serve

The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated in English as “serve,” “minister,” “walk with,” or “service” is translated in Igede as myị ẹrụ or “agree with message (of the one you’re serving).” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

In Quetzaltepec Mixe, “serve” is translated as “obey.” (Source: Robert Bascom)

complete verse (2 Timothy 1:11)

Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Timothy 1:11:

  • Uma: “That’s why God appointed me as a apostle [messenger] of the Lord Yesus, so that I announce the Good News to the non-Yahudi people, and teach them to believe in Yesus.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “I was commissioned by God commanded to proclaim and teach/preach the good news.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “As for me, God appointed me so that I might be an apostle and so that I might spread and teach that Good News,” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “God appointed me to be-an-apostle so that I would go preach and teach this good news,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well so that this Good News could be made-clear/explained, I am one of those made an apostle and a teacher.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Concerning this word, I was appointed to tell it. And I was appointed to be a representative of Christ in order that I teach the word to people who live everywhere.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on 2 Timothy 1:11

For this verse see 1 Tim 2.7, which is quite similar, and where the words appointed, preacher, apostle, and teacher appear. For further discussion on apostle see 1 Tim 1.1, and for appointed see 1.12.

For this gospel is literally “into which,” with “which” clearly referring back to “gospel” in verse 10, and “into” designating purpose and direction. It is possible that an expression like “into which” is present in the receptor language. However, since it is better to start a new sentence here, it will be necessary to capture the intent of “into which” and fit it within the sentence, as Revised Standard Version has done. Another way of translating the verse is “For the purpose of making this gospel known (or, proclaiming this good news), God has appointed me as preacher, apostle and teacher.” However, in some languages it will be good to reorder the clauses as Good News Translation has done: “God has appointed me as….”

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Timothy 1:11

1:11a–c

to which I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher: The gospel is the topic of 1:11. You should translate this verse in such a way that the focus will be on the gospel.

I was appointed: God was the one who appointed Paul. Some other words for appointed are “assigned” or “chosen.”

a preacher: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as preacher comes from the verb that means “to preach.” Some versions have translated this word as “herald,” a person that a king or some other important leader has appointed to announce a message publicly.

an apostle: An apostle is a person whom someone has sent to do a specific job on behalf of that sender. Paul was to represent Christ Jesus to others.

a teacher: Paul not only preached the message about Jesus Christ. He also taught people the other truths that God had revealed to him about the way Christians should behave.

© 2003 by SIL International®

Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

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.