purple

The Greek that is translated as “purple” in English is translated as “blue-red” in Ojitlán Chinantec.

In Kasua was a little bit more involved, as Rachel Greco recalls (in The PNG Experience):

“The Kasua people of Western Province have no word for the color purple. They have words for many other colors: black, red, white, yellow, green, and blue, but not for the color of royalty.

“About nine New Testament passages mention people placing a purple robe on Jesus. The Kasua translation team always wanted to use the word ‘red,’ or keyalo, to describe the robe. Tommy, one of the translation team helpers, disagreed because this is not historically accurate or signifies the royalty of Jesus.

“One of the main rules of translation is that the team must stick to the historical facts when they translate a passage. If they don’t, then how can the readers trust what they’re reading is true? Other questions about truth could bubble in the reader’s minds about the Scriptures. For this reason, Tommy was not willing to change the word purple. So the team hung up the problem, hoping to revisit it later with more inspiration.

“God did not disappoint.

“Years later, Tommy hiked with some of the men near their village. They saw a tree that possessed bulbous growths growing on the side of it like fruit. These growths were ‘the most beautiful color of purple I’d ever seen,’ explained Tommy.

“’What is the name of this tree?’ Tommy asked the men.

“’This is an Okani tree,’ they replied.

“Tommy suggested, ‘Why don’t you, in those passages where we’ve been struggling to translate the color purple, use ‘they put a robe on Jesus the color of the fruit of the Okani tree’?

“’Yeah. We know exactly what color that is,’ the men said enthusiastically.

“Everyone in their village would also visualize this phrase accurately, as the Okani tree is the only tree in that area that produces this kind of purple growth. So now, among the Kasua people, in his royal purple robe, Jesus is shown to be the king that he is.”

turquoise

The Hebrew that is translated as “turquoise” in English is translated in Nyamwezi as zumalidi or “emerald.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 27:16

Edom trafficked with you because of your abundant goods: There is textual uncertainty here. Many Hebrew manuscripts and some early translations have “Edom” (Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, Contemporary English Version, Revised English Bible, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Moffatt, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), but others read “Aram” (New International Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Century Version, New American Standard Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), which is better known as “Syria” (Good News Translation, New Living Translation, King James Version / New King James Version). In Hebrew the difference between the two words rests on two very similar letters (“d” and “r”), which scribes often confused when they were copying texts (compare the comments on 16.57). Edom was a country about 300 kilometers (185 miles) southeast of Tyre, and the country of “Aram” was northeast of Tyre, extending to the northern part of Mesopotamia. In this context neither country is more appropriate than the other. However, against the reading of “Aram” is the fact that its capital city, Damascus, appears at verse 18. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends that translators may use either reading here. Whether they use Edom or “Aram,” they may find it helpful to identify the one they choose as a country or nation, for example, “the country of Edom.” For trafficked and because of your abundant goods, see the introductory comments on this subunit.

They exchanged for your wares emeralds, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, coral, and agate: It is not possible to identify exactly the goods traded from Edom (or Aram). Emeralds are rich green jewels, but scholars have suggested the Hebrew word here might refer to “malachite” or “turquoise” (New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Living Translation, New Century Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), which was mined in Sinai. It is one of the jewels in the breastpiece of the High Priest (see Exo 28.18). Here translators may say “precious green stones [or, gemstones],” unless of course “turquoise” is a stone their readers are familiar with. Purple refers to rich purple cloth (see the comments on Ezek 27.7). For embroidered work and fine linen, see Ezek 27.7, even though a different Hebrew word for fine linen is used here. No one knows for sure what the Hebrew words for coral and agate refer to; the word for coral may refer to the red coral found in the Mediterranean and Red Seas, and the word for agate probably refers to a red gemstone (compare “red jasper” [Revised English Bible] and “rubies” [Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New Living Translation, New Century Version]). Because the identification of the emeralds, coral, and agate is so uncertain, it is probably best to render them with a general expression for jewels or gemstones, such as “precious green and red stones from the sea and land.” This is also recommended for those languages that do not have words for the individual gems.

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .