kingdom (of God / heaven) (God's finalized creation in the future)

In the German Gute Nachricht (Good News) translation of 1982, this occurrence of the Greek term which is translated in most English versions of “kingdom (of God or heaven)” is translated with a form of “once God finalizes his creation (or “work”) . . . ” (Wenn Gott sein Werk vollendet . . .). For an explanation of the differentiated translation in German as well as translation choices in a number of languages, see Kingdom (of God / heaven).

complete verse (Matthew 26:29)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 26:29:

  • Uma: “For your information: [lit., So that you know:] from now on I will no longer drink wine until the time comes my Father becomes king in the new world. At that time I will drink new wine together with you in his kingdom.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “I tell you, after this I will not drink grape water again as long as we (incl.) do not drink together the new drink in the ruling/kingdom of God.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “I tell you that I will no more again drink wine until the time in the future when we drink together the new wine when my Father God rules.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “I tell you that I will not drink grape juice again until the day I drink-with you the new grape juice in God’s ruling.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “What I will say to you is true, that from today I will no more drink that drink which is juice of ubas until the day when I will drink the new drink together with you again/next there in the kingdom of my Father.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Now I tell you that no longer will I drink of the juice of the grape together with you until there comes the day when anew we will drink it there where my Father rules.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

the last supper (image)

Click here to see the image in higher resolution.

Willy Wiedmann, the artist, commented on this picture: “In spite of some difficulty, and unlike Leonardo da Vinci [see here ] I did not set my last supper in a theatrical scene with Jesus in the center behind an elongated table with all the disciples, with two at each end so that that there are 11 seated behind the table. And not like the panel by Juan de Juanes (1623-79) [see here ] in which the six disciples left and right are very dynamic figures. And also not like Martin Schongauer’s Last Supper [see here ] with a slightly shorter table (also incidentally very similar to Juanes in the attitudes of the figures) and two figures seen from the back in the foreground of the panel. Instead I have given the Master the middle place to the foreground, with his back to us to finally leave the controversial Jesus-existential questions unanswered. Slightly symbolically it means that he is leaving his world. The iris color is meant to transfer the rainbow to Jesus, that God once linked to Noah (my kingdom is not of this world). I attempted to present answers that correspond to the characters of each individual.”

Image and text taken from the Wiedmann Bible. For more information about the images and ways to adopt them, see here .

For other images of Willy Wiedmann paintings in TIPs, see here.

 

Painting by Wang Suda 王肅達 (1910-1963),
Copyright by the Catholic University Peking, China.

Text under painting translated from Literary Chinese into English:

Beginning of the Holy Communion
You have this as food and this is my body.

Image taken from Chinese Christian Posters . For more information on the “Ars Sacra Pekinensis” school of art, see this article , for other artworks of that school in TIPs, see here.

the last supper (icon)

Following is a contemporary Ukrainian Orthodox icon of the last supper by Ulyana Tomkevych.

 

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 )

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing his disciples and common people

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.

Translation commentary on Matthew 26:29

I tell you is translated “yet I tell you” in 6.29. This is one in a series of emphatic introductory formulas found throughout the Gospel.

Except for three minor alterations, verse 29 is the same as Mark 14.25: (1) Mark has a slightly different adverbial construction for not … again; (2) the prepositional phrase with you is not found in the Marcan parallel; and (3) in place of my Father’s kingdom, Mark has “the kingdom of God.”

One scholar comments that not … again “may mean that Jesus is already renouncing the festive cup, consciously taking the first step toward his death.” However, the weight of scholarly opinion supports the conclusion that Jesus did at this time drink wine with his disciples. Thus, if translation requires that the text be explicit, it is best to state that Jesus did drink with his disciples on this Passover occasion, which was the last time he did so before his death. For example, some translations have had “never again after this.”

“Never again drink this wine” of Good News Translation translates not drink again of this fruit of the vine. Although Good News Bible has effectively rendered the idiomatic expression fruit of the vine as “wine,” it has created another problem. That is, the combination of “never again … this wine” may suggest that Jesus will drink the same wine again in the kingdom. Both Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition and Phillips have “I will drink no more wine,” which resolves the problem.

Translations differ in their interpretation of drink it new with you. Some, for example Good News Translation, make new modify the wine, as in “until I drink the new wine with you.” Others, for example Barclay, understand new to refer to a new way of drinking the wine, as in “until I drink it new with you” or “until I drink it with you in a new way.” The text seems to support either interpretation.

In my Father’s kingdom is rendered dynamically by several translations: “when my Father has completed his work” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), “when my Father has established his rule” (Malay common language version), and “in my Father’s New World” (INCL).

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 .