garden

The Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Greek that is translated into English as “garden” is translated into Naskapi with a word that means “a place for things to grow.”

Doug Lockhart (in Word Alive 2013 ) explains: “‘Garden’ was another term that had no Naskapi equivalent. ‘There are no gardens here,’ Bill [Jancewicz, a translation consultant] explains. ‘So what word do you use for ‘Garden of Eden,’ and have it communicate something logical in Naskapi? We finally came up with a word that means ‘a place for things to grow,’ like a park.'”

See also gardener.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Eden .

Translation commentary on Susanna 1:26

If integrated into the book of Daniel: 13.26.

The household servants: These are not the servant girls attending on Susanna, though it may include them. In Greek this phrase is literally “those in the house,” so Good News Translation has “the servants in the house.” Verse 27 makes it clear they were servants. The people who had come to the house to conduct business had presumably gone for the day. We may imagine Joakim would come running, but the author does not put him on the scene.

The shouting in the garden: Good News Translation has “all the noise” (similarly Contemporary English Version), leaving it understood that it was coming from the garden. New English Bible has “the uproar in the garden.”

They rushed in at the side door: For side door, see the comments on verse 18. The servants rushed into the garden, but since they had been inside, they came rushing out of the side door. New Jerusalem Bible has “[they] rushed out by the side entrance.” It must be made clear that the servants had been indoors and were coming outdoors. To indicate this, we may say “they all rushed from the house through the side door into the garden.”

What had happened to her: Good News Translation, which used “she” rather than the literal “Susanna” in verse 24, here substitutes the name for the pronoun (also Contemporary English Version).

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.