then he impaled it on a reed in order to hold-it-up-to-his-mouth so that he could suck-on-it. ‘Kindly wait so we will see if Elias comes to take-him -down from the cross,’ he said.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Someone ran and fetched an absorbent thing. He saturated it with sour drink, pierced it with a stick and then held it up to the mouth of Jesus so that he could drink. He said, ‘Just leave him alone. Let’s see whether Elias will come here and remove him from that cross.'” (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 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 this chapter in the World Atlas of Language Structures on different approaches to personal pronouns.

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 15:36

Exegesis:

dramōn de tis ‘and a certain one running’: again it is impossible to identify the man. He is simply a ‘bystander’ or ‘spectator.’

trechō (cf. 5.6) ‘run.’

gemisas spoggon oxous peritheis kalamō epotizen auton ‘filling a sponge (full) of vinegar (and) placing (it) on a reed gave (it) to him to drink’: the three aorist participles (dramōn, gemisas, peritheis, ‘running,’ ‘filling,’ ‘placing’) precede the action of the main verb epotizen ‘he gave to drink,’ while the present participle legōn ‘saying’ is simultaneous with the action of the main verb.

gemizō (cf. 4.37) ‘fill,’ ‘fill up.’

spoggos (only here in Mark) ‘sponge.’

oxos (only here in Mark) ‘sharp,’ i.e. ‘sour wine,’ vinegar’: generally identified as the posca, a cheap wine of the Roman soldiers.

peritithēmi (cf. 12.1) ‘place around,’ ‘place on.’

kalamos (cf. v. 19) ‘reed,’ ‘staff.’

potizō (cf. 9.41) ‘give to drink’: the imperfect epotizen is probably conative, ‘he tried to give to drink’ (cf. edidoun in v. 23). So Translator’s New Testament ‘offered Him to drink.’

aphete idōmen ‘let us see’: the verb aphiēmi ‘let,’ ‘allow’ (cf. 2.5) is taken here as an auxiliary. Some, however, do not agree with this, rendering aphete ‘allow me!’ ‘let me do it’: so Revised Standard Version ‘wait.’

kathelein (15.46) ‘to take down,’ ‘to bring down (from the cross)’: Field calls this the technical word for the removal of a body from the cross.

Translation:

Sponge is rendered either by (1) a borrowing, which is the most common procedure, especially where such objects have been introduced to some extent – in which case they often are known by a foreign term, e.g. ‘something which takes up liquid’ (Barrow Eskimo), ‘something with holes-holes,’ a phrase used to designate anything of the nature of a sponge (Shipibo-Conibo), ‘something which drank up the vinegar’ (Tzeltal). In some languages the closest equivalent to a sponge is the fibre of a gourd, which is used for almost the same purposes as marine sponges and hence is quite an acceptable substitute.

Vinegar is ‘sour wine’ or ‘sour juice of a fruit.’

Drink cannot be translated literally in some languages, since one would not speak of ‘drinking from a sponge,’ but rather ‘sucking’ (Copainalá Zoque, Mitla Zapotec).

In a number of languages the series of verbs: ran … filling … put … gave … drink … saying, must be broken up into more than one sentence, especially since the subject of drink is different from the subject of the other verbs, e.g ‘… gave it to him to drink. He said, Wait….’

Wait is directed toward the crowd standing about. Let us see is rendered in some languages as a declarative ‘we shall see’ and in others as a question ‘shall we see whether Elijah…?’ Let us see is a type of hortatory first person plural which has no close grammatical parallel in some languages. The nearest equivalents may be (1) an imperative introductory statement, e.g. ‘come and we shall see,’ (2) a simple future statement, ‘we shall see,’ and (3) in rare instances a question, with the same function as the Greek hortatory, e.g. ‘shall we see whether.’

Take him down may require a more specific translation such as ‘take him down from the cross,’ ‘take him off the cross,’ or ‘unnail him from the cross.’

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 .