Hand colored stencil print on washi by Sadao Watanabe (1997).
Image taken with permission from the SadaoHanga Catalogue where you can find many more images and information about Sadao Watanabe. For other images of Sadao Watanabe art works in TIPs, see here.
Following is an artwork by Sister Marie Claire , SMMI (1937–2018) from Bengaluru, India:
For more information about images by Sister Marie Claire and ways to purchase them as lithographs, see here . For other images of Sister Marie Claire paintings in TIPs, see here.
The following is a stained glass window in the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Chiang Mai, Thailand:
Photo by Jost Zetzsche
Stained glass is not just highly decorative, it’s a medium which has been used to express important religious messages for centuries. Literacy was not widespread in the medieval and Renaissance periods and the Church used stained glass and other artworks to teach the central beliefs of Christianity. In Gothic churches, the windows were filled with extensive narrative scenes in stained glass — like huge and colorful picture storybooks — in which worshipers could ‘read’ the stories of Christ and the saints and learn what was required for their religious salvation. (Source: Victoria and Albert Museum )
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 20:11:
Kupsabiny: “Then, Moses raised his hand and knocked with the stick that he had two times on that rock. Water gushed out from that rock and people and their animals drank the water.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Moses lifted his hand and hit the rock two times with his rod. Water came out from it. Then the community and their cattle drank.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Then Moises raised-up his staff/cane and struck the rock/stone twice, and the water gushed-out, and the community and their animals drank.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Then Moses/I raised his/my hand and instead of speaking to the rock, he/I struck the rock two times with the walking stick. And water gushed/poured out. So all the people and their livestock drank all the water that they wanted.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The name that is transliterated as “Moses” in English means “taken out of the water,” “saved out of the water,” “a son.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )
American Sign Language also uses the sign depicting the horns but also has a number of alternative signs (see here ).
In French Sign Language, a similar sign is used, but it is interpreted as “radiance” (see below) and it culminates in a sign for “10,” signifying the 10 commandments:
The horns that are visible in Michelangelo’s statue are based on a passage in the Latin Vulgate translation (and many Catholic Bible translations that were translated through the 1950ies with that version as the source text). Jerome, the translator, had worked from a Hebrew text without the niqquds, the diacritical marks that signify the vowels in Hebrew and had interpreted the term קרו (k-r-n) in Exodus 34:29 as קֶ֫רֶן — keren “horned,” rather than קָרַו — karan “radiance” (describing the radiance of Moses’ head as he descends from Mount Sinai).
In Swiss-German Sign Language (and Hungarian Sign Language) it is translated with a sign depicting holding a staff. This refers to a number of times where Moses’s staff is used in the context of miracles, including the parting of the sea (see Exodus 14:16), striking of the rock for water (see Exodus 17:5 and following), or the battle with Amalek (see Exodus 17:9 and following).
In Vietnamese (Hanoi) Sign Language it is translated with the sign that depicts the eye make up he would have worn as the adopted son of an Egyptian princess. (Source: The Vietnamese Sign Language translation team, VSLBT)
“Moses” in Vietnamese Sign Language, source: SooSL
In Korean Sign Language it is translated with the sign that depicts the arms held up by Moses to assure the Israelites victory over the Amalekites (see Exodus 17:11).
And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his rod twice: Good News Translation says “Then Moses raised the stick and struck the rock twice with it,” which is more natural in English. This sentence emphasizes that Moses struck the rock with the staff, instead of only speaking to it. So some scholars conclude that this striking of the rock is the cause for the punishment of Moses and Aaron.
And water came forth abundantly: There may be a more natural or even an idiomatic way of expressing this clause; for example, New Living Translation says “and water gushed out” (similarly Good News Translation).
And the congregation drank, and their cattle: All the people as well as their livestock got to drink their fill in accordance with their initial complaint (verse 4) and the LORD’s subsequent promise (verse 8). Congregation renders the Hebrew word ʿedah again (see the comments on verses 1 and 4). For the Hebrew word rendered cattle (beʿir), see verse 4.
1 Cor 10.4 refers to this rock as a symbol of Christ and its water as a symbol of spiritual life.
Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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