Sabbath

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “Sabbath” in English is rendered as “day we rest” in Tzotzil, in Mairasi as “Jew’s Rest Day,” in Quiotepec Chinantec as “day when people of Israel rested,” in Shilluk as “day of God,” in Obolo as Usen Mbuban or “Holy Day,” and in Mandarin Chinese as ānxírì (安息日) or “rest day” (literally: “peace – rest – day”).

(Sources: Tzotzil: Marion Cowan in Notes on Translation with Drill, p. 169ff; Mairasi: Enggavoter 2004; Quiotepec Chinantec: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.; Shilluk: Nida 1964, p. 237; Obolo: Enene Enene; Chinese: Jost Zetzsche)

In the old Khmer version as well as in the first new translation this term was rendered as “day of rest” (Thngai Chhup Somrak / ​ថ្ងៃ​ឈប់​សំរាក). Considered inadequate to convey its religious meaning (not only about cessation of work, but also in honor of Yahweh as the Creator), the committee for the Today’s Khmer Version (publ. 2005) decided to keep the Hebrew word and use its transliterated form Thgnai Sabath (​ថ្ងៃ​សប្ប័ទ). “The Buddhist word Thngai Seil ‘day of merits’ used by some Catholics was once under consideration but was rejected because it did not receive unanimous support.” (Source: Joseph Hong in The Bible Translator 1996, p. 233ff.)

In Spanish, the translation is either día de reposo (“day of rest”) or sábado (usually: “Saturday,” derived from the Greek and Hebrew original. Nida (1947, p. 239f.) explains that problem for Spanish and other languages in its sphere of influence: “In translation ‘Sabbath’ into various aboriginal languages of Latin America, a considerable number of translators have used the Spanish sábado, ‘Saturday,’ because it is derived from the Hebrew sabbath and seems to correspond to English usage as well. The difficulty is that sábado means only ‘Saturday’ for most people. There is no religious significance about this word as the is with ‘Sabbath’ in English. Accordingly the [readers] cannot understand the significance of the persecution of Jesus because he worked on ‘Saturday.’ It has been found quite advantageous to use the translation ‘day of rest,’ for this accurately translated the Hebrew meaning of the term and resolves the problem in connection with the prohibitions placed upon some types of activities.”

In French Sign Language it is translated with a sign that depicts closing of the blinds of a store:


“Sabbath” in French Sign Language (source: La Bible en langue des signes française )

complete verse (Colossians 2:16)

Following are a number of back-translations of Colossians 2:16:

  • Uma: “Relatives, there are people who want to force you to follow the customs of their religion. They criticize you because you do not follow the taboos of food and drink. They criticize you because you do not follow the customs of the big days of the Yahudi religion, like the big day of the new moon and the taboo of working on the Sabat Day. Don’t you pay attention to those people,” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Therefore, my siblings who trust in Isa Almasi, don’t be willing to be ruled by a person/people about your food or your drink or about the Yahudi feasts/celebrations and their feasts/celebrations when new moon and about days-when-it-is-prohibited-to-work.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Therefore, brothers, don’t pay any attention to those who criticize you if you do not obey their rules about eating and drinking and also about celebrating important days and celebrating the new moon and the days of rest.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Therefore you should not believe/obey those who accuse you saying that you must follow their many taboos such as those concerning food and drink and the days that they consider-taboo which are yearly and the becoming-new-moon-stage of the moon and the Saturdays which are their time-of-resting.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Therefore don’t pay attention to those there who are judging you because you don’t follow/obey their laws concerning eating, drinking, and the Day of Rest. And you don’t join in their fiestas every new moon or every (new) year.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Therefore now, concerning the people who say that it is wrong about what you eat, don’t believe what they say. Don’t believe them when they say you must respect the feast day or you must respect the new moon day, or you must respect the day of rest.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Colossians 2:16

The verb krinō means primarily “to judge” (see, for example, in a similar context, Rom 14.3). Here the more general make rules may be more appropriate (compare Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “let no one dictate to you…”). Other ways of translating it are “criticize” (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy Barclay), “take you to task” (Moffatt New English Bible). Jerusalem Bible has “never let anyone else decide….” What you eat or drink: such a regulation seems to be based on Jewish distinctions between ritually pure and impure foods (see Rom 14.1-4, 1 Tim 4.3-5, Heb 9.10, 13.9; see also Mark 7.17-20, Acts 10.10-16), or else springs from widespread Greek ideas that by abstaining from food and drink (especially from meat and wine) a person was able more adequately to worship the gods.

Rather than distinguishing between solids and liquids, as we normally do in Indo-european languages, a number of languages make a distinction between “cold foods” and “hot foods,” but this may have nothing to do with temperature. Actually it is a classification which includes both solids and liquids but is designed to embrace all kinds of foods, largely on the basis of what is regarded as their effects upon the digestive and physiological processes of the body. Some translators have wanted to use such a basic set of distinctions, but it probably is unwise since it introduces a distinction which was not true of biblical times and which will cause certain further complications in other passages. A more satisfactory equivalent in such cases may be simply “foods that are chewed and foods that are drunk.”

Other matters involved are holy days, the New Moon Festival, and the Sabbath, which seem to represent yearly, monthly, and weekly cultic rites (compare Gal 4.10; see 1 Chr 23.31; 2 Chr 31.3; Ezek 45.17; Hos 2.11). The holy days are annual religious festivals; the New Moon Festival (only here in the NT) was celebrated every new moon, and the Sabbath was the Jewish weekly holy day, the seventh day of the week, a day for rest from physical labor and for worship. Again this seems to point to a Jewish background, but some commentators, like Lohse, see Greek influence here, since “the elemental powers” (the ruling spirits of the universe, 2.8, 20) controlled the movements of the stars and thus determined the calendar of religious rites and festivals.

Holy days may be translated as “certain days each year when people worship” or “those days which people each year set aside for worshiping God.” Sometimes holy days are simply “special days for worship.”

The New Moon Festival must often be expressed in the plural since it refers to festivals which are celebrated each new moon. Sometimes these are called “celebrations when the moon is thin” or idiomatically, “celebrations when the moon is about to conceive,” that is to say, in anticipation of the waxing moon, regarded as a kind of pregnancy.

The Sabbath must likewise be rendered in many languages as a plural, for example, “those days each week when one worships” or “the weekly rest days.” Since the Hebrew root underlying the word sabbath actually refers to resting, it is general preferable to translate the Sabbath as “day of rest.” It may then be appropriately interpreted by different groups as either to seventh day of the week or the first day of the week, though increasingly in various parts of the world, Sunday is being regarded as the last day of the week (a part of the “weekend”), and Monday is spoken of as the first day of the week. Accordingly, such phrases as “seventh day” and “first day” may involve complications because of shifts in meaning.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Colossians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1977. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .