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 )
“People of high status would ride horses or elephants when they travel. Joseph and Mary are not rich so they walk to escape danger. They must travel through wild countryside where no one is around to help them.”
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 2:17:
Uma: “That happening fulfilled the Words of the Lord that were uttered by the prophet Yeremia long ago, which say like this:” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Na, it was fulfilled what Nabi Yeremiya said, he said,” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And by means of this was fulfilled the long-ago prophecy of Jeremiah, the inspired one of God, for Jeremiah said,” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Therefore what God had-the prophet Jeremias -say was fulfilled saying,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well since that’s how it was, what was spoken by Prophet Jeremias long ago was fulfilled, which said,” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “There was a great sadness just like the word written by the spokesman Jeremiah who had said:” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Eugene Nida wrote the following about the translation of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek terms that are typically translated with “prophet” in English:
“The tendency in many translations is to use ‘to foretell the future’ for ‘prophesy,’ and ‘one who foretells the future’ for ‘prophet.’ This is not always a recommended usage, particularly if such expressions denote certain special native practices of spirit contact and control. It is true, of course, that prophets of the Bible did foretell the future, but this was not always their principal function. One essential significance of the Greek word prophētēs is ‘one who speaks forth,’ principally, of course, as a forth-teller of the Divine will. A translation such as ‘spokesman for God’ may often be employed profitably.” (1947, p. 234f.)
Following is a list of (back-) translations from other languages (click or tap for details):
Ayutla Mixtec: “one who talks as God’s representative”
Isthmus Mixe: “speaker for God” (source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Mezquital Otomi / Paasaal: “God’s messenger” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff. and Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Noongar: Warda Marridjiny or “News Traveling” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Kutu: mtula ndagu or “one who gives the prediction of the past and the future” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
French 1985 translation by Chouraqui: inspiré or “inspired one” (“someone in whom God has breathed [Latin: in + spiro]) (source: Watson 2023, p. 45)
In Ixcatlán Mazatec a term is used that specifically includes women. (Source: Robert Bascom)
“In some instances these spiritual terms result from adaptations reflecting the native life and culture. Among the Northern Grebo people of Liberia, a missionary wanted some adequate term for ‘prophet,’ and she was fully aware that the native word for ‘soothsayer’ or ‘diviner’ was no equivalent for the Biblical prophet who spoke forth for God. Of course, much of what the prophets said referred to the future, and though this was an essential part of much of their ministry, it was by no means all. The right word for the Gbeapo people would have to include something which would not only mean the foretelling of important events but the proclamation of truth as God’s representative among the people. At last the right word came; it was ‘God’s town-crier.’ Every morning and evening the official representative of the chief goes through the village crying out the news, delivering the orders of the chief, and announcing important coming events. ‘God’s town-crier’ would be the official representative of God, announcing to the people God’s doings, His commands, and His pronouncements for their salvation and well-being. For the Northern Grebo people the prophet is no weird person from forgotten times; he is as real as the human, moving message of the plowman Amos, who became God’s town-crier to a calloused people.” (source: Nida 1952, p. 20)
In British Sign Language it is is translated with a sign that depicts a message coming from God to a person (the upright finger) and then being passed on to others. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Prophet” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
Then was fulfilled contrasts with “to fulfil” of 1.22 and 2.15. In 2.23 the subjunctive form (“might be fulfilled”) is employed. Good News Translation translates Then was fulfilled as “In this way … came true.” Other ways that could be used are “Then came true what…” or “And so what the prophet Jeremiah said would happen took place.”
The quotation in verse 18 is from Jeremiah 31.15. Scholars debate whether it is a translation of the Hebrew rather than taken from the Septuagint, or whether the author cites the passage from his memory of the Septuagint text, or whether Matthew quotes a source completely different from either the Hebrew we have or the Septuagint. Scholarly opinion is clearly divided, and no dogmatic conclusion is possible. One may only surmise that Matthew felt a great deal of freedom in his choice and use of Old Testament texts, as did, in fact, most writers at that time.
What was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah is made into an active construction by Good News Translation: “what the prophet Jeremiah had said.” The full meaning is “what the Lord had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah,” and some translators use a sentence very much like that. Although “the Lord” is not in the text, it is clearly understood (see comments in 1.22 on “prophets”). A possible translation for this verse, then, is “And so took place what God had said through the prophet Jeremiah would happen.” This may be better in many languages if the order is reversed: “God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah about what would happen. And now it came true like this.”
It may be necessary in some languages to introduce the quotation in verse 18 with “He said” or “This is what he had said.”
Ramah is an Ephraimite town about eight miles north of Jerusalem (see Judges 19.13 and 1 Sam 1.1). In some languages it may be helpful to say “the town of Ramah.”
Voice may be “the voice of someone,” “someone crying,” or as in Good News Translation, “sound.”
In many languages the passive, A voice was heard, is better handled by an active sentence, as in “People heard a voice,” or “People heard the voice of someone crying,” or “There is a sound coming from Ramah.”
Rachel was the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, and Ephraim was Joseph’s son. The picture in Jeremiah 31.15 is that of the Ephraimites (Rachel’s descendants) going into exile in Babylon.
Wailing and loud lamentation is compressed by Good News Translation to “the sound of bitter weeping.” The reference is to Rachel’s weeping for her children, as the next line makes clear. Radical restructuring may be necessary in order to make evident the relation between all the parts:
“The sound of bitter crying is heard in the town of Ramah.
It is Rachel, crying for her children.
They are dead,
and she refuses to be comforted.”
But other structures can work, too. Some translators will be able to make clear the relation between voice (or, “sound”) and wailing and loud lamentation in two lines, as there are in the text. For example, they might have:
“People heard a voice in Ramah;
it was someone crying bitterly.”
or:
“People heard the voice of someone crying in Ramah;
they heard bitter weeping there.”
or:
“There is a sound coming from the town of Ramah;
the sound of someone weeping bitterly.”
Rachel weeping may be introduced, then, by a phrase such as “It is Rachel,” or “What they hear is Rachel,” or “The crying is coming from Rachel. She is weeping for her children.”
She refused to be consoled: “She refuses to be comforted,” “She cannot be comforted,” or “There is no one who can comfort her.”
Because they were no more means “they are dead” (Good News Translation). Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition and Translator’s New Testament also indicate explicitly that death is intended, while most translations prefer to remain ambiguous; for example, “because they were gone” (An American Translation).
There are different ways languages mark the causal relationship seen in because. Some will put the phrase at the end, as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, and use “because,” “for,” “the reason was that they are dead,” or something similar. Other languages will find it more natural to put this clause first, as in our example above: “They are dead, and she refuses to be comforted” or “They are dead. That is why she refuses to be comforted.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Rather than make this verse a continuation of the sentence begun in verse 6, it may be best to introduce a new sentence here, as do New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version, Barclay, and Phillips. One may want to translate “They brought the donkey and the colt to Jesus. Then they threw their cloaks over them, and Jesus got on.” In Greek the last clause of this verse is literally “and Jesus sat on them,” a reference to either the cloaks or the animals. The meaning is probably that Jesus sat on the cloaks which had been placed on the animals. As verse 5 clearly indicates, Matthew understood that Jesus rode upon both animals, though he does not indicate how this was done, whether simultaneously or on one after the other. If one must specify the object upon which Jesus sat by some form other than a pronoun, it may be best to translate “They threw their cloaks over the donkey and the colt, and Jesus sat on the cloaks.” This is a valid translation, inasmuch as the obvious intent of throwing the cloaks upon the animals was for Jesus to sit on the cloaks, and it leaves open the question of just how Jesus rode on the two donkeys, something that Matthew does not answer.
Garments is a general word for clothing, but in this verse, to say the disciples threw their clothes over the donkeys may indicate they (the disciples) were then partially or wholly naked. As indicated by Good News Translation‘s “cloaks,” the reference is probably to their outer garments. See 5.40 for suggestions on translating “cloaks.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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