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).

sin

The Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Greek that is typically translated as “sin” in English has a wide variety of translations.

The Greek ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō) carries the original verbatim meaning of “miss the mark” and likewise, many translations contain the “connotation of moral responsibility.”

  • Loma: “leaving the road” (which “implies a definite standard, the transgression of which is sin”)
  • Navajo (Dinė): “that which is off to the side” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: kasalan, originally meaning “transgression of a religious or moral rule” and in the context of the Bible “transgression of God’s commandments” (source: H. van der Veen in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 21ff. )
  • Kaingang: “break God’s word”
  • Bariai: “bad behavior” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Sandawe: “miss the mark” (like the original meaning of the Greek term) (source for this and above: Ursula Wiesemann in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 36ff., 43)
  • Nias: horö, originally a term primarily used for sexual sin. (Source: Hummel / Telaumbanua 2007, p. 256)
  • Mauwake: “heavy” (compare forgiveness as “take away one’s heaviness”) (source: Kwan Poh San in this article )

In Shipibo-Conibo the term is hocha. Nida (1952, p. 149) tells the story of its choosing: “In some instances a native expression for sin includes many connotations, and its full meaning must be completely understood before one ever attempts to use it. This was true, for example, of the term hocha first proposed by Shipibo-Conibo natives as an equivalent for ‘sin.’ The term seemed quite all right until one day the translator heard a girl say after having broken a little pottery jar that she was guilty of ‘hocha.’ Breaking such a little jar scarcely seemed to be sin. However, the Shipibos insisted that hocha was really sin, and they explained more fully the meaning of the word. It could be used of breaking a jar, but only if the jar belonged to someone else. Hocha was nothing more nor less than destroying the possessions of another, but the meaning did not stop with purely material possessions. In their belief God owns the world and all that is in it. Anyone who destroys the work and plan of God is guilty of hocha. Hence the murderer is of all men most guilty of hocha, for he has destroyed God’s most important possession in the world, namely, man. Any destructive and malevolent spirit is hocha, for it is antagonistic and harmful to God’s creation. Rather than being a feeble word for some accidental event, this word for sin turned out to be exceedingly rich in meaning and laid a foundation for the full presentation of the redemptive act of God.”

In Warao it is translated as “bad obojona.” Obojona is a term that “includes the concepts of consciousness, will, attitude, attention and a few other miscellaneous notions.” (Source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. ). See other occurrences of Obojona in the Warao New Testament.

Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the Danish Bibelen 2020, comments on the translation of this term: “We would explain terms, such that e.g. sin often became ‘doing what God does not want’ or ‘breaking God’s law’, ‘letting God down’, ‘disrespecting God’, ‘doing evil’, ‘acting stupidly’, ‘becoming guilty’. Now why couldn’t we just use the word sin? Well, sin in contemporary Danish, outside of the church, is mostly used about things such as delicious but unhealthy foods. Exquisite cakes and chocolates are what a sin is today.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )

See also sinner.

complete verse (1 Samuel 2:25)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Samuel 2:25:

  • Kupsabiny: “You (plur.) know that if someone sins against another person, God can rescue (him). But when someone sins against God, then there is no one who will rescue that person.’ However much the old man advised his sons, they tied the neck (were stubborn) so as not to listen to their father, because God wanted to kill those boys.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “If it happens that one person sins against another, the LORD will mediate. But if someone sins against the LORD, who will mediate?" But the sons of Eli didn’t give attention to the words of their father because the Lord had decided to kill them.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Eli still said, ‘If a man/person sins against his fellow-man, (it is) possible that God will-mediate/[lit. will-cause-to-be-between] for them; but who will-mediate if a man sins against the LORD?’ But his children/(sons) did- not -listen to him because the LORD had- already -decided to-kill them.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “If one person sins against another person, God can intercede/act as a referee between them. But if someone sins against Yahweh, no one can intercede/act as a referee between them!’ But Eli’s sons would not listen to what their father said. This was because Yahweh had decided that someone should kill them.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

will (of God) (Japanese honorifics)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) can be used, as in mi-kokoro (みこころ) or “will (of God)” in the referenced verses. Two verses (Ezra 10:11 and Ephesians 1:9) use mi-mune (みむね) with the same honorific prefix and meaning.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also will and doing the will of God.

Translation commentary on 1 Samuel 2:25

The word man appears three times in the first part of this verse. But it is not meant in the strict sense of the word as being limited to male human beings. Rather the meaning is “If one person sins against another…” (New Revised Standard Version).

This is the first use of the verb sins in Samuel—a word that carries the figure of “missing the mark.” In this context it clearly refers to the violation of a proper relationship or the failure to do what is normally expected within society. It presupposes a set of normal expeCritique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testamentions in human relationships, so that “missing the mark” means being out of harmony with what is normally required and anticipated. It results in the breaking of a relationship, in the first case with a fellow human being, and in the second case with God.

The verbs mediate and intercede translate the same Hebrew root, so translators should not be concerned about finding different terms unless the context requires it in the receptor language. However, it may be difficult to find even a single verb that correctly translates the idea. Translators should avoid giving the impression that God “defends” people when they commit sin. But he does “help make things right” (Contemporary English Version). Traduction œcuménique de la Bible provides another possible model by using a verb that means “to referee” or “to act as referee.” If Yahweh is one of the parties involved in the problem, then there is no one left to step in and help to straighten things out.

God will mediate for him: it is not clear from the Masoretic Text in what way God will intervene on behalf of the person who sins (but see Exo 22.7-9). The Septuagint says “they will pray for him to the LORD.” New Revised Standard Version follows the Septuagint, saying “someone can intercede for the sinner with the LORD.” New American Bible also follows the Septuagint, “one can intercede for him with the LORD.” However, translators should follow the Masoretic Text. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh renders this clause “the LORD may pardon him” and states in a footnote that the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.

In some languages it will be natural to signal the end of Eli’s words by saying something like “that is what he said.” If possible, translators should not rely on punctuation alone to signal the end of the quotation, since listeners will not hear quotation marks. It may be helpful, for example, to say “Eli’s sons” instead of they. Compare New Century Version: “But Eli’s sons would not listen to him.”

Would not listen to the voice really means “would not listen to the person.” And in this context there is a clear implication of disobedience. In some languages the best translation here will be simply “refused to obey.”

For introduces an explanation from the point of view of the writer as to why Eli’s sons refused to heed his warnings. It was because Yahweh had already decided that he would kill the rebel priests. The transition word introducing the last part of this verse is therefore crucial and may be rendered “because” (New Century Version) or “since” (New American Bible). In some languages it will be considered more natural to reverse the order of the elements in this last sentence and say something like “But the LORD had decided to kill them, so they would not listen to their father.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .