trembling / afraid

The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “trembling,” or “afraid” in English is translated in the Protestant Mandarin Chinese Union Version with a historical Chinese idiom: zhànzhàn jīngjīng (戰戰兢兢 / 战战兢兢) or “trembling (lit. “trembling and fearful”).” (Source: Toshikazu S. Foley in Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies, 2011, p. 45ff.)

See also trembling / in awe and trembling / shaking / dancing.

formal pronoun: difference between Ziba and Shimei addressing David

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

In these verses, Ziba uses the respectful pronoun as he addresses David (2 Samuel 16:4) in the Tuvan translation, whereas Shimei uses the informal pronoun, compounding the insult given by his words (2 Samuel 16:7f.).

dancing, shaking, trembling

The interconfessional Chichewa translation (publ. 1999) uses the ideophone njenjenje (“shake-shake”) to emphasize movements like trembling, dancing, or shaking in these verses. (Source: Wendland 1998, p. 105)

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

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).

See also elders of Israel (Judah).

Bethlehem

The town name that is transliterated as “Bethlehem” in English is translated in Finnish Sign Language with the signs signifying “manger + town” (referring to Luke 2:7). (Source: Tarja Sandholm)


“Bethlehem” in Finnish Sign Language (source )

See also manger.

In American Sign Language it is translated with the signs for “bread” and “house,” referring to the original meaning of “Bethlehem” as “house of bread.” (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)


“Bethlehem” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor

Likewise in Hungarian Sign Language:


“Bethlehem” in Hungarian Sign Language (source )

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Bethlehem .

complete verse (1 Samuel 16:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Samuel 16:4:

  • Kupsabiny: “Samuel did as God had instructed him. When he reached Bethlehem, the elders of that city were so afraid. And when they met with Samuel, they asked him that, ‘Are you coming with peace?” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Then Samuel acted in accordance with what the LORD had said. And he went to Bethlehem. The elders who lived there were afraid to meet with him. They asked "What! Have you come with happiness?"” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Samuel obeyed/followed what the LORD said. When- he -arrived at Betlehem, he was-met by the ones-who-rule of the town/city who were-trembling with fear. They asked, ‘(Is) your (sing.) purpose/intention good for coming here?’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Samuel did what Yahweh told him to do. He went to Bethlehem. When the town leaders came to him, they trembled, because they were worried that Samuel had come to rebuke them about something. One of them asked him, ‘Have you come to speak peacefully to us?’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

inform / tell (Japanese honorifics)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between. One way to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.

The concept of “informing” (“telling”) is translated in the Shinkaiyaku Bible as o-tsuge (お告げ), combining “inform / tell” (tsuge) with the respectful prefix o-. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also informing (Japanese honorifics).