gnat

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “gnat” or similar in English is translated in Bariai as “sand fly” (source: Bariai Back Translation).

camel

The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated in English as “camel” is translated in Muna as “water buffalo.” René van den Berg explains: “Camels are unknown; the biggest known animal is the water buffalo (though now rare on Muna).”

In Bislama is is translated as buluk: “cow” / “bull” (source: Ross McKerras) and in Bahnar as aseh lăk-đa which is a combination of the Vietnamese loan word for “camel” (lăk-đa) and the Bahnar term for “horse” (aseh) to communicate that the camel is a beast of burden (source: Pham Xuan Tin in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 20ff. ).

In the 1900 Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) translation (a newer version was published in 2000) it was as ĸatigagtôĸ or “big-backed ones.” “Katigagtôĸ (modern qatigattooq), which has the literal meaning of ‘something with a big back.’ It comprises the noun ĸatigak (modern qatigak) ‘back’ combined with the suffix –tôĸ (modern –tooq) ‘something possessing a big X.’” (Source: Lily Kahn & Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi in The Bible Translator 2019, p. 125ff.)

In Luke 18:25, Mark 10:25, and Matthew 19:24 some versions of the Peshitta translation in Syriac Aramaic (Classical Syriac) show an ambiguity between the very similar words for “camel” and “rope.” Some translations of the Peshitta, therefore, use the “rope” interpretation, including the Classical Armenian Bible (մալխոյ for “rope”), the English translation by George Lamsa (publ. 1933) (It is easier for a rope to go through the eye of a needle), or the Dutch translation by Egbert Nierop (publ. 2020) (het voor een kabel eenvoudiger is het oog van een naald binnen te gaan).

In the above-mentioned three verses, it is translated in Noongar as “kangaroo” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

 

There were two types of camel known in Bible times the most common being the Arabian Dromedary camelus dromedarius, which was indigenous to the area. The two-humped Bactrian Camel camelus bactrianus was also known and prized, but it was imported from Central Asia.

Camels belong to the same family as the South American llama, vicuna, alpaca, and guanaco, but camels are much larger and have a big fatty hump on their backs. Bactrian camels may reach a height of about two meters (6.5 feet), while dromedaries are even bigger. Dromedaries are a uniform light fawn color, while Bactrian camels are darker, especially in winter when they grow longer fur.

Camels do not have hooves but a large footpad with two broad toes ideally suited to walking on sand. In other ways too they are ideally suited to life in desert areas. They store excess food in their humps and this makes it possible for them to go a long time without eating. Special blood cells also enable them to go without water for long periods. They also have a very efficient digestive system and can extract the maximum amount of nutrition from apparently dry vegetation. This adaptation to harsh environments means that camels can make long journeys through dry areas which would be beyond the abilities of other types of pack animal such as donkeys. Camels were used for riding and for carrying heavy loads. They were also used to pull carts.

In winter the fur of camels thickens and grows longer and then when summer comes they shed their winter fur in large wads. These wads of camel hair are collected and twisted into cords and ropes or spun into thread which is then used for weaving coarse cloth. This cloth was usually used for making tents but it was sometimes used for making outer robes.

Camels’ milk was used as food and drink but their meat was considered unclean by the Israelites.

In spite of the fact that camels were considered to be unclean for food they were a symbol of wealth and commerce. People or nations with many camels were automatically viewed as commercially successful and wealthy as the possession of camels opened up the possibility of transporting goods long distances and engaging in trade.

In areas where camels are not known, the word is often transliterated from Hebrew or the dominant language of the area. However, in some languages descriptive names have been invented. In some South American languages names meaning “hump-backed llama” or “big alpaca with a hump” have been used. Elsewhere expressions such as “hump-backed horse” have been used. A fuller description should usually be included in a glossary or word list.

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

For information on the domestication of camels, see Early camel incidents in the Hebrew Bible .

Click or tap here to see a short video clip about camels (source: Bible Lands 2012)

complete verse (Matthew 23:24)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 23:24:

  • Uma: “You are like blind people who lead-by-the-hand others. You are like people who remove a gnat [lit., tiny mosquito] from your drink, yet a camel, which is very big, you go ahead and swallow.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “You strive to follow the commandments which are not so great but the great/important commandments you do not do. You are like blind people showing-the-way to your companions. You are like a person who strains the water so that he doesn’t drink the insect but he swallows a camel.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “You are like a blind person that leads another blind person. You wouldn’t dare do a little sin, but you dare to do a very big sin.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “You blind-ones who are going-ahead/leading-the-way! You are like a person who carefully/thoroughly strains a gnat from what he drinks while-simultaneously he swallows-at-a-gulp a camel!” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “You blind leaders-by-hand! You are like a person who strains what he drinks so that he won’t swallow an insect which has been forbidden by God. But as for the big kamelyo animal which has also been forbidden by God, he swallows it in one gulp. For you taboo small sins but don’t-mind big ones.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “All that you teach, you do not know the meaning of it. So you pay attention to the words that are of little importance, but concerning the words of most importance that you do, you don’t pay any attention to them.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing his disciples and common people

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

Here, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.

In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.

Translation commentary on Matthew 23:24

Blind guides translates the same expression used in verse 16.

Straining out a gnat describes the custom of the strictest sect of Pharisees who strained everything they drank for fear of swallowing an insect that was considered unclean. Gnat represents the traditional rendering; Good News Translation has “fly,” and “midge” (a small gnat-like fly) is the choice of New English Bible and Barclay. The word may also mean “mosquito” (Phillips), and there is even the possibility that it may refer to a certain worm which was sometimes found in wine. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch effectively renders “smallest gnat.” Straining out a gnat sometimes requires restructuring for the sense to be clear, as in “you strain what you drink through a cloth so you won’t swallow even a gnat (or, small fly).”

Swallowing a camel intentionally introduces an exaggerated figure of speech in order to demonstrate the absolute inconsistency of the Pharisaic application of the Law. Jesus may have intended a play on words, since in the Aramaic translation the word gnat is similar to the word “camel.” Moreover, according to Leviticus 11.4, the camel is an unclean animal which Jews were not allowed to eat. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates this phrase as “but you swallow a camel without seeing it.” It is possible to introduce a simile: “You take care to strain the smallest insect out of your drink, but you are like people who swallow a camel without even knowing it.” Or the imagery may be dropped completely if it is believed that the readers will not grasp its significance: “you exert yourselves to obey all the insignificant details of the Law, but you neglect the most important part of the Law, without even knowing it.”

Obviously it will not be too serious a problem if readers are not very familiar with camel, which is not used literally here. What translators in such languages may do if they do want to keep the image is say “a huge animal called ‘camel.’ ”

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 .