13Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”
Following is a Coptic Orthodox icon of the Flight to Egypt from the 17th century (found in the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus (Abu Serga) in Cairo, Egypt).
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 name that is transliterated as “Joseph” in English is translated in Finnish Sign Language with the sign signifying “woodworker” (referring to Mark 6:3). (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
Painting by Chen Yuandu 陳緣督 (1902-1967)
Housed in the Société des Auxiliaires des Missions Collection – Whitworth University
Image taken from Chinese Christian Posters . For more information on the “Ars Sacra Pekinensis” school of art, see this article , for other artworks of that school in TIPs, see here.
“People of high status would ride horses or elephants when they travel. Joseph and Mary are not rich so they walk to escape danger. They must travel through wild countryside where no one is around to help them.”
There are three different levels of speech in Burmese: common language, religious language (addressing and honoring monks, etc.), and royal language (which is not in active use anymore). Earliest Bible translations used exclusively royal and religious language (in the way Jesus is addressed by others and in the way Jesus is referred to via pronouns), which results in Jesus being divine and not human. Later editions try to make distinctions.
In the Common Language Version (publ. 2005) the human face of Jesus appears in the narrative of the angel’s message to Joseph and what Joseph did in response (Matthew 1:21-25). The angel told Joseph that Mary was going to give birth to a son, not a prince.
Likewise in Luke 2:6-7 the story of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem is told simply using the Common language. Again in the description of the shepherds’ visit to the baby Jesus (Mark 1:21-25), in the story of Jesus’ circumcision (Luke 2:6-2:7), and in the narrative of the child Jesus’ visit to Jerusalem (Luke 2:46-51), the human face of Jesus comes to the forefront.
On the other hand, the child Jesus is clearly depicted as a royal or a divine child in the story of the wise men (Matthew 2:9-12), the story of the flight to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-14), and the return to Nazareth (Matthew 2:20-21).
Apali: “God’s one with talk from the head” (“basically God’s messenger since head refers to any leader’s talk”) (source: Martha Wade)
Michoacán Nahuatl: “clean helper of God” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Noongar: Hdjin-djin-kwabba or “spirit good” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Wè Northern (Wɛɛ): Kea ‘a “sooa or “the Lord’s soldier” (also: “God’s soldier” or “his soldier”) (source: Drew Maust)
Iwaidja: “a man sent with a message” (Sam Freney explains the genesis of this term [in this article ): “For example, in Darwin last year, as we were working on a new translation of Luke 2:6–12 in Iwaidja, a Northern Territory language, the translators had written ‘angel’ as ‘a man with eagle wings’. Even before getting to the question of whether this was an accurate term (or one that imported some other information in), the word for ‘eagle’ started getting discussed. One of the translators had her teenage granddaughter with her, and this word didn’t mean anything to her at all. She’d never heard of it, as it was an archaic term that younger people didn’t use anymore. They ended up changing the translation of ‘angel’ to something like ‘a man sent with a message’, which is both more accurate and clear.”)
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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) is used as in mi-tsukai (御使い) or “messenger (of God).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 2:13:
Uma: “When the people who knew how to look at stars had gone, an angel of the Lord also appeared to Yusuf in his dream. That angel said: ‘Yusuf! Herodes is searching for that Child, he wants to kill him. Get up, take that Child with his mother, go away going to the land of Mesir! Live there until there is my word speaking to you.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then, when they had left an angel of God appeared to Yusup in his dream, he said, ‘Herod will soon command to search for the child commanding him to be killed. Get up, take the child and Mariyam his mother and flee to the land of Misil. Live there as long as I don’t tell you to leave from there.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “After the stargazers had gone, a messenger of God caused Joseph to dream, saying, ‘Get up, Joseph. Take the child and his mother and run away to Egypt. Wait there until I do not yet tell you. Because Herod is looking for that child because he wants to kill him.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “When they had left, the angel of the Lord God appeared to Jose in his dream and said to him, ‘Get up, and escort the baby and his mother to flee to Egipto. Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod’s purpose is to have-the baby -searched-for to have-him-killed.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “After those thinkers had left, Jose dreamed. In his dream, an angel of God came, who said to him, ‘Jose, you (pl.) get up and leave here at once. You (sing.) take this child and his mother and you (pl.) run-away to Egipto. And don’t leave there until I tell you, because Herodes will cause that child to be looked for to be killed.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “After the men had gone, the angel of God was seen by Joseph when he was sleeping. He said to him: ‘Get up at once, take the baby along with his mother. Flee, going to the land of Egypt. There you must live until I tell you to return. Because now Herod will hunt for the baby in order to kill him,’ he said.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The name that is transliterated as “Mary” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with arms folded over chest which is the typical pose of Mary in statues and artwork. (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. )
In American Sign Language it is translated with a sign for the letter M and the sign for “virgin,” which could also be interpreted as “head covering,” referring to the way that Mary is usually portrayed in art works. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Mary” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
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