Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, translators typically select the exclusive form (excluding the addressee).
Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.
In Fijian, the paucal exclusive forms neitou and keitou (“of me and a few [two or slight more]”) are used instead. This choice is understandable in view of the introduction found in both letters to the Thessalonians, where the writer Paul indicates clearly that the letters were co-authored by two other colleagues, Silas and Timothy, hence the use of a pronoun referring to three people (“Paul, Silas and Timothy”).
The Greek that is translated in English as “brother” or “brother and sister” (in the sense of fellow believers), is translated with a specifically coined word in Kachin: “There are two terms for brother in Kachin. One is used to refer to a Christian brother. This term combines ‘older and younger brother.’ The other term is used specifically for addressing siblings. When one uses this term, one must specify if the older or younger person is involved. A parallel system exists for ‘sister’ as well. In [these verses], the term for ‘a Christian brother’ is used.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae)
In Matumbi is is translated as alongo aumini or “relative-believer.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
In Martu Wangka it is translated as “relative” (this is also the term that is used for “follower.”) (Source: Carl Gross)
In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) it is often translated as Mitchristen or “fellow Christians.”
Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Thessalonians 5:12:
Uma: “Relatives, we request that you respect those who hold the work of the Lord in your midst, because they are the ones who are your elders in the Lord and who admonish you.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Na, my brothers who trust in Isa Almasi, there is still something we (excl.) want to ask/beg you (for): respect your leaders of the prayer-house. They work among you because they were chosen by our (incl.) Leader to teach you.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “So, brothers, those who work hard to lead you, your bosses whom God has chosen, and those who teach you, we beg you to respect them.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “We (excl.) have something else to request of you brothers. It would be good if you properly respect/acknowledge those who are leading you who put-themselves-to-hardship to care-for and advise you in your following the Lord Jesus.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “The final thing we (excl.) can teach you, siblings in believing, is that you will please recognize/acknowledge well those who have been given authority who persevere in the work of the Lord there. For as for these, of course the Lord is the one who chose them and set them up to oversee and teach you.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Listen, brothers, we want that you have respect for the workers of God who work where you live. Because they are the chosen of God to lead there where you are in order to teach you the word of God.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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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 Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
The Hebrew adonai in the Old Testament typically refers to God. The shorter adon (and in two cases in the book of Daniel the Aramaic mare [מָרֵא]) is also used to refer to God but more often for concepts like “master,” “owner,” etc. In English Bible translations all of those are translated with “Lord” if they refer to God.
In English Old Testament translations, as in Old Testament translations in many other languages, the use of Lord (or an equivalent term in other languages) is not to be confused with Lord (or the equivalent term with a different typographical display for other languages). While the former translates adonai, adon and mare, the latter is a translation for the tetragrammaton (YHWH) or the Name of God. See tetragrammaton (YHWH) and the article by Andy Warren-Rothlin in Noss / Houser, p. 618ff. for more information.
In the New Testament, the Greek term kurios has at least four different kinds of use:
referring to “God,” especially in Old Testament quotations,
meaning “master” or “owner,” especially in parables, etc.,
as a form of address (see for instance John 4:11: “Sir, you have no bucket”),
or, most often, referring to Jesus
In the first and fourth case, it is also translated as “Lord” in English.
Most languages naturally don’t have one word that covers all these meanings. According to Bratcher / Nida, “the alternatives are usually (1) a term which is an honorific title of respect for a high-ranking person and (2) a word meaning ‘boss’, ‘master’, or ‘chief.’ (…) and on the whole it has generally seemed better to employ a word of the second category, in order to emphasize the immediate personal relationship, and then by context to build into the word the prestigeful character, since its very association with Jesus Christ will tend to accomplish this purpose.”
When looking at the following list of back-translations of the terms that translators in the different languages have used for both kurios and adonai to refer to God and Jesus respectively, it might be helpful for English readers to recall the etymology of the English “Lord.” While this term might have gained an exalted meaning in the understanding of many, it actually comes from hlaford or “loaf-ward,” referring to the lord of the castle who was the keeper of the bread (source: Rosin 1956, p. 121).
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Following are some of the solutions that don’t rely on a different typographical display (see above):
Iyansi: Mwol. Mwol is traditionally used for the “chief of a group of communities and villages” with legal, temporal, and spiritual authority (versus the “mfum [the term used in other Bantu languages] which is used for the chief of one community of people in one village”). Mwol is also used for twins who are “treated as special children, highly honored, and taken care of like kings and queens.” (Source: Kividi Kikama in Greed / Kruger, p. 396ff.)
Binumarien: Karaambaia: “fight-leader” (Source: Oates 1995, p. 255)
Warlpiri: Warlaljamarri (owner or possessor of something — for more information tap or click here)
We have come to rely on another term which emphasizes God’s essential nature as YHWH, namely jukurrarnu (see tetragrammaton (YHWH)). This word is built on the same root jukurr– as is jukurrpa, ‘dreaming.’ Its basic meaning is ‘timelessness’ and it is used to describe physical features of the land which are viewed as always being there. Some speakers view jukurrarnu in terms of ‘history.’ In all Genesis references to YHWH we have used Kaatu Jukurrarnu. In all Mark passages where kurios refers to God and not specifically to Christ we have also used Kaatu Jukurrarnu.
New Testament references to Christ as kurios are handled differently. At one stage we experimented with the term Watirirririrri which refers to a ceremonial boss of highest rank who has the authority to instigate ceremonies. While adequately conveying the sense of Christ’s authority, there remained potential negative connotations relating to Warlpiri ceremonial life of which we might be unaware.
Here it is that the Holy Spirit led us to make a chance discovery. Transcribing the personal testimony of the local Warlpiri pastor, I noticed that he described how ‘my Warlaljamarri called and embraced me (to the faith)’. Warlaljamarri is based on the root warlalja which means variously ‘family, possessions, belongingness’. A warlaljamarri is the ‘owner’ or ‘possessor’ of something. While previously being aware of the ‘ownership’ aspect of warlaljamarri, this was the first time I had heard it applied spontaneously and naturally in a fashion which did justice to the entire concept of ‘Lordship’. Thus references to Christ as kurios are now being handled by Warlaljamarri.” (Source: Stephen Swartz, The Bible Translator 1985, p. 415ff. )
Mairasi: Onggoao Nem (“Throated One” — “Leader,” “Elder”) or Enggavot Nan (“Above-One”) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Obolo: Okaan̄-ene (“Owner of person(s)”) (source: Enene Enene)
Lotha Naga: Opvui (“owner of house / field / cattle”) — since both “Lord” and YHWH are translated as Opvui there is an understanding that “Opvui Jesus is the same as the Opvui of the Old Testament”
Seediq: Tholang, loan word from Min Nan Chinese (the majority language in Taiwan) thâu-lâng (頭儂): “Master” (source: Covell 1998, p. 248)
Thai: phra’ phu pen cao (พระผู้เป็นเจ้า) (divine person who is lord) or ong(kh) cao nay (องค์เจ้านาย) (<divine classifier>-lord-boss) (source: Stephen Pattemore)
Arabic often uses different terms for adonai or kurios referring to God (al-rabb الرب) and kurios referring to Jesus (al-sayyid الـسـيـد). Al-rabb is also the term traditionally used in Arabic Christian-idiom translations for YHWH, and al-sayyid is an honorary term, similar to English “lord” or “sir” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin).
Tamil also uses different terms for adonai/kurios when referring to God and kurios when referring to Jesus. The former is Karttar கர்த்தர், a Sanskrit-derived term with the original meaning of “creator,” and the latter in Āṇṭavar ஆண்டவர், a Tamil term originally meaning “govern” or “reign” (source: Natarajan Subramani).
Burunge: Looimoo: “owner who owns everything” (in the Burunge Bible translation, this term is only used as a reference to Jesus and was originally used to refer to the traditional highest deity — source: Michael Endl in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 48)
Yagaria: Souve, originally “war lord” (source: Renck, p. 94)
Aguacateco: Ajcaw ske’j: “the one to whom we belong and who is above us” (source: Rita Peterson in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 49)
Konkomba: Tidindaan: “He who is the owner of the land and reigns over the people” (source: Lidorio 2007, p. 66)
Chichewa: AmbuyeAmbuye comes from the singular form Mbuye which is used to refer to: (1) someone who is a guardian or protector of someone or group of people — a grandparent who has founded a community or village; (2) someone who is a boss or master over a group of people or servants and has absolute control over them; (3) owner of something, be it a property, animals and people who are bound under his/her rule — for people this was mostly commonly used in the context of slaves and their owner. In short, Mbuye is someone who has some authorities over those who call him/her their “Mbuye.” Now, when the form Ambuye is used it will either be for honorific when used for singular or plural when referring to more than one person. When this term is used in reference to God, it is for respect to God as he is acknowledged as a guardian, protector, and ruler of everything. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation).
Hdi uses rveri (“lion”) as a title of respect and as such it regularly translates adon in the Old Testament. As an address, it’s most often with a possessive pronoun as in rvera ɗa (“my lion” = “my lord” or “sir”). So, for example, Genesis 15:2 (“O Lord God”) is Rvera ɗa Yawe (“My lion Yahweh”) or Ruth to Boaz in Ruth 2:13: “May I find your grace [lit. good-stomach] my lion.” This ties in nicely with the imagery of the Lord roaring like a lion (Hosea 11:10; Amos 3:8; Joel 3:16). Better still, this makes passages like Revelation 5:5 even richer when we read about rveri ma taba məndəra la Yuda, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah”. In Revelation 19:16, Jesus is rveri ta ghəŋa rveriha “the lion above lions” (“lord of lords”). (Source: Drew Maust)
Law (2013, p. 97) writes about how the Ancient GreekSeptuagint‘s translation of the Hebrew adonai was used by the New Testament writers as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments: “Another case is the use of kurios referring to Jesus. For Yahweh (in English Bibles: ‘the Lord‘), the Septuagint uses kurios. Although the term kurios usually has to do with one’s authority over others, when the New Testament authors use this word from the Septuagint to refer to Jesus, they are making an extraordinary claim: Jesus of Nazareth is to be identified with Yahweh.”
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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 “requesting” is translated in the Shinkaiyaku Bible as o-negai (お願い), combining “request” (negai) with the respectful prefix o (お).
We beg (cf. 4.1) translates a word which can mean either “to ask a question” or “to ask someone to do something.” The context makes it clear that the second meaning is intended here. To pay proper respect translates a single word which normally means “to know.” Here it has the meaning of “to recognize” (Phillips), “respect,” or “appreciate the worth of” (see 4.4), and it refers to those who guide and instruct you in the Christian life. Paul means that the Thessalonians are to pay the respect which is due to them as leaders or guides. Phillips “get to know those who work so hard among you” oddly implies that the “spiritual leaders” were not already well known to those whom they led. Work suggests hard labor. The corresponding noun is used in 2.9, where Paul is speaking about manual work; in 3.5, where he is speaking of his work as an apostle; and in 1.3, where both everyday work and specifically Christian activities may be implied. Here the context shows that Paul is referring to work involved in the leadership of the Christian community.
As Revised Standard Version‘s rather literal translation shows, the verbs work, guide, and instruct are linked only by “and”: “respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you.” Good News Translation shows correctly that work is a general term, and that guide and instruct refer to specific aspects of the leaders’ work.
The translator has to choose between two possible meanings of the word which Good News Translation translates as guide: (1) “to be at the head of,” and (2) “to be concerned about,” or “care for” (in each case, the Christian community). 1 Timothy 5.17 is a clear example of the first meaning (Good News Translation has “leaders” there, as Translator’s New Testament has in the present verse), and Titus 3.8, 14 is an evident case of the second. Those who prefer the second meaning here argue that the surrounding verbs work and instruct refer to voluntary work which could be done by any member of the community. However, this is by no means certain, particularly as far as instruct is concerned. Like the older translation “admonish,” instruct often implies warning or blame; it is not the most common word for “teach.” In 1 Corinthians 4.14 and Colossians 1.28, the same word refers to one of Paul’s own functions as an apostle and evangelist; in Colossians 3.16 it is a question of Christians instructing each other.
Are we then to think of “ordinary” Christians working hard at caring for one another and warning one another when necessary? or of leaders in the community who issue instructions and warnings from a position of special responsibility? The form of the sentence as a whole (those … who …) seems to point to a particular group within the Christian community. However, Paul does not in this passage use any of the words, such as “bishop,” “elder,” or “deacon,” which later became titles to describe particular offices in the church. The translator should beware of reading back into this passage the more formal hierarchical structures of a later period. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch uses a compound word which means “those who preside over the community” and adds a note comparing them to the officials of the synagogue mentioned, for example, in Matthew 5.22 (cf. Moffatt “presiding over you”). The meaning of the whole sentence (omitting “in the Lord” for the moment) is therefore that the Thessalonians are to show the respect due to those who have the hard task of leading the community and issuing any warning or reproof which may be necessary. There is no suggestion that those who work, those who guide (or lead), and those who instruct (reprove, warn) are different people. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “Honor all who exert themselves for you, those who preside over the community, and all who show you the right way” is slightly misleading, since it suggests different groups.
It would obviously be wrong to translate beg as a request for some object or special consideration. This is a matter of “urgently asking” or “urging.”
To pay proper respect may, of course, be translated merely as “to give honor to,” but one may come a little closer to the meaning of the original in translating “to recognize as important,” or “to acknowledge the value of those who….”
Since who work among you can be so readily misunderstood as an expression of manual labor, it may be better to use some such expression as “do so much for you.”
The final clause, who guide and instruct you in the Christian life, may be introduced by a phrase “these are the ones who….” To guide may be rendered as “be your leaders,” and instruct you as “tell you what you should do.”
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Paul gave more instructions about how to please God
In this section Paul gave a list of some very important instructions. He returned to the topic he had started in 4:12, the topic of how Christians should behave.
Paragraph 5:12–13
The first instruction Paul gave was that the Thessalonians were to respect and honor their church leaders.
5:12a
But: The Berean Standard Bible has used the word But to signal a new unit in the text, in this case, a new section. You should not translate it literally but use the appropriate method your language uses to signal a new section. This may be a special grammatical form, a specific word, or maybe nothing at all.
brothers: See the note on 1:4.
to acknowledge: The Greek verb oida, which the Berean Standard Bible translates as acknowledge, literally means “to know,” but it has a wide range of other meanings. In this context it means “to respect, esteem, appreciate.”
those who work diligently among you: Paul told the Thessalonians that they should respect their leaders not just because of their status as leaders but because of the way they worked to benefit all the believers in Thessalonica. Paul did not specify in this part of the verse what sort of work he was referring to. He was probably using a general expression here that he explained more fully in 5:12b–c.
It is important to notice that here and in 5:12b–c Paul used three expressions to describe the same group of people, the leaders of the believers in Thessalonica. He was not talking about three different groups. Make sure your translation makes this clear.
5:12b
who preside over you: The Greek verb proistēmi, which the Berean Standard Bible translates by the expression preside over, is often used to talk about leaders and the work they do. It can be translated as the Berean Standard Bible has done. Other possibilities are:
who direct/guide you
-or-
who are your leaders
in the Lord: Scholars do not agree about what this phrase means here. There are two main possibilities:
(1) It means leaders “in spiritual matters.” For example:
in the Lord’s fellowship (Revised English Bible)
-or-
in the Christian life (Good News Translation)
(2) It means that it was the Lord who had authorized the leaders.
It is recommended that you follow the first option (1), as it is supported by most commentators.
5:12c
give you instruction: The Greek word noutheteō, which the Berean Standard Bible translates as give…instruction, can mean:
(1) It means “to admonish, warn.”
(New International Version (2011 Revision), Revised Standard Version, NET Bible, King James Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New Living Translation (2004 Revision)).
(2) It means “to advise, instruct.”
(Berean Standard Bible, Good News Translation, God’s Word, New Century Version, New American Standard Bible, Revised English Bible, The Jerusalem Bible).
It is difficult to decide between these two meanings here, as the meaning is usually determined by the context (for example in 5:14a, where it clearly means “warn”), but the context here does not assist the translator. However, the majority of commentators favor the first option because of the wider context, and it is recommended that you also translate this verb as “to admonish, warn.”
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.
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