years (age)

In Aekyom, years are counted as “turtles” (ambum).

Norm Mundhenk tells this story:

“Recently I was checking some New Testament material in the Aekyom language of western Papua New Guinea. It seemed relatively clear until suddenly we came to a passage that started, ‘When Jesus had 12 turtles, …’ Surely I had misunderstood what they said.
“‘Did you say that Jesus had 12 turtles?’
“‘Let us explain! Around here there is a certain time every year when river turtles come up on the banks and lay their eggs. Because this is so regular, it can be used as a way of counting years. Someone’s age is said to be how many turtles that person has. So when we say that Jesus had 12 turtles, we mean that Jesus was 12 years old.’
“It was of course the familiar story of Jesus’ trip with his parents to Jerusalem. And certainly, as we all know, Jesus did indeed have 12 turtles at that time!”

In Tok Pisin, krismas (derived from “christmas”) is taken as the fixed annual marker, so Jesus had 12 “christmases” (Jisas i gat 12-pela krismas pinis) or Abram (in Gen. 12:4) had 75 (Abram i gat 75 krismas) (source: Norm Mundhenk). In Noongar it is biroka kadak or “summers had” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

See also advanced in years.

swear, vow

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “swear (an oath)” or “vow” is translated as “God sees me, I tell the truth to you” (Tzeltal), “loading yourself down” (Huichol), “to speak-stay” (implying permanence of the utterance) (Sayula Popoluca), “to say what he could not take away” (San Blas Kuna), “because of the tight (i.e. “binding”) word which he had said to her face” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “strong promise” (North Alaskan Inupiatun) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida), “eat an oath” (Nyamwezi — source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext), or sswa nak/”drink an oath” (Jju — source: McKinney 2018, p. 31).

In Bauzi “swear” can be translated in various ways. In Hebrews 6:13, for instance, it is translated with “bones break apart and decisively speak.” (“No bones are literally broken but by saying ‘break bones’ it is like people swear by someone else in this case it is in relation to a rotting corpse’ bones falling apart. If you ‘break bones’ so to speak when you make an utterance, it is a true utterance.”) In other passages, such as in Matthew 26:72, it’s translated with an expression that implies taking ashes (“if a person wants everyone to know that he is telling the truth about a matter, he reaches down into the fireplace, scoops up some ashes and throws them while saying ‘I was not the one who did that.'”). So in Matthew 26:72 the Bauzi text is: “. . . Peter took ashes and defended himself saying, ‘I don’t know that Nazareth person.'” (Source: David Briley)

See also swear (promise) and Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’, or ‘No, No’.

Abraham

The name that is transliterated as “Abraham” in English is translated in virtually all sign languages, including American Sign Language with the sign signifying “hold back arm” (referring to Genesis 22:12).


“Abraham” in American Sign Language (source )

In Tira it is transliterated as Abaram. The choice of this, rather than the widely-known “Ibrahim,” as used in the Tira translation of the Qu’ran, was to offset it against the Muslim transliteration which originates from Arabic. (Source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )

Click or tap here to see two short video clips about Abraham (source: Bible Lands 2012)

See also our ancestor Abraham and Abram.

Translation commentary on Numbers 32:11

Verse 11 refers back to the LORD’s words in 14.22-23.

Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land: The Hebrew particle ʾim at the beginning of this verse only marks the beginning of a negative oath here, so many versions omit the word Surely (so New International Version, New Living Translation). However, in some languages it is necessary to emphasize the beginning of such an oath, especially if it is pronounced by persons (such as God) who have the power to carry it out; for example, Chewa begins with “Most certainly none…,” and Good News Translation has “I swear that … none….” Came up may be rendered simply “came” (Good News Translation; see the comments on “Go up” at 13.17). For from twenty years old and upward, see 1.3. In some languages the literal verb see may be natural in this context, but others will prefer to say “enter” (Good News Translation). The Hebrew term for land (ʾadamah) can mean “country,” but here it refers to the fertile land of Canaan, so a better rendering is “tillable land.”

Which I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob: See 11.12. Swore renders the same Hebrew verb as in the previous verse, but here it has a positive connotation. The Hebrew text does not have the phrase to give. Good News Translation, Bible en français courant, and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible are more literal by rendering swore to give as “promised.” Compare New International Version and Revised English Bible with “promised on oath” (similarly Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling), and SPCL with “solemnly promised.” However, like Revised Standard Version, other languages will naturally include the idea of “give” here (so Chewa).

Because they have not wholly followed me is literally “because they have not filled after me” (similarly Alter). Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation (“because they did not remain loyal to me”) give dynamic translations of this Hebrew idiom, which occurs also in 14.24, where it is rendered “[Caleb] has followed me fully.” New Living Translation says “for they have not obeyed me wholeheartedly.” It may be necessary to place this reason clause closer to the beginning of the verse (so Good News Translation), rather than at the end, as in the Hebrew text and Revised Standard Version.

Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .