Holy Week Through the Eyes of the Languages of the WorldSample

When the women arrived at the tomb on Sunday morning, Matthew tells us that in a great earthquake an angel—or in the Aboriginal Pintupi-Luritja, "one who belongs in the sky"—appeared and rolled back the stone that guarded the entrance to the tomb. The English (and Greek) says his clothing was "white as snow."

This is one of those cases when translators for languages of people who have never seen snow have to find another simile. In Muna, spoken in Indonesia, the angel's clothing is "white like cotton flowers." In Sharanahua, spoken in Bolivia, it's "white like fresh yucca root," in Tagbanwa, a language of 17,000 in the Philippines, "white like just broken waves," in Chitonga, a major language in Zambia, "white as the cattle egret," and in Cerma of the Gur people in Burkina Faso it is "white like the full moon."

Looking at all these different ways to express the otherworldly whiteness of the angel's clothing, it seems to shine even brighter in my mind, helping to explain why the likely well-trained and battle-experienced guards "became like dead men"—graphically illustrated with "gbéyéŋ" in the Northwest Gbaya translation, a language spoken in the Central African Republic. Gbéyéŋ is a sound symbol or ideophone like one might find in English in a comic strip: THUD!

Remarkably, the Marys, after being told not to be afraid, remain standing, ready to listen to the angel.

Later, when the risen Jesus joins his friends, he repeatedly blesses them by saying, "Peace be with you" in the English translation, a profound and deeply comforting blessing that might be too familiar to our ears to sense its true depth.

Let's listen to how others express the same Greek words: "Cause your inner-being to be happy" (Tagbanwa—spoken in the Philippines); "Now be at peace in your hearts" (Tenango Otomi—spoken in Mexico); or "May there be peace in your liver" (Yakan—spoken in the Philippines; note that "liver" is the seat of emotions in many cultures and languages).

But maybe it's the simple "Don't worry" used in Isthmus Mixe (of the Mexican state of Oaxaca) that speaks most to me. Life is not easy, and worry does sometimes take over. But on this Easter Day—and on any day after—Christ has risen! He is among us, and the last thing we should do is to worry.

May your inner-being be happy! Don't worry! Peace be with you!

I encourage you to discover thousands more insights via translation into other languages by using the Translation Insights & Perspectives tool at tips.translation.bible as a regular companion in your Bible studies.