Passover

The Hebrew and Greek pesach/pascha that is typically translated in English as “Passover” (see below) is translated in a variety of descriptive ways of various aspects of the Jewish festival. (Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight):

  • Ojitlán Chinantec: “the feast of the passing by of God’s angel”
  • Lalana Chinantec: “the day would come which is called Passover, when the Israel people remember how they went out of the land of Egypt”
  • Huehuetla Tepehua: “the celebration when they ate their sheep”
  • Umiray Dumaget Agta: “the celebration of the day of their being brought out of bondage”
    (source for this and above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
  • Obolo: ijọk Iraraka — “Festival of Passing” (source: Enene Enene)
  • Guhu-Samane: “special day of sparing” (source: Ernest Richert in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 198ff. )
  • Yakan: “The festival of the Isra’il tribe which they call For-Remembering” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Wolof: “Festival of the day of Salvation” (“the term ‘pass over’ brings up the image of a person’s crossing over a chasm after death”) (source: Marilyn Escher)
  • Bura-Pabir: vir kucelir fəlɓəla kəi — “time-of happiness-of jumping-over house”
  • Berom: Nzem Gyilsit Nelɔ — “Festival-of jumping-of houses”
  • Nigerian Fulfulde: Humto Ƴaɓɓitaaki / Humto Sakkinki — “Festival-of passing-over”
  • Hausa: Bikin Ƙetarewa — “Festival-of going-over” (source for this and three above: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
  • Jula: “Feast of end of slavery” (source: Fritz Goerling)
  • Bafanji: laiŋzieʼ — “pass-jump over” (source: Cameron Hamm)
  • Tiéyaxo Bozo / Jenaama Bozo: “Salvation/Rescue (religious) feast” (source: Marko Hakkola)
  • Sabaot: Saakweetaab Keeytaayeet — “Festival of Passing-by” (source: Iver Larsen)
  • Language spoken in India and Bangladesh: “Festival of avoidance”
  • Vlax Romani: o ghes o baro le Nakhimasko — “the Day of the Passing”
  • Saint Lucian Creole: Fèt Délivwans — “Feast of Deliverance” (source: David Frank)
  • Finnish: pääsiäinen (“The term is very probably coined during the NT translation process around 1520-1530. It is connected to a multivalent verb päästä and as such refers either to the Exodus (päästä meaning “to get away [from Egypt]”) or to the end of the Lent [päästä referring to get relieved from the limitations in diet]. The later explanation being far more probable than the first.”)
  • Northern Sami: beas’sážat (“Coined following the model in Finnish. The Sami verb is beassat and behaves partly like the Finnish one. Many Christian key terms are either borrowed from Finnish or coined following the Finnish example.”)
  • Estonian: ülestõusmispüha — “holiday/Sunday of the resurrection” — or lihavõttepüha — “holiday/Sunday of returning of meat”
  • Karelian: äijüpäivü — “the great day” (“Here one can hear the influence of the Eastern Christianity, but not directly Russian as language, because the Russian term is Пасха/Pasha or Воскресение Христово/Voskresenie Hristovo, ‘[the day of] the resurrection of Christ,’ but the week before Easter is called as the great week.”) (Source for this and three above: Seppo Sipilä)
  • Russian (for Russian speaking Muslims): праздник Освобождения/prazdnik Osvobozhdeniya — “Festival of-liberation” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
  • Kono: laaŋumɛ̃ɛ̃ or “skip over the person” (provisional term). Alesha Hagemeyer explains in this blog post that laaŋumɛ̃ɛ̃ is a play on the term laaɲámɛ̃ɛ̃ or “to skip over the water” which is traditionally used for the sacrifice of a sheep or a goat after the death of a family member. That term literally means “to skip over the water” so that “their loved one will pass over the water and enter the presence of God”
  • Chagatai (a precursor language of both Uzbek and Uighur): faṭīr, derived from the Arabic word fiṭr for the holiday celebrated by Muslims after fasting in Ramadan (ʿĪd al-Fiṭr / عيد الفطر) (source: F. Erbay and F.N. Küçükballı in Acta Theologica 2025 45/2, p. 133ff. )
  • Low German: Osterfest “Easter” (translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006)
  • Spanish Sign Language: pass through + miracle (source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. )


    “Passover” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

  • English: Passover (term coined by William Tyndale that both replicates the sound of the Hebrew original pesah — פסח as well as part of the meaning: “passing over” the houses of the Israelites in Egypt) — oddly, the English Authorized Version (King James Version) translates the occurrence in Acts 12:4 as Easter

Many Romance languages follow the tradition from Latin that has one term for both “Easter” and “Passover” (pascha). Portuguese uses Páscoa for both, Italian uses Pascha, and French has Pâque for “Passover” and the identically pronounced Pâques for “Easter.”

In languages in francophone and lusophone (Portuguese speaking) Africa, indigenous languages typically use the Romance word for “Easter” as a loanword and often transliterate pesach/pascha. In Kinyarwanda and Rundi Pasika is used, in Swahili and Congo Swahili Pasaka, and in Lingala Pasika. In some cases, the transliteration of “Passover” is derived from the European language, such as Umbundu’s Pascoa (from Portuguese) and Bulu’s Pak (from French).

As John Ellingworth (in The Bible Translator 1980, p 445f. ) points out “in most contexts only the presence or absence of the definite article distinguishes them [in French la pâque for Passover and Pâques for Easter]. Since most African languages do not have definite articles, there remains no way to distinguish between the two terms where the general population has borrowed the word for Easter and the Bible translators have borrowed the word for Passover to use in their translation. Some even consider the references to [Passover] before the death of Christ as prophetic!”

See also this devotion on YouVersion .

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Passover .

complete verse (Numbers 9:2)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 9:2:

  • Kupsabiny: “‘When it is the fourteenth day in this month in the afternoon, the people of Israel must celebrate the Feast of Passover, according to how all the laws/customs are for that feast.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “The Israelites must celebrate the Passover at the prescribed time. ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘Have- the Israelinhon -celebrate the Feast of the Passing-by of the Angel at the appointed time,” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘Tell the Israeli people that they must celebrate the Passover Festival again.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Numbers 9:2 - 9:3

Let the people of Israel keep the passover at its appointed time: The Hebrew verb for keep literally means “do,” “make,” or “prepare.” Here it is better rendered “celebrate” (Contemporary English Version, Bible en français courant, La Nouvelle Bible Segond, Bijbel in Gewone Taal). Some cultures distinguish between formal and informal celebrations. If so, a term for the former should be used in this context. The passover was one of three major festivals that the Israelites celebrated. It was the religious feast celebrating their deliverance from Egypt. During this feast the Israelites remembered that the angel of the LORD “passed over” their homes when he killed the Egyptians’ firstborn sons. The Hebrew word for passover is pesach. This word probably comes from the verb pasach, which can mean “pass by,” “leap,” or “limp.” Possible renderings for the passover are “the festival of deliverance [or, redemption/liberation],” “the festival of passing over,” and “the festival to remember the passing over.” For a good discussion on translating this term, see the introductory comments on Exo 12.1-14 in A Handbook on Numbers, which cautions that the term used for passover should be distinct from the term for “Easter.” Any translation of passover should be carefully checked for hidden associations; for example, “passing by” may be misunderstood as referring to a detour. The target language may use a loanword that has been generally accepted in the community. But it is important to make sure that such terms of foreign origin are carefully explained in a glossary and that the translation is marked accordingly.

At its appointed time, which Good News Translation omits, refers to the fourteenth day of this month, in the evening. This month was the first month. The Passover of Exo 12 was celebrated in the first month as well. The LORD was the one who appointed or “decreed” it. In the evening is literally “between the two evenings.” As A Handbook on Numbers mentions at Exo 12.6, this expression probably refers to the period between sunset and nightfall. Other possible renderings for it are “at twilight” (New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) and “at the fall of the evening” (La Nouvelle Bible Segond, Herziene Statenvertaling).

You shall keep it at its appointed time: The Hebrew pronoun for you is plural, referring to Moses and the rest of the Israelites. To ensure that this pronoun is not misinterpreted as a singular in reference to Moses, Good News Translation has “the people of Israel are to observe the Passover,” combining verses 2 and 3.

According to all its statutes and all its ordinances you shall keep it: The Israelites must observe all the ritual requirements of the Passover celebration. The Hebrew word for statutes (chuqqah) can mean “task,” “obligation” or “law,” and the word for ordinances (mishpat) can mean “legal decision/judgment” or “established custom.” Good News Translation renders these two words as “rules and regulations.” In this context of a festival another good model is “rules and rites” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh).

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 .