“Navajo (Dinė) distinguishes between a man’s son or daughter and a woman’s son or daughter by the use of different terms for each. So the gender of Zion had to be determined. The problem was settled when a friend called to our attention a number of verses in the Old Testament where Zion is referred to as “she” or “her”, e.g. Ps. 87:5, 48:12, Is. 4:5, 66:8. The term for a woman’s daughter is biché’é, so the “daughter of Zion” became Záiyon biché’é ‘Zion her-daughter’.” (Source: Faye Edgerton in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 25ff. .)
In the English translation by Goldingay (2018) it is translated as Miss Tsiyyon (or: Zion).
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 21:5:
Uma: “‘Say to the citizens of the town of Sion: Look, there is your King coming! He is humble lit., his heart is low], he rides a donkey, he rides a donkey child that is young.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “‘Tell the people of Awrusalam, ‘Look, your king comes, his liver is humble and he rides on the child of a donkey.’ ‘” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “‘Tell the inhabitants of Zion, ‘Your king is arriving today. His ruling you is not hot, and He is riding on the colt of an ass.’ ‘ This is what the prophet said.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “‘Tell to the inhabitants in Jerusalem, ‘Look, here-now your king is coming who has humbled (lit. lowered) himself to ride a young donkey.’ ‘” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “‘Tell the taga Sion, saying, ‘Look. Approaching now is the one who will reign over you. He really is meek/patient. An asno horse is what he is riding. A young-animal which is the young of an asno.”” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “‘Tell the people in the town of Zion this: There where you live will come your ruler. But there won’t be fighting with him, your ruler; he will ride on a donkey which is the child of a cargo animal, you will tell them.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “donkey” in English was translated in the 1900 Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) translation (a newer version was published in 2000) as siutitôĸ or “‘something with big ears.” “[This] is based on the word siut ‘ear’ combined with the same suffix –tôĸ (-tooq).” (Source: Lily Kahn & Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi in The Bible Translator 2019, p. 125ff.)
These Hebrew and Greek words (with the exception of pōlos and hupozugion — see discussion below) all definitely refer to the Domestic Donkey equus asinus. However the different words do have slight semantic differences among them.
Chamor and onos are the generic words for donkey while ’athon (feminine gender) refers specifically to a saddle donkey or a donkey used for riding. A saddle donkey is usually a large strong female donkey the males are too difficult to control when they are near a female in heat. The Hebrew word is derived from a root that means “strong”.
‘Ayir refers to the young male or jack donkey (probably with an emphasis on its liveliness and the difficulty in controlling it since the Hebrew root means something like “frisky”).
Onarion means a young donkey of either sex. Some languages will have a special word for a young donkey. This will be appropriate for translating onarion.
The word hupozugion often translated “donkey,” actually indicates any beast of burden. Walter Bauer, the famous German New Testament scholar, has argued very convincingly that the animal referred to in Matthew 21:5 in the expression epi pōlon huion hupozugiou is the foal of a horse not a donkey (1953:220-229). In some languages it will be possible to express this in a way that does not designate a specific species of animal`, as in “beast of burden.”
Pōlos usually refers to a foal, that is a young horse, unless a word for donkey follows.
Donkeys are domestic animals belonging to the same family as the horse, but they are smaller and have longer ears. The donkey bred and used in the Middle East is the domesticated Nubian or Somali Wild Ass Equus Asinus africanus. In its original wild state this was a gray ass with pale, whitish belly and dark rings on the lower part of the legs. It was domesticated in Egypt as early as 2500 B.C. In its domesticated version, as a result of interbreeding with donkeys from Europe and Persia, the donkey came to be a variety of colors from dark brown, through light brown to the original gray and occasionally white. The Hebrew chamor comes from a root meaning “reddish brown.”
Donkeys are good pack animals being able to carry as much as the larger mule without the latter’s unpredictable moods. They also have great stamina and are easy to feed since they eat almost any available vegetation. Larger individual animals (usually females) are also often used for riding.
Donkeys were highly prized in biblical times especially females since they were suitable for packing and riding and had the potential for producing offspring. Donkeys were seen as man’s best friend in the animal kingdom. They were the common man’s means of transport and many ordinary families owned a donkey. They were used for plowing and for turning large millstones as well as a means of transport.
Today domestic donkeys are found all over savannah Africa the Middle East South and Central Asia Europe Latin America and Australia. They do not seem to be reared in rain forest or monsoon areas but they are nevertheless often known in these areas.
A donkey was considered to be a basic domestic requirement and thus the number of donkeys available was a means of measuring the relative prosperity of a society at any given time. While only powerful political or military people rode horses (which were usually owned by the state) the common people rode donkeys. This is the significance of the passage in Zechariah 9:9: the victorious king would return to the city riding a donkey thus identifying himself as a common Israelite rather than a victorious warlord.
In the majority of languages there is a local or a borrowed word for donkey. This is the obvious choice. In areas of Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea, West Africa, and other places, where donkeys are rare or unknown, the word from the dominant major language or trade language (for example, English, Spanish, French, Chinese, or Arabic) is often transliterated.
In most contexts ’athon should be translated by the equivalent of “female” donkey, but in some contexts riding donkey is better.
‘Ayir should be translated according to the specific context. In Genesis 32:15 the translation should definitely be the equivalent of “male donkey”, and probably also in Judges 10:4 and Judges 12:14. The significance of these latter passages is that female donkeys were the more normal choice of mount.
In Job 11:12 the emphasis is probably on the friskiness of the donkey, and the translation should be the equivalent of “He ties his young donkey to a grapevine, his frisky young ass to the best of the vines” (indicating a certain amount of irresponsibility, and perhaps extravagance).
In Job 11:12 and Zechariah 9:9 the obvious emphasis is on the youth of the donkey, so the equivalent of “colt”, “foal”, “young donkey”, and so on should be used.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
Tell the daughter of Zion is a Hebrew idiom, which is rendered literally by most English translations, ancient and modern. The source for Tell the daughter of Zion is Isaiah 62.11, while the remainder of the quotation is found in Zechariah 9.9. In this construction the noun daughter is equivalent to either “city” (Good News Translation) or “the people of the city.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch goes one step beyond Good News Bible and identifies the lesser known Zion as Jerusalem: “Say to the city of Jerusalem.”
Behold (see comment at 1.20) has as its primary function that of drawing attention to the event which is to follow. It may be best to leave it implicit (so Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, New American Bible). Moffatt, An American Translation, New English Bible capture the effect by translating “Here is your king….”
It is significant that Matthew omits a line from Zechariah 9.9, where your king is coming to you is followed by “He comes triumphant and victorious.” Obviously Matthew’s primary concern was to focus upon the king’s humility.
In areas where the people do not have kings, your king may be translated “your ruler.”
The adjective humble is used elsewhere in Matthew’s Gospel in 5.5 (“meek”) and 11.29 (“gentle”); see comment at 5.5, where Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “who renounces the use of force.” Note that Good News Translation starts a new sentence here, something many other translators have found to be helpful for readers too.
Mounted is generally rendered “seated (or, sitting)” or “riding.”
On an ass, and on a colt, the foal of an ass: Matthew definitely intends to refer to two separate animals, as all translations indicate except Living Bible, which cheats by translating “on a donkey’s colt.” The same sort of manipulation takes place in verse 7, where Living Bible translates “threw their garments over the colt,” with a footnote “Implied.” But the Greek text does not in any way imply this, and Living Bible has basically rewritten the text in an attempt to harmonize Matthew with the other Gospels, and to resolve the difficult image of Jesus riding on two animals. In doing this, Living Bible has obscured the uniquely Matthean presentation.
Some who translate too literally have made it seem that the king is riding on three animals (a donkey, a colt, and the foal of a donkey), but obviously a colt and the foal of an ass refer to the same animal. To say “a colt, which is the young of a donkey” will sound very condescending, so that if the two expressions are not understood to refer to the same animal, then translators can drop one of the phrases and say simply “he rides on a donkey, and on a donkey’s young.” If translators want to retain some poetic form, they may need to look for some other device which in their language will have the effect of the parallelism in the text.
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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