The Greek term that means “one who is sent off” in its singular form and is usually transliterated as “apostle(s)” in English is (back-) translated in the following ways:
San Blas Kuna: “witnesses to God” (meaning “those who speak up and out for God” (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida, except Balanta-Kentohe: Rob Koops)
Mairasi: sasiri atatuemnev nesovnaa or “sent witnesses” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Khmer: Christtout (“messenger representing Christ”) or when Jesus addresses them: Tout robas Preah Ang (“his messengers-representatives”) (source: Joseph Hong in The Bible Translator 1996, p. 233ff. )
Pwo Karen: “eyeballs” (i.e., “right-hand men”) (source: David Clark)
Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “one who goes about preaching the good word” (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Noongar: Moorta Ngany Waangki-Koorl or “People I (Jesus) Send” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Ayutla Mixtec: “those who bore the word of God’s mouth”
Chichimeca-Jonaz: “elders messengers” (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Yakan: “commissioned ones” (source: Yakan Back Translation) — note that Scot McKnight in the EnglishThe Second Testament (publ. 2023) translates it as commissioners
Tenango Otomi: “(Jesus’) representatives” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Tsamakko: “ones-who-work-for-Christ” (source: Chris Pluger)
Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023) translates it into English as commissioner.
In American Sign Language it is translated with a combination of the signs for “following” plus the sign for “authority” to differentiate it from disciple. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“apostles” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
In Hungarian Sign Language it is translated with a sign that shows the shape of the beard, based on the common and general visual representation of the apostles. This sign differs from the sign for a beard as used in colloquial language. The sign of the apostle does not originate from a specific biblical verse, but rather from the cultural context and later ecclesiastical tradition. “Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.” Lev 19:27. In the biblical era, wearing a beard was the default social and religious norm among Jewish men. The Apostle Peter is generally depicted with a short, curly, white beard. The Apostle Paul appears with a longer, pointed beard. The Apostle John is an exception, as he was the youngest disciple. In iconography, he is often the only one painted without a beard (as a youth) to emphasize his purity and age (see for instance at Transfiguration (icon)). (Source: Jenjelvi Biblia and HSL Bible Translation Group)
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 )
The Greek and Hebrew that in the referenced verses is translated as “brother” in English is translated in Mandarin Chinese as dìdì (弟弟) or “younger brother.”
Many languages have terms for siblings that define whether one is younger or older in relation to another sibling.
Dave Brunn reports this from the translation into Lamogai (see p. 141f. and 181f.):
“Some languages, including Lamogai, have two different words for brother. One means ‘older brother,’ and the other means ‘younger brother.’ In many cases, these languages do not have a generic word that includes both. Relating this to translation, which of the sons of Zebedee do you think was older, James or John? The Bible does not tell us, but there are some clues. The names James and John occur together about twenty times in the New Testament. In every occurrence, James is named first. Since there is not much else to go on, most translators who have faced this issue have considered this to be enough evidence to say James must be the older brother. Here is how we translated this pair of names in Matthew 17:1 in the Lamogai New Testament:
“‘Jems akap ino tikino Jon’ (‘James along-with his younger-brother John’)
“Technically, ‘tikino‘ means younger sibling of the same sex and ‘udikino‘ older sibling of the same sex. A man would refer to his older brother as ‘udikino‘ and his younger brother as ‘tikino.’ And a woman would use the same terms for her older and younger sisters. The term for opposite-sex sibling (either a man to his sister or a woman to her brother) is ‘luku.'” (Source for this paragraph: private communication from Dave Brunn)
In the translation into Oaxaca Chontal, the same principle is applied. (Source: Bratcher / Nida 1961)
The Chilcotin translators have tried to circumvent specifying which of the two is older, even though the language also uses age-specific terms for siblings. In Mark 1:19 and Mark 3:17 it says Zebedee beyiqi… (“Zebedee’s sons…”) and therefore avoids stating their respective age. Likewise in Mark 5:37 it says Peter hink´an ˀelhcheliqi James belh John (“Peter and brothers James and John”) (source: Quindel King).
Many languages have terms for siblings that define whether one is younger or older in relation to another sibling.
In the case of Peter (Simon) and Andrew, Simon was assumed to be the older of the two brothers in Navajo (Dinė) because he typically is mentioned first (see Wallis 2000, p. 103f.) The same choice was made in Biangai (source: Larson 1998, p. 40).
The Chilcotin translators tried to circumvent specifying who of the two is older, even though the language also uses age-specific terms for siblings. In Mark 1:16, they have used the generic term ˀelhcheliqi (“brother” without specifying who is older). (Source: Quindel King)
The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “son of” in English is translated in all Icelandic Bible versions of the Icelandic Bible Society (latest edition 2007) in parallel with the Icelandic naming system . This means that for instance in Matthew 16:17 the name that is transliterated and translated in English as “Simon son of Jonah” becomes “Simon Jónasson” or in Isaiah 8:2 “Zechariah son of Jeberechiah” becomes “Sakaría Jeberekíason” where in both cases the “-son” means “son of.”
In cases where “son of” does not refer to a literal father or perhaps stepfather but to lineage, however, this system is not used. So in Matthew 1:1 “Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham” is translated as “Jesú Krists, sonar Davíðs, sonar Abrahams.”
The referenced verses all have at least one instance where the Icelandic patronymic or matronymic naming system is used. (Source: Halldór Elías Guðmundsson)
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 )
Following is a hand colored stencil print on momigami of Peter by Sadao Watanabe (1970):
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.
The term that is transliterated as “John (the disciple)” in English is translated in American Sign Language with the sign for the letter J and the sign signifying “beloved,” referring to John 13:23 et al. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“John” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
In Spanish Sign Language it is translated with with the sign for “young.” This refers to the traditional belief that he was the youngest of the apostles and the fact that he was younger than his brother James (see relative age of James and John. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
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