hungry

The Hebrew, Ge’ez, Latin, and Greek that is translated in English as “hungry” (or: “famished”) is translated in a number of ways:

  • Noongar: “without stomach” (koborl-wirt) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Kölsch translation (Boch 2017): nix zo Käue han or “have nothing to chew on” and singe Mage hät geknottert wie ne Hungk or “his stomach growled like a dog” (source: Jost Zetzsche)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): Hunger überfiel ihn or “Hunger overtook (lit.: “attacked”) him” (in Matthew 4:2)
  • Kupsabiny: “hunger ate him” (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Mairasi: “feeling tuber pains” (tubers are the main staple) (source Enggavoter 2004)

fig tree

The Greek that is translated in English as “fig tree” is translated in Lokạạ with figi, an indigenized transliteration of the English “fig.”

“The Lokạạ translators noted that they could not use the name of their local fig kẹkamati, which is very close to the fig family but only a shrub. This is because of the appearance of the Greek term for fig tree in verses such as John 1:48, where the fig tree is an enjoyable place for sitting in the shade. The Lokạạ translators decided to use an iconic translation of the English “fig”, which they indigenised as figi in Lokạạ. Since the term figi could not easily be connected to the indigenous term kẹkamati, readers would not have difficulty with passages such as John 1:48, in which people sit under the fig tree.” (Source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )

See also fig, fig tree in leaf and Can a fig tree yield olives or a grapevine figs.

making implicit plural form explicit (Matthew 21:18)

In many, if not most of the languages in the Philippines, proper nouns, such as personal names, are tagged with a marker that signals their grammatical role within a sentence. For Tagalog and the Visayan languages , this typically includes si to mark the proper noun as the actor or subject (nominative case), ni to mark the proper noun as an owner (genitive case), and kay to mark the proper noun as as an indirect object, i.e. the one to or toward whom an action is directed (dative case). All of these also have plural forms — sina, nina and kina respectively — and unlike in the biblical languages or in English, the plural form has to be used when only a single proper name is mentioned but implicitly that proper name includes more than just one.

In this verse, where English translates “he (returned),” the Tagalog translation translates “sina Jesus” because the context of the text makes clear that Jesus was not alone. (Source: Kermit Titrud and Steve Quakenbush)

complete verse (Matthew 21:18)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 21:18:

  • Uma: “The next day very early in the morning, as Yesus and his disciples walked going back to Yerusalem, Yesus was hungry.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “When it was morning while he walked back to Awrusalam, he was hungry.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The next morning, Jesus was on the road because he was returning to Jerusalem, and he was hungry.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “In the early-morning (lit. When it-was-light) when (pl.) Jesus were returning to Jerusalem, he felt-hungry.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Next day, when Jesus was returning again to the city, he was very-hungry.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The next morning again he returned going to Jerusalem. On the road Jesus was hungry.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Matthew 21:18

Revised Standard Version is a literal rendering of the Greek. Good News Translation introduces the proper name “Jesus” in the second clause, though it may be best to follow the restructuring of Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch: “Early the next morning Jesus started back to Jerusalem. On the way he became hungry.” It may even be necessary to begin with “Early the next morning Jesus got up and started back to….”

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 .