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 Samuel 8:4

The transition word Then represents the common conjunction. But here it seems to suggest the passage of a certain amount of time before the leaders of Israel took action. New American Bible translates it “Finally.” However, it may also be taken as a logical connector introducing what the leaders did as a result of the inappropriate behavior of the sons of Samuel. Revised English Bible and Fox take it this way, translating “So.”

The elders were heads of families or groups of families (see the comment on 4.3). The Septuagint says “men of Israel” instead of all the elders of Israel, and it is followed by Anchor Bible.

Ramah was the town where Samuel lived and ruled over Israel (see 7.17).

Came: the decision about whether to use the verb “came” or “went” (Good News Translation) may depend on where the writer is thought to have been. Good News Translation assumes that the writer of Samuel was not at Ramah. New Jerusalem Bible similarly has “went back.” And New Century Version avoids the problem by using the verb “met.”

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 .