Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Timothy 6:15:
Uma: “The day of our Lord’s return, God himself has set according to his own desire. It is he alone who has power/authority, whom it is appropriate to praise, King from [i.e., more than] all kings, Lord from all lords.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “When the time is reached, he will-be-caused-to-come-here back to earth by God. God only should be praised and he alone is the ruler. He is the one who rules over the ones who rule and he is the Leader of the leaders.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “God will have Jesus return when the proper time is fulfilled. God is the One who controls everything. He is the One whose situation is good. He is the One who is in charge of every king and datu.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “The one-who-is-in-charge-of his appearing so that it will be fulfilled on the proper day, it is the honored God. He alone rules over all, because he is the highest King among all kings and the highest Lord among all lords.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “For he really will be caused to come back by God provided the time which he determined has now come. For as for this God, his happiness is fully mature/complete. He alone is the one who controls everything, there is no other. For he is the one who is King of all who reign and Lord/Chief of all masters.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “When there comes the day determined by God for him to come, then he will come. Concerning our holy God, he alone has power. He is the ruler of rulers. He is the Boss of the bosses.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:
Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))
Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:
“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”
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 Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a benefactive construction as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.
Here, motarashite (もたらして) or “bring” is used in combination with kudasaru (くださる), a respectful form of the benefactive kureru (くれる). A benefactive reflects the good will of the giver or the gratitude of a recipient of the favor. To convey this connotation, English translation needs to employ a phrase such as “for me (my sake)” or “for you (your sake).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
The mention of the appearing of Jesus Christ leads to the next two verses that assert its certainty and that name God as the one who causes him to appear; this in turn leads to an exalted description of God. Many interpreters treat these two verses as a hymn, and some translations reflect this understanding, putting these verses in poetic format (for example, Jerusalem Bible and Contemporary English Version). Translators will do well to explore the possibility of reflecting the poetic nature of these verses and translating them with the use of appropriate poetic forms in the receptor language. On how to translate into poetry, see the comments on 3.16-17.
Will be made manifest translates a verb that means “to show,” “to exhibit,” “to display,” “to expose to the eyes.” The Greek construction is actually in the active voice (literally “which the blessed and the sovereign will show…”) but is changed into the passive by both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation in order to provide a smoother connection between this verse and the last part of verse 14. For proper time see comments on 2.6 and on “later times” in 4.1. God (see Good News Translation) is not explicitly mentioned in the text, but the context clearly shows that it is God who will bring about the appearing of Jesus Christ. God is described by a series of attributes. For blessed see 1.11. For only in only Sovereign, see comment on “only God” in 1.17. Sovereign comes from a word that is used to designate any high powerful official in government, as, for example, a prince or a king.
King of kings and Lord of lords are used elsewhere in the New Testament as titles for God, designating him as more powerful than and sovereign over any other authority, whether divine or human. These two terms are used together for Christ in the book of Revelation (see, for example, Rev 17.14 and 19.16).
King of kings is literally “king of those who are ruling,” since kings translates a present participle of the verb “to rule.” The title appears first in the Old Testament as a title used for Babylonian and Persian emperors (see, for example, Ezek 26.7; Dan 2.37; Ezra 7.12); its first application to God appears in one of the writings in the period before New Testament times, namely the second book of Maccabees (see 2 Maccabees 13.4). This usage is found here and in other parts of the New Testament. For a comment on kings see 2.2.
Likewise Lord of lords is literally “Lord of those who rule as lords,” since lords also translates a present participle of the verb “to exercise lordship.” The title is used in the Old Testament as parallel to “God of gods” to indicate that God is sovereign over other “gods” (see, for example, Psa 136.2-3). Alternative ways to translate these two phrases are “The Greatest Ruler, the Mightiest King,” “The Lord and King of All,” or “The Most Powerful Ruler and Highest Chief of All.”
If translators follow the second model at the end of verses 13-14, it is possible to restructure verse 15 as follows:
• God whom people praise, who is the only true Ruler, the Lord and King (or, High Chief) of all, is the one who will cause Christ to appear at the right time (or, at the time which he [God] has decided).
Or:
• God will cause him [Christ] to return at the right time. God is the one whom people praise ….
Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to Timothy. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
the blessed and only Sovereign One: In the New Testament, the Greek word makarios that the Berean Standard Bible translates as blessed is only used to describe God here and in 1:11. It means that God has every blessing in himself. He is not dependent on anyone else for joy or anything else. (Hanson, page 60, says, “It came originally from pagan Greek literature (Homer calls the gods ‘blessed’), and was adopted by Hellenistic Judaism, which is no doubt how it entered the vocabulary of the author of the Pastorals. D-C [Dibelius and Conzelmann], rightly no doubt, see here traces of a liturgical style.”)
In your translation, use an expression that would be appropriate for referring to God. Some possibilities are:
the…Ruler who lives in perfect joy
-or-
the…Ruler who has all blessings
-or-
the perfect…Ruler
only Sovereign One: God is the only one who rules over everything. He is unique.
6:15b
the King of kings: That is, the King who is greater than all other kings.
Lord of lords: That is, the Lord who is greater than all other lords.
General Comment on 6:15b
The title “Kings of kings and Lord of lords” is also used in Revelation 17:14, 19:16. Make sure you translate it in the same way in these places.
6:15c
will bring about in His own time: Paul was saying that God had already decided when Christ would return. When that time comes, God will cause it to happen.
in His own time: The Greek expression that the Berean Standard Bible translates as in His own time means that God will cause this to happen at the exact time that he has chosen.
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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.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
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