complete verse (Matthew 26:30)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 26:30:

  • Uma: “After that they sang a praise song. After they sang, they left the village and went to Olive [Zaitun] Mountain.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “After this they sang a song to praise God and then they went out going to the hill Jaitun.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And they sang a praise to God, and when they finished singing, they went out and they went to the hill called Olive Place.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “When Jesus had said that, they sang praising God, and then they went-out to go to the hill/mountain Olivo.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “After Jesus finished saying that, they sang one song, and then they set out to go to the Hill of Olibo.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “When they finished the meal, they sang a song to praise God. They left then and went to a hill where there was a wood of olive trees.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

olive

The olive family has over four hundred species in the world. Many of them grow in Africa, India, and Australia, but it is the one in the Bible, the European Olive Olea europaea, that has become famous. It is likely that the olive was domesticated in Egypt or the eastern Mediterranean basin in the third millennium B.C. The botanist Newberry argued that Egypt was its original home. We know from the Bible that olives grew in the hills of Samaria and in the foothills. There is a wild variety, called Olea europaea sylvestris, that is smaller than the domestic one; it produces a smaller fruit with less oil. The Apostle Paul refers to this wild variety in Romans 11:17 and 11:24. Olives are easily propagated by cuttings and by grafting fruitful species into less fruitful ones. They grow best on hillsides where the rain drains off quickly. The fruit forms by August but does not ripen until December or January.

The olive is not a big tree, reaching up to perhaps 10 meters (33 feet), but with pruning it is usually kept to around 5 meters (17 feet) tall. The leaves are grayish green above, and whitish underneath. The bark of young trees is silvery gray but gets darker and rougher as the tree ages. The trunk also gets twisted and hollow and may reach over a meter in thickness. Olives grow for hundreds of years, and some in Israel have possibly reached two thousand years.

The fruit of the olive is about 2 centimeters (1 inch) long and a bit more than a centimeter (1/2 inch) thick. It has a hard stone inside and a soft skin that covers the oily flesh. Today a mature tree may yield 10-20 kilograms (22-44 pounds) of fruit, which, when processed, will yield 1.3-2.6 kilograms (3.6 pounds) of oil.

For the Jews the “big three” trees were the vine, the fig, and the olive. People ate olive fruits, but more importantly, they squeezed the oil from the fruits, and used it for cooking, for lamps, for rubbing on the body, for medicine, and in religion. Jacob poured olive oil on the stone where he saw a vision of angels, declaring it a holy place (Genesis 28:18). Moses, similarly, anointed the Tabernacle and its equipment with olive oil mixed with sweet-smelling resins (Exodus 40:9). Aaron and the priests who served in the Tabernacle were also anointed (Exodus 29:21).

Some types of wild olive grow in Africa, India, and Australia, but are not well-known. The so-called “African olive” produces a black, oil-bearing fruit much like an olive. It is common as a snack in northern Nigeria. The “Chinese olive” is also a species of Canarium and may be a possible cultural substitute, if it produces edible fruit and oil. The “Russian olive” grown in dry regions of the world is a member of the Elaeagnus family and not a true olive. A variety of olive (Olea cuspidate) is used for building in India and Nepal, but it is probably not possible to use it in the Bible except perhaps in a study Bible where you could say that the biblical olive was related to this tree.

Since most of the kinds of olive trees in the world do not have edible fruit, it may not be possible to substitute a local variety. If it is done, however, a footnote would be required saying that the Palestinian kind produced edible fruit and oil. If a variety of Canarium is eaten in your area, you could use the local name for it. Otherwise transliterate from a major language.

Olives in the Garden of Gethsemane, Wikimedia Commons

Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

Translation commentary on Matthew 26:30

It may be advisable to identify they as “Jesus and his disciples.”

The hymn was in all probability the second half of the “Hallel,” a song of praise to the Lord, which was sung at the end of the Passover. The “Hallel” consisted of two parts (Psa 113 or Psa 113–114 and Psa 115–118), the first part of which was recited at the beginning of the Passover meal. Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition translates “the song of thanks.” “A song of praise to God” is a common translation.

The Mount of Olives was last mentioned in 24.3. It lies to the east of the city of Jerusalem.

In some translations, for example Good News Translation, this verse is a single paragraph which is followed by a new section and heading. Also it is common to find this verse as the first sentence of the next paragraph, so that the next section heading comes at the beginning of this verse rather than after it. Translators should decide according to the needs of the receptor language.

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 .