blaspheme, blasphemy

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is translated as “blasphemy” or “blaspheme” is translated in various forms:

gentiles / nations

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).

Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).

In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also nations.

Translation commentary on 2 Maccabees 13:11

And not to let the people who had just begun to revive fall into the hands of the blasphemous Gentiles: The people who had just begun to revive refers to the Jews getting back to normal after the threats they had already survived. It wasn’t right that “just when they were beginning to breathe again” (New Jerusalem Bible), they should be conquered by people who had no respect for their God and their religion. For blasphemous see the comments on 2Macc 10.4, where a different Greek word is used, but the meaning is essentially the same. A model that rearranges the clauses in this verse is:

• He asked them to pray that they not fall into the power of godless Gentiles, just when life was beginning to return to normal.

Here is a model that uses direct speech:

• Please don’t let those godless Gentiles [or, those Gentiles who don’t worship you] rule us again, just when our life is beginning to return to normal.”

Another option is to combine verses 10-11 in this way:

• When Judas heard that King Antiochus and his army were invading Judea, he told the people to pray to the Lord day and night. They needed the Lord’s help now more than ever, to keep from falling into the power of godless Gentiles [or, having godless Gentiles rule over them], just when life was beginning to return to normal. They were in danger of losing the right to live as Jews in their own country and worship at their own holy Temple [or, God’s Temple].

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.