Pentecost

The Greek that is translated as “Pentecost” in English is translated in Huichol as “festival of the 7th week” It was rendered thus because the name of Pentecost would be equated with a sect only, and a harvest festival in late May would strain credibility. (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

In Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) it is translated that with a sign that combines 5, 0, and “feast” (because it is celebrated 50 days after Easter Sunday). (Source: Missão Kophós )


“Pentecost” in Libras (source )

In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) it is translated as “the fiftieth day after Passover, on the Jewish Pentecost” (in Acts 2:1).

In Huichol, it is translated as “festival of the 7th week,” “because the name of ‘Pentecost’ would be equated only with [Pentecostal Christians], and a harvest festival in late May would strain credibility. (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Pentecost .

Translation commentary on Tobit 2:1

During the reign of Esarhaddon may also be expressed as “while Esarhaddon was king” (Contemporary English Version) or “while King Esarhaddon was ruling over Assyria.” Good News Translation has omitted this phrase, perhaps because the previous paragraph has just told us that Esarhaddon was king.

My wife Anna and my son Tobias were restored to me: The phrase were restored is literal, but it suggests that Anna and Tobias had been taken from Tobit, which is not what the narrator seems to have in mind (compare 1.20). Good News Translation “I was reunited with” avoids this difficulty; but in languages that do not have the passive voice, translators may have to say something like “I lived with my wife Anna and son Tobias again.” The Greek passive probably does not have the sense that God is the one reuniting the family. Tobit is simply telling what happened, not the cause of it.

At our festival of Pentecost, which is the sacred festival of weeks: Since Pentecost is a Greek term and used in the Greek text here, some versions such as New Revised Standard Version use the term as the name of the festival. Good News Translation consistently renders the name of this holiday as “Harvest Festival,” referring to the grain harvest (so also Contemporary English Version). It is the Jewish holiday Shavuoth. Festival of weeks is an alternate name; by using both names, the writer seems to be explaining one by the other. “Harvest Festival” may also be rendered as “the Festival to celebrate the grain harvest.” Festival of weeks is more difficult to translate. This festival celebrated the first harvesting of grain which started seven weeks earlier. So it is possible to express this as “the Festival of Seven Weeks” or “the Festival seven weeks after the first harvest.” For festival see 1.6. The possessive our festival, probably means “our [Jewish] festival,” though it could be taken to refer to Tobit’s family: “when our family observed the Harvest Festival….”

A good dinner was prepared for me says a bit more than the Greek. Obviously someone prepared the meal, but the text really says no more than “there was a good dinner” (New Jerusalem Bible). Good News Translation has simply “a delicious meal.”

I reclined to eat accurately reflects the Greek original and the presumed actual custom, where people reclined while eating meals. “Settled down to eat” would not be misleading and may avoid raising questions that are not essential to the meaning of the text.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• I returned home to Nineveh while King Esarhaddon was ruling Assyria, and once again lived with my wife Anna and my son Tobias. At the Festival for celebrating the grain harvest, which is also called the Festival of Seven Weeks, I settled down to eat a delicious meal.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Tobit. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.