tax collector

The Greek that is translated as “tax collector” in English is translated in Tagbanwa as “money-grabbing official receivers of payment” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation) and in Noongar as mammarapa boya-barranginy or “people taking money” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation). Likewise, in Cashibo-Cacataibo, it is the “ones who take the money” (source: Bratcher / Nida 1961).

In Mairasi it is translated as “the people who collect money pertaining to head payment.” (Source: Enggavoter 2004)

Click or tap here to see a short video clip about tax collectors in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)

See also Matthew.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Tax Collectors and Sinners .

Jesus in Levi's house (image)

Hand colored stencil print on momigami by Sadao Watanabe (1964).

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.

 

disciple

The Greek that is often translated as “disciple” in English typically follows three types of translation: (1) those which employ a verb ‘to learn’ or ‘to be taught’, (2) those which involve an additional factor of following, or accompaniment, often in the sense of apprenticeship, and (3) those which imply imitation of the teacher.

Following are some examples (click or tap for details):

  • Ngäbere: “word searcher”
  • Yaka: “one who learned from Jesus”
  • Navajo (Dinė), Western Highland Purepecha, Tepeuxila Cuicatec, Lacandon: “one who learned”
  • San Miguel El Grande Mixtec: “one who studied with Jesus”
  • Northern Grebo: “one Jesus taught”
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: “child (i.e., follower) of the master”
  • Indonesian: “pupil” (also used in many Slavic languages, including Russian [ученик], Bulgarian [учени́к], Ukrainian [учень], or Polish [uczeń] — source: Paul Amara)
  • Central Mazahua: “companion whom Jesus taught”
  • Kipsigis, Loma, Copainalá Zoque: “apprentice” (implying continued association and learning)
  • Cashibo-Cacataibo: “one who followed Jesus”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “his people” (essentially his followers and is the political adherents of a leader)
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl: based on the root of “to imitate” (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Chol: “learner” (source: Larson 1998, p. 107)
  • Waorani: “one who lives following Jesus” (source: Wallis 1973, p. 39)
  • Ojitlán Chinantec: “learner” (Source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
  • Javanese: “pupil” or “companion” (“a borrowing from Arabic that is a technical term for Mohammed’s close associates”)
  • German: Jünger or “younger one” (source for this and one above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): Jüngerinnen und Jünger or “female and male disciples.” Note that Berger/Nord only use that translation in many cases in the gospel of Luke, “because especially according to Luke (see 8:13), women were part of the extended circle of disciples” (see p. 452 and looked up at his disciples).
  • Noongar: ngooldjara-kambarna or “friend-follow” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • French 1985 translation by Chouraqui: adept or “adept” (as in a person who is skilled or proficient at something). Watson (2023, p. 48ff.) explains (click or tap here to see more):

    [Chouraqui] uses the noun “adept,” which is as uncommon in French as it is in English. It’s an evocative choice on several levels. First, linguistically, it derives — via the term adeptus — from the Latin verb adipiscor, “to arrive at; to reach; to attain something by effort or striving.” It suggests those who have successfully reached the goal of their searching, and implies a certain struggle or process of learning that has been gradually overcome. But it’s also a term with a very particular history: in the Middle Ages, “adept” was used in the world of alchemy, to describe those who, after years of labor and intensive study, claimed to have discovered the Great Secret (how to turn base metals like lead into gold); it thus had the somewhat softened meaning of “someone who is completely skilled in all the secrets of their field.”

    Historians of religion often use the term adept with reference to the ancient mystery religions that were so prevalent in the Mediterranean in the centuries around the time of Jesus. An adept was someone who, through a series of initiatory stages, had penetrated into the inner, hidden mysteries of the religion, who understood its rituals, symbols, and their meaning. To be an adept implied a lengthy and intensive master-disciple relationship, gradually being led further and further into the secrets of the god or goddess (Isis-Osiris, Mithras, Serapis, Hermes, etc.) — secrets that were never to be revealed to an outsider.

    Is “adept” a suitable category in which to consider discipleship as we see it described in the Gospels? On some levels, the link is an attractive one, drawing both upon the social-religious framework of the ancient Mediterranean, and upon certain aspects of intimacy and obscurity/secrecy that we see in the relationship of Jesus and those who followed him. The idea that disciples are “learners” — people who are “on the way” — and that Jesus is portrayed as (and addressed as) their Master/Teacher is accurate. But the comparison is unsatisfactory on several other levels.

    First, the Gospels portray Jesus’s ministry as a largely public matter — there is relatively little of the secrecy and exclusiveness that is normally associated with both the mystery cults and medieval alchemy. Jesus’s primary message is not destined for a small, elite circle of “initiates” — although the Twelve are privy to explanations, experiences and teachings that are not provided to “the crowds.” For example, in Matthew 13:10-13:

    Then the disciples came and asked him, “Why do you speak to [the crowds] in parables?” He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’”

    Etymologically, adeptus suggests someone who “has arrived,” who has attained a superior level of understanding reserved for very few. However, what we see in the Gospels, repeatedly, is a general lack of comprehension of many of Jesus’s key teachings by many of those who hear him. Many of his more cryptic sayings would have been virtually incomprehensible in their original context, and would only make sense in retrospect, in the wake of the events of Jesus’s passion, death, and resurrection. The intense master-student relationship is also lacking: the Gospels largely portray “the disciples” as a loose (and probably fluctuating) body of individuals, with minimal structure or cohesion. Finally, there seems to be little scholarly consensus about the degree to which the mystery cults had made inroads in Roman-ruled Palestine during the decades of Jesus’s life. According to Everett Ferguson in his Backgrounds of Early Christianity.

    Although Christianity had points of contact with Stoicism, the mysteries, the Qumran community, and so on, the total worldview was often quite different….So far as we can tell, Christianity represented a new combination for its time…. At the beginning of the Christian era a number of local mysteries, some of great antiquity, flourished in Greece and Asia Minor. In the first century A.D. the vonly mysteries whose extension may be called universal were the mysteries of Dionysus and those of the eastern gods, especially Isis.

    And Norman Perrin and Dennis C. Duling note, in their book The New Testament:

    Examples of such mystery religions could be found in Greece… Asia Minor… Syria-Palestine… Persia… and Egypt. Though the mysteries had sacred shrines in these regions, many of them spread to other parts of the empire, including Rome. There is no clearly direct influence of the mysteries on early Christianity, but they shared a common environment and many non-Christians would have perceived Christians as members of an oriental Jewish mystery cult.56

    Given the sparse archaeological and literary evidence from this period regarding mystery cults in Roman Palestine, and the apparent resistance of many Palestinian Jews to religious syncretism, Chouraqui’s use of the noun adept implies a comparison between the historical Jesus and mystery cults that is doubtful, on both the levels of chronology and religious culture. Personally, I believe this choice suggests a vision of Jesus that distances him from the religious world of ancient Judaism, thus creating a distorted view of what spiritually inspired him. But the idea of the disciples as “learners” on a journey (as the Greek term suggests) is a striking one to consider; certainly, the Gospels show us the Twelve as people who are growing, learning, and developing…but who have not yet “arrived” at the fullness of their vocation.

Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023) translates it into English as apprentice.

In Luang several terms with different shades of meaning are being used.

  • For Mark 2:23 and 3:7: maka nwatutu-nwaye’a re — “those that are taught” (“This is the term used for ‘disciples’ before the resurrection, while Jesus was still on earth teaching them.”)
  • For Acts 9:1 and 9:10: makpesiay — “those who believe.” (“This is the term used for believers and occasionally for the church, but also for referring to the disciples when tracking participants with a view to keeping them clear for the Luang readers. Although Greek has different terms for ‘believers’, ‘brothers’, and ‘church’, only one Luang word can be used in a given episode to avoid confusion. Using three different terms would imply three different sets of participants.”)
  • For Acts 6:1: mak lernohora Yesus wniatutunu-wniaye’eni — “those who follow Jesus’ teaching.” (“This is the term used for ‘disciples’ after Jesus returned to heaven.”)

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

In American Sign Language it is translated with a combination of the signs for “following” plus the sign for “group.” (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)


“disciples” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor

In British Sign Language a sign is used that depicts a group of people following one person (the finger in the middle, signifying Jesus). Note that this sign is only used while Jesus is still physically present with his disciples. (Source: Anna Smith)


“Disciple in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)

See also disciples (Japanese honorifics).

sinner

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

  • “people with bad hearts” (“it is not enough to call them ‘people who do bad things,’ for though actions do reflect the heart, yet it is the hearts with which God is primarily concerned — see Matt. 15:19“) in Western Kanjobal
  • “people who are doing wrong things in their hearts” in San Blas Kuna (source for this and above: Nida 1952, p. 148)
  • “people with bad stomachs” in Q’anjob’al (source: Newberry and Kittie Cox in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. )
  • “those others who don’t fully obey our laws” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • “people with dirty hearts” or “people who are called ‘bad'” in Mairasi (source: Enggavoter 2004).
  • “those who owe sin” in Central Mazahua and Teutila Cuicatec (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • “those without (or: “who don’t know”) God” (Gottlose) in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999)
  • “people of bad deeds” in Bariai (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • “rejected/despised people” in Kupsabiny (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)

scribe

The Greek that is usually translated as “scribe” in English “were more than mere writers of the law. They were the trained interpreters of the law and expounders of tradition.”

Here are a number of its (back-) translations:

  • Yaka: “clerk in God’s house”
  • Amganad Ifugao: “man who wrote and taught in the synagogue”
  • Navajo (Dinė): “teaching-writer” (“an attempt to emphasize their dual function”)
  • Shipibo-Conibo: “book-wise person”
  • San Blas Kuna: “one who knew the Jews’ ways”
  • Loma: “educated one”
  • San Mateo del Mar Huave: “one knowing holy paper”
  • Central Mazahua: “writer of holy words”
  • Indonesian: “expert in the Torah”
  • Pamona: “man skilled in the ordinances” (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Sinhala: “bearer-of-the-law”
  • Marathi: “one-learned-in-the-Scriptures”
  • Shona (1966): “expert of the law”
  • Balinese: “expert of the books of Torah”
  • Ekari: “one knowing paper/book”
  • Tboli: “one who taught the law God before caused Moses to write” (or “one who taught the law of Moses”) (source for this and 5 above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Noongar: Mammarapa-Warrinyang or “law man” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Mairasi: “one who writes and explains Great Above One’s (=God’s) prohibitions” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Chichewa: “teacher of Laws” (source: Ernst Wendland)
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “teachers of law”
  • Huehuetla Tepehua: “writer”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “person who teaches the law which Moses wrote”
  • Alekano: “man who knows wisdom” (source for this and four above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
  • Saint Lucian Creole French: titcha lwa sé Jwif-la (“teacher of the law of the Jews”) (source: David Frank in Lexical Challenges in the St. Lucian Creole Bible Translation Project, 1998)
  • Chichimeca-Jonaz: “one who teaches the holy writings”
  • Atatláhuca Mixtec: “teacher of the words of the law”
  • Coatlán Mixe: “teacher of the religious law”
  • Lalana Chinantec: “one who is a teacher of the law which God gave to Moses back then”
  • Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “one who know well the law” (Source for this and four above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Huixtán Tzotzil: “one who mistakenly thought he was teaching God’s commandments”(Huixtán Tzotzil frequently uses the verb -cuy to express “to mistakenly think something” from the point of view of the speaker; source: Marion M. Cowan in Notes on Translation 20/1966, pp. 6ff.)
  • Sumau: “law-knowing men” (source: this blog post by Todd Owen)
  • German das Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022): “theologian” and in the 1964 translation by Helmut Riethmüller: “theologian of scriptures” (Schrifttheologe)
  • English translation by Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023): Covenant Code scholar

In British Sign Language it is translated with a sign that combines the signs for “expert” and “law.” (Source: Anna Smith)


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

Mark 2:13-17 in Russian Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 2:13-17 into Russian Sign Language with a back-translation underneath:


Source: Russian Bible Society / Российское Библейское Общество

There is a lake in Galilee. Jesus went back again to this lake. The crowds followed Jesus everywhere. Jesus was teaching the people. Then Jesus went on his way and passed by the place where the tax collectors sit. There was a man there named Levi. His father’s name was Alphaeus. Jesus was walking by, saw Levi and said: “Follow me.” Levi decided to leave his occupation and followed Jesus. After a while, Jesus and his disciples entered Levi’s house. A large table with food was prepared there. Jesus sat down at the table. The disciples, the tax collectors, and the sinners also sat down. Where were these people from? They were all those who had followed Jesus. They ate together, drank together, socialized together.

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees found out that Jesus was eating and drinking with the tax collectors and with the sinners. “How is this possible,” they began to say. They turned to Jesus’ disciples:

— Your teacher eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners. How can he do this? It is an abomination.

Jesus heard and said:

— Here is a doctor. Does he need to go to healthy people to treat them? No! A doctor needs to go to sick people to treat them. So do I — I don’t need to go to the righteous, I need to go to sinners to call them.

Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):

В Галилее есть озеро. Иисус вернулся снова к этому озеру. Толпа народа повсюду шла за Иисусом. Иисус учил народ. Потом Иисус отправился в путь и проходил мимо места, где сидят сборщики налогов. Там был человек по имени Левий. Имя его отца — Алфей. Иисус шел мимо, увидел Левия и сказал: «Следуй за мной». Левий решил оставить свое занятие и последовал за Иисусом. Спустя какое-то время Иисус вместе с учениками вошли в дом Левия. Там был приготовлен большой стол с едой. Иисус сел за стол. Сели также ученики, сборщики налогов, а также грешники. Откуда были эти люди? Это все те, кто следовали за Иисусом. Они вместе ели, пили, общались.

Учителя закона и фарисеи узнали, что Иисус ест и пьет вместе со сборщиками налогов и с грешниками. «Как же это возможно» — стали говорить они. Они обратились к ученикам Иисуса:

— Ваш учитель ест и пьет вместе со сборщиками налогов и грешниками. Как он может так поступать? Это мерзко.

Иисус услышал и сказал:

— Вот врач. Разве нужно ему идти к здоровым людям, их лечить? Нет! Врачу нужно идти к больным, чтобы их лечить. Так же и я — мне не нужно мне идти к праведникам, мне нужно идти к грешникам, чтобы призвать их.

Back-translation by Luka Manevich

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Mark 2:18-22 in Russian Sign Language >>

Mark 2:13-17 in Mexican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 2:13-17 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)

Jesús estaba caminando y enseñando y la gente iba con él, y allá había personas que estaban sentadas cobrando impuestos, y había un hombre llemado Levi que estaba sentado cobrando impuestos, y Jesús caminando lo vio (y dijo): “Ven conmigo”.

Levi se paró y se acercó al grupo y fue con el grupo y algunas otras personas, pecadores, seguían la idea y también fueron con el grupo.

Fueron a la casa de Levi y Jesús y los discípulos y las personas alrededor estaban comiendo y bebiendo.

Los maestros de la ley y los Fariseos vinieron y lo vieron, y lo consideraron raro y dijeron a los discípulos: “Jesús acepto estar con los cobradores de impuesto y otros pecadores y está comiendo y bebiendo en medio de ellos, ¿cómo?”

Jesús estaba comiendo y los oyó y se volvió y dijo: “Miren, un ejemplo, personas que están bien y sanos no necesitan ir al doctor, sino otras personas enfermas necesitan ir al doctor.

En la misma manera, yo no he venido para advertir a las personas buenas y perfectas que necesitan ser salvados, sino todas estas pecadores necesitan ser salvados.”


Jesus went again to the area close to the lake.

Jesus was walking and teaching and the people went along with him, and there were people sitting there who where collecting taxes and there was a man named Levi who was sitting (at his booth) collecting taxes, and Jesus walked along and saw him (and said): “Come with me”.

Levi stood up and joined the group and went with them and some other people, sinners, followed suit and also went with the group.

They went to the house of Levi and Jesus and his disciples and the people around were eating and drinking.

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees came and saw it and they thought it was strange and they said to the disciples: “Jesus accepts being with tax collectors and other sinners, and he is eating among them, how?”

As Jesus was eating he heard this and he turned around and said: “Look here, an example, people who are well and healthy do not need to go to a doctor, but other people who are ill need to go to a doctor.

“In the same way I have not come to warn people who are good and perfect that they need to be saved, on the contrary, all these people who are sinners need to be saved.”

Source: La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

<< Mark 2:1-12 in Mexican Sign Language
Mark 2:18-22 in Mexican Sign Language >>

complete verse (Mark 2:16)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 2:16:

  • Uma: “There also were there several religion teachers who followed the Parisi teaching. When they saw Yesus eating with these people who had evil character, they said saying to his disciples: ‘Why does your teacher eat at-one-time tax collectors and sinner people!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “There were Pariseo there, teachers of the religious law. When they saw that Isa was eating together with the sinful people and the people collecting taxes, they said to the disciples of Isa, ‘Why does Isa mix in eating with the tax collectors and the other sinful people?'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And there were there also some Pharisees who were teachers of the law. And when they saw that Jesus was eating with these law breakers and tax collectors, they asked the disciples of Jesus, they said, ‘Why is Jesus eating and drinking with these cheating tax collectors and law breakers?'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “When the teachers of the law who were Fariseo (Pharisees) saw that Jesus was eating-with people like those, they said to Jesus’ disciples, ‘Why does he eat-with tax collectors and other sinful people?'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “This was seen by some of the explainers of law who were members of the Pariseo. Therefore they questioned those disciples of Jesus. They said, ‘Why does he join in eating with the money-grabbing official-receivers of payment to the government and those others who don’t fully obey our (incl.) laws?'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)