The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated “boat” or “ship” in English is translated in Chichimeca-Jonaz as “that with which we can walk on water” (source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.), in Chitonga as a term in combination with bwato or “dugout canoe” (source: Wendland 1987, p. 72), and in Tangale as inj am or “canoe-of water” (inj — “canoe” — on its own typically refers to a traditional type of carved-out log for sleeping) (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin).
In Kouya it is translated as ‘glʋ ‘kadʋ — “big canoe.”
Philip Saunders (p. 231) explains how the Kouya team arrived at that conclusion:
“Acts chapter 27 was a challenge! It describes Paul’s sea voyage to Italy, and finally Rome. There is a storm at sea and a shipwreck on Malta, and the chapter includes much detailed nautical vocabulary. How do you translate this for a landlocked people group, most of whom have never seen the ocean? All they know are small rivers and dugout canoes.
“We knew that we could later insert some illustrations during the final paging process which would help the Kouya readers to picture what was happening, but meanwhile we struggled to find or invent meaningful terms. The ‘ship’ was a ‘big canoe’ and the ‘passengers’ were ‘the people in the big canoe’; the ‘crew’ were the ‘workers in the big canoe’; the ‘pilot’ was the ‘driver of the big canoe’; the ‘big canoe stopping place’ was the ‘harbour’, and the ‘big canoe stopping metal’ was the ‘anchor’!”
In Lokạạ it is translated as ukalangkwaa, lit. “English canoe.” “The term was not coined for the Bible translation, but rather originated in colonial times when the English arrived in Nigeria on ships. The indigenous term for a canoe was modified to represent the large, ocean-going ship of the English.” (Source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )
Jesus did a miracle. There were five loaves and two fish. Jesus fed all the people, about 5,000 of them. They all ate, and there were even extra pieces of bread left over for the 12 baskets. Though the disciples saw the miracle, they did not understand its meaning.
Jesus looked at them and said:
— Go, get into the boat and go to the city of Bethsaida. I will stay here a while longer.
The disciples obeyed, they got into the boat and set sail. Jesus let all the people go home and remained alone. He went up on a mountain and prayed there. It was late evening. At this time the disciples sailed to the middle of the lake. Jesus, standing on the mountain, saw the sea raging. A strong wind arose, and there were waves on the lake. The boat with the disciples could hardly remain on the water. Jesus saw this, and he walked straight across the water. He stepped on the water and did not sink and walked on the water. It was early morning, and the disciples on the boat were exhausted. Jesus walked on the water past the boat. The disciples noticed him and cried out in terror:
— The Spirit! The Spirit is coming!
They were very frightened. Jesus stopped and said:
— Disciples, it is I, Jesus!
Jesus walked straight across the water to the boat and got into it. Immediately the wind died down and the lake calmed down. The disciples were amazed. They said to each other:
— Jesus walked on the water?! He did not drown? And the wind obeyed Jesus?!
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
Иисус сделал чудо. Было пять хлебов и две рыбы. Иисус накормил ими всех людей, которых было около 5000. Все они наелись, даже остались лишние куски хлеба, которые собрали 12 корзин. Ученики хоть видели это чудо, но смысл его не поняли.
Иисус посмотрел на них и сказал:
— Идите, садитесь в лодку и отправляйтесь в город Вифсаида. А я еще побуду здесь.
Ученики повиновались, они сели в лодку и отплыли. Иисус отпустил всех людей по домам и остался один. Он взошел на гору и там молился. Наступил поздний вечер. Ученики в это время проплыли середину озера. Иисус, стоя на горе, увидел, как море стало бушевать. Поднялся сильный ветер, на озере были волны. Лодка с учениками еле держалась на воде. Иисус увидел это, и он пошел прямо по воде. Он ступил на воду и не тонул и шел по воде. Наступило уже раннее утро, ученики на лодке совсем уже выбились из сил. Иисус же шел по воде мимо лодки. Ученики заметили его и стали в ужасе кричать:
— Дух! Дух идет!
Они очень испугались. Иисус остановился и сказал:
— Ученики, это Я, Иисус!
Иисус прямо по воде подошел к лодке и сел в нее. Ветер тут же стих, и озеро тут же успокоилось. Ученики были поражены. Они говорили друг другу:
— Иисус шел по воде?!! И не тонул?!! И ветер подчиняется Иисусу?!
Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)
Jesús dijo a los discípulos: “Uds suban al barco y zarpen a Betsaida, vayan” y caminó hacia toda la gente y los despidió y subió la montaña.
Jesus estaba orando toda la noche y los discípulos estaban zarpando en el barco. Después vino un viento fuerte, y los discípulos que estaban remando, no podían remar.
Desde la montaña donde Jesús estaba orando, veía en la distancia las olas y el barco arrojado por las olas. Jesús bajó y caminó en las olas, como a las tres o cuatro de la madrugada.
En el barco, que estaba balanceando en las olas, los doce discípulos miraron que alguien vino caminando en las olas, pareció una fantasma, y gritaron de angustia.
Jesús estaba caminando hacia ellos (y dijo): “Calmense, no tengan miedo, soy yo mismo.”
Jesús caminó al barco y subió y instantaneamente el viento desapareció y las olas disminuyeron y el barco no estaba moviendo tan fuerte. Los discípulos estaban sorprendidos, boquiabiertos.
Los discípulos, ¿porqué estaban sorprendidos y boquiabiertos? No entendían, por el milagro reciente del pan no habían descubierto nada, sus mentes eran duros.
Jesus said to the disciples: “You go in the boat and sail to Betsaida, go now”, and he walked over to all the people and sent them off and he walked up the mountain.
Jesus was praying the whole night and the disciples were in the boat. Then a strong wind came and the disciples, who were rowing, could not row anymore.
From the mountain where Jesus was praying, he saw in the distance the waves and the boat being thrown about on the waves. Jesus walked down and walked on the waves at about three or four o’clock in the morning.
In the boat, which was swung about by the waves, the twelve disciples looked and saw someone coming, walking on the waves, it looked like a ghost and they screamed in anguish.
Jesus came walking up to them (and said): “Calm down, don’t be afraid, it is me.”
Jesus walked to the boat and got in and instantly the wind disappeared and the waves got smaller and the boat moved more calmly. The disciples were surprised, agape.
Why were the disciples surprised and agape? They did not understand, they had not got it after the recent miracle with the bread, their minds were hard/stubborn.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 6:45:
Uma: “After that Yesus ordered his disciples to boat on ahead to the other side of the lake to the village of Betsaida, and he ordered the many people to return to their homes.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “After that, Isa told his disciples to get into the boat. He sent them ahead to the other side of the lake to the town Betsaida, while he was sending the people home.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Then Jesus had his disciples get into a boat so that they might go ahead across the lake to the town of Bethsaida for he was going to send those many people home.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Then Jesus immediately had-his disciples -ride in the boat to cross-over (body of water) to go-ahead to Betsaida while-simultaneously he sent-home the many-people.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “And then Jesus caused his disciples to sail at once, to go ahead to Betsaida which was on the other side of that lake. He himself stayed behind to cause the people to leave now.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
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):
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)
Germandas Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022). “student” or “special student” (using the traditional German term Gnade)
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.
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 8:1–3), women were part of the extended circle of disciples” (see p. 452 and looked up at his disciples).
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)
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 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 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 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. ).
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, kaisansaseteo-rare-ru (解散させておられる) or “making them dismiss” is used.
eis to peran ‘to the other side’ is omitted by Taylor and Manson, but retained by all other modern editions of the Greek text.
Exegesis:
ēnagkasen … embēnai … kai proagein ‘he compelled … to enter … and to go ahead.’
anagkazō (only here in Mark) ‘force,’ ‘compel’; Arndt & Gingrich see a weakened meaning ‘strongly urge.’ The word implies unwillingness on the part of the disciples.
eis to peran (cf. 4.35) ‘to the other side’: on the difficulties of joining this phrase to pros Bēthsaida ‘to Bethsaida’ see the commentaries. It is generally agreed that this is Bethsaida Julias on the east side of the Lake.
heōs autos apoluei ‘while he dismisses.’
heōs ‘until’: with the present indicative (as here) it means while the action indicated by the verb is in processfor further examples cf. Mt. 5.25, Jn. 9.4).
apoluō (cf. 6.36) ‘send away,’ ‘dismiss.’
Translation:
Made his disciples get into the boat is a verbal, not a direct, instrumental causative, i.e. ‘he told his disciples to get into the boat.’ One must avoid the impression of Jesus manhandling his disciples, an easy mistake to make at this point.
If a verb of ‘speaking’ or ‘commanding’ is used, one may shift this verse to direct discourse, ‘he ordered his disciples, Get into the boat and go on ahead of me to the other side, to the town of Bethsaida….’
Dismissed the crowd is paralleled in some languages by ‘told the crowd to go home’ (Southern Subanen), but see also 6.36.
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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