pray / prayer

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, and Greek that is translated as “pray” (or “prayer”) in English is often translated as “talking with God” (Central Pame, Tzeltal, Chol, Chimborazo Highland Quichua, Shipibo-Conibo, Kaqchikel, Tepeuxila Cuicatec, Copainalá Zoque, Central Tarahumara).

Other solutions include:

  • “beg” or “ask,” (full expression: “ask with one’s heart coming out,” which leaves out selfish praying, for asking with the heart out leaves no place for self to hide) (Tzotzil)
  • “cause God to know” (Huichol)
  • “raise up one’s words to God” (implying an element of worship, as well as communication) (Miskito, Lacandon) (source of this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • “speak to God” (Shilluk) (source: Nida 1964, p. 237)
  • “talk together with Great Above One (=God)” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter, 2004)
  • “call to one’s Father” (San Blas Kuna) (source: Claudio and Marvel Iglesias in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 85ff. )
  • “beg” (waan) (Ik). Terrill Schrock (in Wycliffe Bible Translators 2016, p. 93) explains (click or tap here to read more):

    What do begging and praying have to do with each other? Do you beg when you pray? Do I?

    “The Ik word for ‘visitor’ is waanam, which means ‘begging person.’ Do you beg when you go visiting? The Ik do. Maybe you don’t beg, but maybe when you visit someone, you are looking for something. Maybe it’s just a listening ear.

    When the Ik hear that [my wife] Amber and I are planning trip to this or that place for a certain amount of time, the letters and lists start coming. As the days dwindle before our departure, the little stack of guests grows. ‘Please, sir, remember me for the allowing: shoes, jacket (rainproof), watch, box, trousers, pens, and money for the children. Thank you, sir, for your assistance.’

    “A few people come by just to greet us or spend bit of time with us. Another precious few will occasionally confide in us about their problems without asking for anything more than a listening ear. I love that.

    “The other day I was in our spare bedroom praying my list of requests to God — a nice list covering most areas of my life, certainly all the points of anxiety. Then it hit me: Does God want my list, or does he want my relationship?

    “I decided to try something. Instead of reading off my list of requests to God, I just talk to him about my issues without any expectation of how he should respond. I make it more about our relationship than my list, because if our personhood is like God’s personhood, then maybe God prefers our confidence and time to our lists, letters, and enumerations.”

In Luang it is translated with different shades of meaning (click or tap here to read more):

  • For Acts 1:14, 20:36, 21:5: kola ttieru-yawur nehla — “hold the waist and hug the neck.” (“This is the more general term for prayer and often refers to worship in prayer as opposed to petition. The Luang people spend the majority of their prayers worshiping rather than petitioning, which explains why this term often is used generically for prayer.”)
  • For Acts 28:9: sumbiani — “pray.” (“This term is also used generically for ‘prayer’. When praying is referred to several times in close proximity, it serves as a variation for kola ttieru-yawur nehla, in keeping with Luang discourse style. It is also used when a prayer is made up of many requests.”)
  • For Acts 8:15, 12:5: polu-waka — “call-ask.” (“This is a term for petition that is used especially when the need is very intense.”)

Source: Kathy Taber in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 9-16.

See also Nehemiah’s prayer (image).

complete verse (1 Corinthians 11:5)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Corinthians 11:5:

  • Uma: “But if a woman prays or speaks God’s words in a service, and she doesn’t wear-a-veil, it isn’t good. For according to custom, that woman belittles her husband, who is her head. That woman who does not wear-a-veil is just a shameful as a woman whose head is shaved.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But a woman when she prays or speaks/makes-known God’s word in the prayer-house and has no covering/headdress that means that she does not respect her husband who is her for-head/leader. That woman is not different from a woman who has been shaved.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And if there’s a woman who prays or explains that which God has caused her to understand, it’s necessary that she have a covering on her head because if she doesn’t, this will be very shameful for her husband who is in charge of her.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But if there is a woman who prays or speaks what God has made-known to her and she hasn’t-put-on-a-headcloth, she shames her husband who is her leader, because if she didn’t put-on-a-headcloth, it is shameful/embarrassing as if she had-herself-made-bald.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But if there is a woman who prays or who also makes known what God has put-in-her -mind, if she does it not having her face veiled, this means that she is insulting/belittling the man who is her like-the-head. There is no difference between her not having a face-veil and having very short hair, just like the women whose nature/ways are not good.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Concerning a woman if she prays to God at church or is she speaks a word God gives her to speak and she doesn’t cover her heard, then it appears that she doesn’t respect her husband very well. If a woman does not cover head, then she is doing as though she was a woman who has cut off her hair.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:5

Most of this verse so closely parallels verse 4 as to need no separate comment. The final part of the verse, introduced in Greek by “for,” expands and emphasizes the words dishonors her head.

In verses 4 and 5 Good News Bible makes it explicit that his head and her head are used metaphorically to suggest authority (see comments on 1 Cor. 11.3), and to refer to Christ (verse 4) and the husband (verse 5). A number of common language translations follow this interpretation. Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, perhaps more satisfactorily, includes both in the text: “his head, which is Christ” in verse 4, and “her head, which is her husband,” in verse 5. BÍBLIA para todos Edição Comum translates “offends the dignity of Christ” in verse 4, and “offends the dignity of her husband” in verse 5. The reference to Christ and husband is probably correct in verses 4 and 5a, though as 5b shows (if her head were shaven), the literal meaning of head is in Paul’s thinking. In languages where the word for head can also refer metaphorically to “authority,” one can maintain Paul’s play on words.

Unveiled: in some cultures there will already be specific words for pieces of cloth or other material that women normally wear over their heads in religious gatherings. It would be good to use such words here.

The argument of verse 5b is not immediately clear, but there is no doubt about the meaning of the words. Paul probably means that by giving women a natural covering for their heads, God intends that women should give their heads a further covering when they pray or speak God’s message. In Paul’s time a woman’s head would usually be shaven as a sign of shame or disgrace. There are, however, places in the modern world where women shave their heads as a custom. In such cultures it may be necessary for a translator to say “it is as if her head were shaved in order to disgrace her” or “… in order to make her feel ashamed.” Translators may also need a footnote explaining the significance of shaving women’s heads in Paul’s time.

As if her head was shaven, of course, implies by someone else.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• Any woman who prays or proclaims God’s message in public worship with nothing covering her head disgraces (or, brings shame to) her husband. There is no difference between her and a woman whose head has been shaved in order to disgrace her.

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on 1 Corinthians 11:5

11:5a And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered

(NET Bible) But any woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered

But a woman who prays or prophesies without something on/covering her head
-or-
But women who pray or/and prophesy bareheaded

11:5b dishonors her head,

brings disgrace to her head.
-or-
shame/disgrace their husbands who are ⌊like⌋ their heads.

11:5c for it is just as if her head were shaved.

It is ⌊as bad⌋ as if her head/hair were shaved.
-or-
It is ⌊as shameful⌋ as though they shaved their heads/hair.

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