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 term that is transliterated as “John (the disciple)” in English is translated in American Sign Language with the sign for the letter J and the sign signifying “beloved,” referring to John 13:23 et al. (Source: RuthAnna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“John” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
In Spanish Sign Language it is translated with with the sign for “young.” This refers to the traditional belief that he was the youngest of the apostles and the fact that he was younger than his brother James (see relative age of James and John. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
House of Prayer. Jesus came out of there. He had two disciples with him, James and John. They came to the house of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was there. She had a fever. She was sick and lying down. Jesus went into the house. And heard that his mother-in-law was lying sick. And Jesus went in and saw her lying there. He took her by the hand and began to lift her up. The mother-in-law got up and suddenly found that there was no fever! She was healthy! She was very happy. And she began cheerfully to prepare food and distribute it.
There were many people gathered in the city of Capernaum. They were all waiting for the sun to set. There were many sick people there who were possessed by demons. Many people were brought to Simon’s house. The sick were being put together and they took up all the space around Simon’s house. They waited for Jesus to come out. Jesus came out and treated the sick: He healed one, cured another, cast out a demon from a demon possessed man. The demons inside the possessed wanted to talk about Jesus, but he forbade them! Jesus healed one, another, and a third. He cast out demons from one man and another. And all this was until late at night.
Early in the morning, when the sun had just risen, Jesus quietly went out of Simon’s house and looked for a deserted place. Jesus began to pray earnestly to God. And Simon and the men began to look for Jesus everywhere, and they searched and searched and searched, and finally they found him. And they said:
— There are people there, they are all waiting for you. Let’s go!
Jesus answered them:
— No. I came here, why? I need to tell everyone about God. You follow me.
There are many different villages in Galilee. Jesus came to these villages – one, another, another, another — went into the house of prayer of the Jews, taught there, cast out demons from people who were possessed by demons. So he came to many villages.
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
Дом молитвы. Иисус вышел оттуда. С ним были два ученика Иаков и Иоанн. Они пришли к дому Симона и Андрея. Там была теща Симона. У нее повысилась температура. Она заболела и лежала. Иисус зашел в дом. И услышал, что теща лежит больная. Ииусу зашел и видит, что она лежит. Он взял ее за руку и стал поднимать. Теща поднялась и вдруг обнаружила, что температуры нет! Она здоровая! Она очень обрадовалась. И она начала бодро готовить еду и раздавать ее.
В городе Капернауме собралось много людей. Они все ждали, когда солнце зайдет. Там было очень много больных, одержимых бесами. Многих людей приносили к дому Симона. Больных складывали, они заняли все место вокруг дома Симона. Они ждали, когда Иисус выйдет. Иисус вышел и лечил больных: одного исцелил, другого исцелил, из одержимого бесом изгнал беса. Бесы внутри одержимых хотели говорить об Иисусе, но Он запрещал им! Исцелял Иисус одного, другого, третьего. Бесов изгонял из одного, другого человека. И все это было до глубокой ночи.
Рано утром, когда только солнце взошло, Иисус тихонько вышел из дома Симона и искал пустынное место. Иисус начал усердно молиться Богу. А Симон и его люди стали искать Иисуса повсюду, искали-искали и, наконец, нашли. И сказали:
— Там люди, они все ждут тебя. Пойдем!
Иисус им ответил:
— Нет. Я пришел сюда, зачем? Мне нужно всем рассказать о Боге. Вы идите за мной.
В Галилее есть много разных селений. Иисус приходил в эти селения — в одно, другое, третье — заходил в дом молитвы евреев, учил там, изгонял бесов из людей, одержимых бесами. Так он приходил во многие селения.
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 )
Following is a hand colored stencil print on momigami of Peter by Sadao Watanabe (1970):
Image taken with permission from the SadaoHanga Catalogue where you can find many more images and information about Sadao Watanabe. For other images of Sadao Watanabe art works in TIPs, see here.
In many English translations the Greek terms “hieron” (the whole “temple” in Jerusalem or specifically the outer courts open to worshippers) and “naos” (the inner “shrine” or “sanctuary”) are translated with only one word: “temple” (see also for instance “Tempel” in German [for exception see below] and “tempel” in Dutch, Danish, or Afrikaans).
Other languages make a distinction: (Click or tap here to see more)
Navajo: “house in which worship is carried out” (for naos)
Balinese: “inner part of the Great Temple” (“the term ‘inner part’ denoting the hindmost and holiest of the two or three courts that temples on Bali usually possess”) vs. “Great Temple”
Telugu: “womb (i.e. interior)-of-the-abode” vs. “abode”
Thai: a term denoting the main audience hall of a Buddhist temple compound vs. “environs-of-the-main-audience-hall”
Kituba: “place of holiness of house-God Lord” vs. “house-God Lord”
Shipibo-Conibo: “deep in God’s house” vs. “God’s house” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
Germandas Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022): “inner court of the temple” (Tempelinnenhof) vs. “temple”
Languages that, like English, German, Dutch, Danish, or Afrikaans don’t make that distinction include:
Toraja-Sa’dan: “house that is looked upon as holy, that is sacred, that is taboo and where one may not set foot” (lit. “house where-the-belly-gets-swollen” — because taboo is violated — using a term that is also applied to a Muslim mosque) (source for this and the three above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
Aguaruna: “the house for talking to God” (source for this and above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
Guhu-Samane: “festival longhouse of God” (“The biiri, ‘festival longhouse’, being the religious and social center of the community, is a possible term for ‘temple’. It is not the ‘poro house’ as such. That would be too closely identified with the cult of poro. The physical features of the building, huge and sub-divided, lend it further favor for this consideration. By qualifying it as ‘God’s biiri’ the term has become meaningful and appropriate in the context of the Scriptures.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in The Bible Translator, 1965, p. 81ff. )
Enga: “God’s restricted access house” (source: Adam Boyd on his blog)
Another distinction that tends to be overlooked in translations is that between hieron (“temple” in English) and sunagógé (“synagogue” in English). Euan Fry (in The Bible Translator 1987, p. 213ff. ) reports on this:
“Many older translations have simply used transliterations of ‘temple’ and ‘synagogue’ rather than trying to find equivalent terms or meaningful expressions in their own languages. This approach does keep the two terms separate; but it makes the readers depend on explanations given by pastors or teachers for their understanding of the text.
“Translators who have tried to find meaningful equivalents, for the two terms ‘temple’ and ‘synagogue’ have usually made a distinction between them in one of two ways (which focus on the contrasting components of meaning). One way takes the size and importance of the Temple to make a contrast, so that expressions such as ‘sacred meeting/ worship house of the Jews’ and ‘big sacred meeting/worship house of the Jews’ are used. The other way focuses on the different nature of the religious activity at each of the places, so that expressions such as ‘meeting/worship house of the Jews’ and ‘sacrifice/ceremony place of the Jews’ are used.
“It is not my purpose in this article to discuss how to arrive at the most precise equivalent to cover all the components of meaning of ‘temple’. That is something that each translator really has to work through for himself in the light of the present usage and possibilities in his own language. My chief concern here is that the basic term or terms chosen for ‘temple’ should give the reader of a translation a clear and correct picture of the location referred to in each passage. And I am afraid that in many cases where an equivalent like ‘house of God’ or ‘worship house’ has been chosen, the readers have quite the wrong picture of what going to the Temple or being in the Temple means. (This may be the case for the word ‘temple’ in English too, for many readers.)”
Here are some examples:
Bambara: “house of God” (or: “big house of worship”) vs. “worship house” (or: “small houses of worship”)
Toraja-Sa’dan: “house where-the-belly-gets-swollen” (see above) vs. “meeting house for discussing matters concerning religious customs” (and “church” is “house where one meets on Sunday”)
Navajo: “house in which worship is carried out” vs. “house of gathering” (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida)
Click or tap here to see a short video clip about Herod’s temple (source: Bible Lands 2012)Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing synagogues in New Testament times (source: Bible Lands 2012)
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 13:3:
Uma: “After that, Yesus went to Zaitun Mountain and he sat down opposite the House of God. Petrus, Yakobus, Yohanes and Andreas cam to speak to him when there were no other people.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then while Isa was sitting on the hill Jaitun facing towards the temple, Petros and Yakub and Yahiya and Andariyas went to him, they by themselves.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when they were on the hill called the Place of Olives, they looked down on the church, and Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked Jesus when they were alone, for they said,” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Then they climbed the hill Olivo and Jesus sat-down facing the Temple. After that Pedro, Santiago, Juan and Andrew approached him by-themselves and said,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “And then when Jesus was sitting down there on the Hill of Olibo, across from the Templo (implies which was opposite, on another hill), Pedro, Santiago and Juan questioned him privately.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff.) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal ta (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential ta (祂) is used.”
In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff) explains in the following way: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff.)
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible, but most translations, especially those published in the 21st century, do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
See also this chapter in the World Atlas of Language Structures on different approaches to personal pronouns.
kathēmenou autou ‘while he was sitting’ (cf. v. 1).
eis to oros tōn elaiōn ‘on the Mount of Olives’: here eis ‘into’ is clearly equivalent to en ‘in,’ with the meaning ‘at,’ ‘on.’ (Though this use of eis might have some bearing on the meaning of eis in 1.10, it should be noticed that the verb there denotes motion, while here it denotes rest.)
to oros tōn elaiōn (cf. 11.1) ‘the Mount of Olives.’
For katenanti ‘opposite.’ ‘in front of’ cf. 11.2; kat’ idian ‘privately’ cf. 4.34.
Translation:
For Mount of Olives see 11.1.
Opposite the temple is translatable in many instances as ‘facing the temple’ or ‘on the opposite side of the ravine from the temple.’
Privately may be rendered as ‘when they were alone with him.’
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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