desert, wilderness

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The Greek that is translated as “desert” or “wilderness” in English is translated in a number of ways:

Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).

See also wilderness and desolate wilderness.

complete verse (Acts 13:18)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 13:18:

  • Uma: “After that, for forty years long, he endured seeing their rejection/rebellion while they were in the empty land.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “For forty years God endured the not obeying/following his teachings by the tribe of Isra’il there in that lonely place.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For forty years while they were still there in the land where no people lived, God put up with their rebellion against him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “When they were then walking through the place with no inhabitants for forty years, he bore-with their sins against him while-simultaneously he took-care of them.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “He put up with their opposing him for the space of forty years, which was the length of their journeying in the wilderness place.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Acts 13:18

As the Good News Translation, 3rd edition, points out in its “Other Readings and Renderings,” some manuscripts have “took care of” (see Jerusalem Bible) in place of endured. Luke is apparently alluding to Deuteronomy 1.31 where the Septuagint has the same two alternative forms. Though the form meaning “took care of” is supported by a slightly stronger diversity of manuscript evidence and seems more suited to the context, the textual evidence is not at all conclusive. In fact the best, and the majority of the Septuagint manuscripts, have “took care of”; hence if the form meaning “endured” were the original reading of Acts, one can readily see why scribes would have tended to make the change to the form meaning “took care of,” so that this reference in Acts would conform to the Septuagint reading. Conversely, it is difficult to see why the change would have been made in the other direction. On the whole, therefore, the form meaning “endured” seems to be the preferred reading in this verse.

The concept of endured is not easy to communicate in some languages. Sometimes there is an idiomatic expression somewhat equivalent to “put up with” or “got along with despite difficulties.” In other instances endured must be expressed by some type of descriptive phrase: “he helped them despite the way they treated him” or “he stayed with them even though they did not show they wanted him.”

Desert is not wholly satisfactory as a translation of the underlying Greek term, since it suggests to many people sandy wastes such as the Sahara. The term “wilderness” is also misleading. The basic meaning is “uninhabited area” and in many languages this is “the bush” or “out where no one was living.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .