addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed.

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or modern 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, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.

Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”

In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.

Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking.” (Source Philip Noss)

In the most recent Manchu translation of 1835 (a revision of an earlier edition from 1822), God is never addressed with a pronoun but with “father” (ama /ᠠᠮᠠ) instead. Chengcheng Liu (in this post on the Cambridge Centre for Chinese Theology blog ) explains: “In Manchu tradition, as in Chinese etiquette, second-person pronouns could be considered disrespectful when speaking to superiors or spiritual beings. Manchu Shamanist prayers avoided si [‘you’] and sini [‘your’] for this very reason. To use them for God would be, in Lipovzoff’s [one of the two translators] words, ‘the most uncouth and indecent way to speak to the Almighty — as if He were a servant or slave.’ There was also a grammatical problem. In Manchu, si and sini could refer to both singular and plural subjects. For a faith that insisted on the singularity of God, this was potentially confusing. By contrast, repeating ama removed any ambiguity.”

In Dutch, Afrikaans, Gronings, and Western Frisian translations, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also formal pronoun: disciples addressing Jesus, female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

Translation commentary on 2 Esdras 3:18

The purpose of verses 18-19 is to emphasize the importance of the giving of the Law by making it an event so grand that it affected the forces of nature (see Exo 19.16-18; compare Psa 18.7-15).

Thou didst bend down the heavens: This verse begins with the Latin conjunction that is literally “And” (King James Version, An American Translation). This conjunction may be rendered “Then” or omitted (so Revised Standard Version). Good News Bible and Contemporary English Version begin this verse helpfully with the adverb “There” to indicate that these dramatic events took place at Mount Sinai. Contemporary English Version interprets the figurative expression Thou didst bend down the heavens to mean “you covered the land with thick clouds,” which is a helpful model. A model that keeps the figurative language is “you brought the sky downward.”

And shake the earth, and move the world: Shake the earth means to make the earth move up and down, and move the world means to make it rock back and forth. Some translators may prefer to combine these two clauses into one; example, Contemporary English Version says “and shook the entire earth.” As the Revised Standard Version footnote indicates, there is a textual problem here. The Latin text has “make the earth steady” instead of shake the earth. The latter reading fits the context better, and is found in most ancient translations (Syriac, Georgian, Ethiopic, and one Arabic version), so we prefer it.

And make the depths to tremble: Here the Latin word for depths refers to the deep water of the ocean, which people thought was underneath the earth (see Gen 7.11). God made this water shake with storms.

And trouble the times: The Latin word rendered times (saeculum) is probably better translated “world” (Metzger [1983]) or “universe” (Good News Bible) in this context (see “Translating 2 Esdras,” page 313). New English Bible renders this clause as “and turned creation upside down.” We may also say “and brought violent disturbance to all creation [or, to the whole universe]” or “and disturbed the whole universe violently.”

Here is an alternative model for this verse:

• Then you brought the sky downward, you shook the earth up and down* and rocked it back and forth, you swept the ocean with storms, and brought violent disturbance to all creation [or, to the whole universe].
* Most ancient translations: shook the earth up and down; Latin: made the earth steady.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Esdras. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.