25But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months and there was a severe famine over all the land,
The name that is transliterated as “Elijah” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language as “whirlwind” (according to 2 Kings 2:11) (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff.)
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, Latin and Hebrew that is usually translated in English as “truth” is translated in Luchazi with vusunga: “the quality of being straight” (source: E. Pearson in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 160ff. ), in Obolo as atikọ or “good/correct talk” (source: Enene Enene), and in Ekari as maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (esp. in John 14:6 and 17; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
The translation committee of the Malay “Good News Bible” (Alkitab Berita Baik, see here ) wrestled with the translation of “truth” in the Gospel of John (for more information click or tap here):
“Our Malay Committee also concluded that ‘truth’ as used in the Gospel of John was used either of God himself, or of God’s revelation of himself, or in an extended sense as a reference to those who had responded to God’s self-disclosure. In John 8:32 the New Malay translation reads ‘You will know the truth about God, and the truth about God will make you free.’ In John 8:44 this meaning is brought out by translating, ‘He has never been on the side of God, because there is no truth in him.’ Accordingly Jesus ‘tells the truth about God’ in 8:45, 46 (see also 16:7 and 8:37a). Then, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ becomes ‘I am the one who leads men to God, the one who reveals who and what God is, and the one who gives men life.” At 3:21 the translation reads ” … whoever obeys the truth, that is God himself, comes to the light …’; 16:13a appears as ‘he will lead you into the full truth about God’; and in 18:37 Jesus affirms ‘I came into the world to reveal the truth about God, and whoever obeys God listens to me.’ On this basis also 1:14 was translated ‘we saw his glory, the glory which he had as the Father’s only Son. Through him God has completely revealed himself (truth) and his love for us (grace)’; and 1:17 appears as ‘God gave the law through Moses; but through Jesus Christ he has completely revealed himself (truth) and his love for us (grace).'” (Source: Barclay Newman in The Bible Translator 1974, p. 432ff. )
Helen Evans (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) tells of the translation into Kui which usually is “true-thing.” In some instances however, such as in the second part of John 17:17 (“your word is truth” in English), the use of “true-thing” indicated that there might be other occasions when it’s not true, so here the translation was a a form of “pure, holy.”
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “widow” in English is translated in West Kewa as ona wasa or “woman shadow.” (Source: Karl J. Franklin in Notes on Translation 70/1978, pp. 13ff.)
The etymological meaning of the Hebrewalmanah (אַלְמָנָה) is likely “pain, ache,” the Greekchéra (χήρα) is likely “to leave behind,” “abandon,” and the Englishwidow (as well as related terms in languages such as Dutch, German, Sanskrit, Welsh, or Persian) is “to separate,” “divide” (source: Wiktionary).
“Only qualified, trained leaders know the dharma (truth) yet Jesus made claims that threatened the establishment. He is being chased out of the temple because his people thought him merely a carpenter. They intended to throw him down the cliff but he just passed by.”
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 4:25:
Noongar: “Listen to me! Truly, many widows lived in Israel in the days of Elijah. No rain came for three and a half years, and bad days came across the land, days without food.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “These words of mine are very true: what [will] happen at this time, is just like what happened at the time of Elia long ago. At that time, there was a drought for three years six months, with the result that famine came to all the towns. There were many widows in the land of Israel whose lives were pitiful at that time.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “I tell you, in the old days yet, at the time when Eliyas was prophet it did not rain for three years and a half and this whole country had a great famine. It is true that there were many widow women here in the country of Isra’il at the time of that famine,” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “It is true what I say, that what you are doing today is like the time long ago when Elijah that prophet of God was still alive. God did not allow it to rain here for three years and six months, and all of these towns here were struck by a severe famine. There were many of our companion Jews who were widows, who were hungry at that time.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Think-of what happened in the time of Elias. It absolutely didn’t rain for three and a half years, and the famine in the entire country was extreme. There were many widows here in Israel,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “For think about this, that when in the time of Elias it hadn’t rained for the space of three and a half years, and all the place was suffering a severe famine, there were many widow women at that time in this land of ours(incl.) which is Israel.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.
As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff.), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.
Here, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.
In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.
ep’ alētheias de legō humin ‘but in truth I say to you,’ cf. on 3.8.
ep’ alētheias lit. ‘on the basis of truth,’ the same expression in 20.21 and 22.59), ‘in truth,’ though less solemn than amēn yet a strong expression which indicates, as it were, that the speaker vouches for the truth of what he is going to say.
en tais hēmerais Ēliou ‘in the days of Elijah,’ a chronological indication.
en tō Israēl ‘in Israel.’ Israēl elsewhere denotes the nation, here the country where this nation lives.
hote ekleisthē ho ouranos epi etē tria kai mēnas hex, hōs egeneto limos megas epi pasan tēn gēn ‘when the sky was closed for three years and six months, when there was a great famine over the whole land,’ two temporal clauses, the second with consecutive force, depicting the situation in Elijah’s days. In this setting it happened that Elijah was not sent to one of the widows of Israel but to one outside. There is here no semantic difference between hote and hōs. In both clauses the verbs ekleisthē and egeneto are in the aorist, though the period of duration, three years and six months, is mentioned. But the aorist tense shows that the events are not viewed in their duration but as facts of the past.
ekleisthē ho ouranos ‘the sky was closed,’ an obvious metaphor for “no rain fell” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation). kleiō also 11.7.
egeneto ‘there was,’ cf. on 1.5.
limos ‘famine,’ ‘hunger.’
epi pasan tēn gēn ‘over the whole country,’ i.e. of Israel.
(V. 26) kai pros oudemian autōn epemphthē Ēlias ‘and (yet) to none of them was Elijah sent.’ kai emphasizes as surprising the fact to which the clause refers.
ei mē lit. ‘unless,’ here ‘but.’
eis Sarepta tēs Sidōnias, scil. chōras ‘to Sarepta in the Sidonian country.’ Sarepta represents Hebrew tsarapat, cf. 1 Kings 17.9f. The genitive tēs Sidōnias is a genitive of relationship.
pros gunaika chēran ‘to a woman (who was a) widow,’ hence ‘to a widow.’ chēra ‘widow’ has here its original function of an adjective.
Translation:
The principal feature of these two verses is the contrast between the many widows in Israel and the one outside. That the introductory formula, synonymous with the one used in v. 24, serves to call attention to this contrast, should become clear from its wording and position in the sentence, e.g. ‘remember what happened in the days of E., when…, when … the land I tell you there certainly were many widows in Israel then, yet E. was not sent to one of them but to a widow in Z….’
Widows, cf. on 2.37.
When … when …, preferably, ‘when … and…,’ or, ‘when…, so that, or, with the result that….’
The heaven was shut up, or with an equivalent metaphorical expression, ‘the sky had drawn up/withdrawn’ (Batak Toba). Often a non or less metaphorical rendering is necessary, e.g. ‘rain did not come’ (Tzeltal), ‘the sky refused to rain’ (Shona 1966), or such a rendering has to be added, ‘the heavens were closed up without rain’ (Kele).
Three years and six months, or, ‘three and a half years’ (Marathi, similarly in Ekari, where the idiom is ‘for the half of the fourth year’).
There came a great famine, or, ‘great was people’s hunger’ (Tae’), ‘people were very hungry, or, had not any food to eat,’ ‘food became very scarce/expensive’ (Low Malay), ‘people died because they could not obtain any food,’ in Toraja-Sa’dan the phrase ‘the soil collapses’ indicates ‘crop failure,’ ‘famine.’
(V. 26) Elijah was sent to none of them, or, in active construction, ‘to no one of them God sent E.’ (Sranan Tongo). It may be preferable to be more explicit, e.g. “sent to help” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation).
To Zarephath…, to a woman who was a widow. Since it is the woman and not the locality which is in focus, it is usually better to reverse the phrase order. The verb has sometimes to be repeated, for reasons of grammar (Marathi, Balinese) or of emphasis, cf. ‘but he was sent to a widow at Z…..’
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.
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