Both are Books of the Bible and sound identical except for their tones in Mandarin. 雅歌 {ya3-ge1} is “Song of Solomon” or “Song of Songs“. 雅各書 {ya3-ge4-shu1} is “James“. (Yes, him again. Anyone needs a baby name?) The good thing is, you will only hear the speaker say “雅各書” instead of “雅各”, and “雅歌” instead of “雅歌書”. So…
Category: Curiosity
Name Above All Names
Have you ever wondered why the “J” in “Jesus“? 耶穌{ye1-su1}, Ιησούς, イエス, יֵשׁוּעַ, and many others sound a lot like each other. What’s the story of that “J”? Long before we had the Bible in English, it was first translated into Latin, where the New Testament Greek “Ιησούς” was translated to “IESVS“, sounding almost identical to its Greek…
猶大=Judah/Jude/Judas
This one can be particularly troublesome. Imagine someone speaks in Mandarin and mentions 猶大 {you2-da4} without any context, what do you do? Trick: instead of taking a guess, just say “this person”. Hopefully, the next sentence gives you enough context so you know which one is being referred to, and clarify then. Now you need to…
Curiosity Killed the Cat,
but it works great for people, especially interpreters. And don’t worry, I heard that satisfaction brought that cat back. Over 90% of our interpretation relies on the same common language that gets us through our days, which is why if you put a gun to someone’s head and ask them to interpret, they can get…
James vs Jacob
What is the 20th book in the New Testament? James.新約聖經第20卷書叫什麼？雅各{ya3-ge4}書。Wait, what? “雅各”, as we all know, translates to “Jacob” (e.g. the Patriarch). James, as we might think, translates to…詹姆士🤦♂️ So what happened here? It’s a long story, probably for another day. Given that the Greek manuscript writes as Ἰάκωβος (Iakobos), my bet would be…… Ἰάκωβος…
“Two Corinthians Walk into a Bar…”
So is it “TWO Corinthians” or “SECOND Corinthians”? The answer is “Yes”. In Great Britain, you will find many say “Two Corinthians”. In North America, though, we predominantly say “Second Corinthians”. No one is wrong, but it helps to remember which continent you are speaking to.