elder (of the community)

The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated as “elders” in English is translated in the Danish Bibelen 2020 as folkets ledere or “leaders of the people.”

Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators, explains: “The term ‘elder’ turned out to pose a particularly thorny problem. In traditional bibles, you can find elders all of over the place and they never pose a problem for a translator, they are just always elders. But how to find a contemporary term for this semi-official, complex position? This may have been our longest-standing problem. A couple of times we thought we had the solution, and then implemented it throughout the texts, only to find out that it didn’t work. Like when we used city council or village council, depending on the context. In the end we felt that the texts didn’t work with such official terms, and throughout the years in the desert, these terms didn’t make much sense. Other suggestions were ‘the eldest and wisest’, ‘the respected citizens’, ‘the Israelites with a certain position in society’, ‘the elder council’ –- and let me point out that these terms sound better in Danish than in English (‘de fremtrædende borgere,’ ‘de mest fremtrædende israelitter,’ ‘alle israelitter med en vis position,’ ‘de ældste og de klogeste,’ ‘ældsterådet’). In the end we just said ‘leaders of the people.’ After a lot of hand-wringing, it turned out that we actually found a term that worked well. So, we had to give up conveying the fact that they were old, but the most important point is that they were community leaders.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )

The German das Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022) translates likewise as “leader of the people” (Anführer des Volkes).

Translation commentary on 1 Kings 21:11

The men of his city, the elders and the nobles who dwelt in his city: Regarding the elders and the nobles who dwelt in his city, see the comments on verse 8. These words are in apposition to the words the men of his city, that is, the elders and the nobles are the men of his city.

Regarding his city, see the comments on verse 8.

Most interpreters assume that the events of verses 11-13 occurred in Jezreel, and this does seem to be the most natural reading of the text. This causes a difficulty later, though. Verse 19 says that Ahab will die in the same place where Naboth died; and according to 1 Kgs 22.38, Ahab’s dead body was brought to the city of Samaria. For this reason some interpreters think that the scene shifts in verse 11 from Jezreel to Samaria; but regardless of how this exegetical difficulty is solved, it probably will not affect the translation of these verses.

Good News Translation leaves implicit the words As it was written in the letters which she had sent to them presumably because they repeat the same idea as contained in the words as Jezebel had sent word to them. Unless they are considered unnecessarily redundant, translators may wish to reflect the original text in retaining these words. If this is done, it will probably be a good idea to take them as an introduction to the following verse as in Revised Standard Version.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .