The Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that is transliterated as “Samuel” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the sign for “listen” referring to 1 Samuel 3:10. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
“Samuel” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España
The Hebrew that is transliterated as “Naomi” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the sign for “changed identity” referring to the many life changes that Naomi goes through in the book of Ruth. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
“Naomi” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España
The Hebrew that is transliterated as “Ruth” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the sign for “respect” referring to the respect that she shows for the mother-in-law as shown in Ruth 1:16. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
“Ruth” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España
In Swiss-German Sign Language it is translated with a sign that depicts Ruth collecting ears of grain, referring to Ruth 2:2 and following.
“Ruth” in Swiss-German Sign Language, source: DSGS-Lexikon biblischer Begriffe , © CGG Schweiz
The Hebrew and Greek that is transliterated as “Boaz” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the sign that combines the letter Z and “sandal” referring to Ruth 4:7 and 4:8. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
“Boaz” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España
The Hebrew that is transliterated as “Samson” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the signs for “headband” referring to his long hair and likely use of a headband. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
“Samson” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España
See also Samson and Delilah (image).
In the Tuvan Bible translation project, the official policy (…) was to keep the spelling of names of major characters the same as in the Russian Synodal translation. However, the translation team and representatives of local Tuvan churches agreed that deviation in proper name spelling from the RST would be allowed on a case-by-case basis if there was a concrete need to do so.
Such a need arose with the name of Noah’s son Ham (חָ֥ם) in Genesis and elsewhere in the Old Testament.
In Russian, as in English, this is transliterated with three letters — Хам (Kham). In Russian, the name of this character has entered the language with the meaning of “boorish lout, impudent person” because of how Ham treated his father; in Tuvan, however, the word Хам (Kham) already means “shaman.” Since the Tuvan people continue to practice their traditional religion in which shamans play a major role, the translation team felt that leaving the transliteration of this name with the exact spelling as in Russian might cause needless offense to Tuvan sensibilities by unwittingly causing the text of Gen. 9:20-27 to portray shamans as the targets of Noah’s curse. Therefore, the translation team chose to avoid this potential stumbling block while continuing to maintain a close sound correspondence with the name of the biblical character as Tuvan Christians already knew it from the RST text. This was done by doubling the vowel — Хаам. Tuvan has long vowel phonemes that are written with a double vowel, so this is perfectly acceptable from the point of view of Tuvan orthographic conventions.
The correspondence of the Tuvan version of the name to the Russian Synodal spelling is still recognizable, but hopefully, the wrath of Tuvan shamans and their supporters has been averted by this small disliteration.
The rationale behind such an approach to spelling changes in names is concisely described in the foreword to the Tuvan Bible for the sake of transparency
Apparently, the similarity of the English version of this name to the food item (as in “I’ll have a ham and cheese sandwich”) is not deemed offensive enough to the meat-packing industry for a similar disliteration to be performed in English Bible translations.
Source: Vitaly Voinov in The Bible Translator 2012, p. 17ff.
In Spanish Sign Language it is translated with a sign that signifies “African,” referring to passages like Psalm 105:23. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
“Ham” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España
The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin that is transliterated as “Habakkuk” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign for “dialog,” referring to the dialog between Habakkuk and God in chapters 1 and 2. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
“Habakkuk” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España
In Swiss-German Sign Language it is translated with the sign for “why” because Habakkuk asked many questions of God.
“Habakkuk” in Swiss-German Sign Language, source: DSGS-Lexikon biblischer Begriffe , © CGG Schweiz
Following is a Russian Orthodox icon of Habakkuk from the 18th century (found in the Transfiguration Church, Kizhi Monastery, Karelia, Russia).
Orthodox Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )
The Greek that is transliterated as “Silas” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign depicting “chains falling off,” referring to Acts 16:26. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
“Silas” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España
