lamb

The term that is translated as “lamb” in English is typically translated as “offspring of a sheep” in Ixcatlán Mazatec since there is no specific word for “lamb.” Since this could distract readers with thoughts of God being the sheep when the “lamb” refers to Jesus the translation into Ixcatlán Mazatec chose “little (individual) sheep” for those cases. (Source: Robert Bascom)

In Dëne Súline the native term for “lamb” directly translated as “the young one of an evil little caribou.” To avoid the negative connotation, a loan word from the neighboring South Slavey was used. (Source: NCAM, p. 70)

For the Kasua translation, it took a long process to find the right term. Rachel Greco (in The PNG Experience) tells this story:

“To the Kasua people of Western Province, every four-legged animal is a pig. They call a horse a pig-horse, a cow, a pig-cow, and a sheep, a pig-sheep, because all of these animals have four legs, which is kopolo, or pig, in their language.

“When the translation team would translate the word, ‘sheep’ in the New Testament, they would translate it as ‘pig-sheep’. So when Jesus is referred to as the ‘Lamb,’ (John 1:29; Rev. 12:11; Rev. 17:14), they translated as ‘pig-sheep’ so that in John 1:29 it would read: ‘Behold, the pig-sheep of God.’

“When some members of the translation team attended the Translators Training Course, they had the opportunity to observe and study sheep for the first time. As they watched and learned more about the animals’ behavior, their understanding of these creatures—and God’s Word—rotated on its axis.

“Once during the course, Logan and Konni — the translation team’s helpers — were driving with the team to a Bible dedication when Amos, one of the team members, said passionately, ‘We can’t use the word kopolo in front of the word, ‘sheep’! Pigs know when they’re about to die and squeal and scream.’ The team had often watched villagers tie up pigs so they wouldn’t escape.

“’But,’ Amos said, ‘Jesus didn’t do that.’ The team had learned that sheep are quiet and still when death walks toward them. They had observed, as they translated the New Testament, the words of Isaiah 53 fulfilled: ‘Like a lamb led to the slaughter, he did not open his mouth.’ And now they understood what it meant. For this reason, the team decided not to put pig-sheep in the New Testament for the word ‘sheep,’ but used sheep-animal or, in their language, a:pele sipi.

“The Kasua translation team also chose to discard the word ‘pig’ before sheep because pigs are unclean animals to the Jews. The team knew that Jesus was called the ‘Lamb of God’ in the New Testament to show that he is unblemished and clean. Hopefully the Lord will open up the Kasua villagers’ eyes to these same truths about Jesus as they read of Him in their own language.”

See also sheep.

unleavened bread

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “unleavened bread” in English is translated in various ways:

  • Chichimeca-Jonaz: “bread that doesn’t have its medicine that makes it puff up”
  • Teutila Cuicatec: “bread without its sour”
  • Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “bread that has no mother” (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Mairasi: “bread without other ingredient” (source: Enggavoter 2004)

complete verse (Luke 22:7)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 22:7:

  • Noongar: “The feast of Unleavened Bread came and the day when people killed the lamb to eat on the Passover day.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “The time came for the Feast of Bread that does not use-Yeast. And the first day in that feast was the day of killing the sheep that is eaten on Paskah Day.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Then the festival was reached when they ate bread that had no yeast (lit. for-rising) mixed in. And on that day the people should butcher the child of a sheep which they ate to remember the time when God freed their tribe from death there in the place Misil in old times.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then the day arrived for the Feast of eating bread without yeast. That was the day when the Jews killed the sacrificial young sheep which they were going to eat at the Feast of the Passover.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The first day of the fiesta called Bread That Has No Yeast/Baking-powder then arrived, and that’s when they butchered a child of a sheep for the fiesta called Passed-By.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “The day came which was the beginning of the Fiesta of Bread Without Raising-agent, the day when the young sheep was killed which was the custom of the Fiesta of Passed-by.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Luke 22:7

Exegesis:

ēlthen … hē hēmera tōn azumōn ‘the day of the (feast of the) unleavened bread arrived.’ ēlthen contrasts with ēggizen ‘was drawing near’ in v. 1. For ta azuma cf. references on v. 1.

[en] hē edei thuesthai to pascha ‘on which the Passover lamb had to be slaughtered.’ For thuō cf. on 15.23. edei denotes religious compulsion.

Translation:

On which, or starting a new sentence, ‘this is (the day) when.’

Lamb, see on 10.3.

Sacrificed. Though the slaughtering of the passover lambs took place in the temple it was not a sacrifice to God. Accordingly a verb for (ritual) slaughtering is best used, or simply, ‘to kill.’

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.