Checking Acts... some things a woman just knows!

Bata and Semu are Bible translators

If these guys don't get it...

Artinha and Rosa are my household "staff"

                             ... ask a woman!




In Bible translation not everything is a theological question. Sometimes we have to find a way to explain an aspect of New Testament culture in the Nyungwe culture. Let's face it, even the best trained Nyungwe translator will get stuck on certain concepts! In many cases, it is just necessary to ask someone with different experiences - like a WOMAN! My maids, Artinha and Rosa, clarified the two concepts that follow for our visiting consultant during a chat after breakfast. Easy!

There is no color purple...

Lydia sells "purple cloth" in Acts. In Bible times, people would understand that to mean that the cloth was very expensive; only for the elite. In Nyungwe, they are baffled by the color purple. It might be red (but red is also used for brown)... it isn't blue (and we don't remember how to say blue). The team will probably have to go with "expensive cloth" instead of purple. But the intended message was that Lydia sold elite goods. So, it works.

What is yeast?

Traditional bread is more of a steamed peanut and corn dough (think of tamale texture) than a bread that could rise. Do they have any traditional food that ferments? Just beer and distilled spirits... maybe a yogurt-like food. So, what is the word to use so that Nyungwe people understand how a little yeast spreads though a dough... without changing bread to beer? Bread is known and made locally in villages though it isn't a "traditional" Nyungwe food. When they make it, they call the yeast "medicine". So, "medicine for bread" might just be the term they need here.