elder (of the community)

The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated as “elders” in English is translated in the Danish Bibelen 2020 as folkets ledere or “leaders of the people.”

Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators, explains: “The term ‘elder’ turned out to pose a particularly thorny problem. In traditional bibles, you can find elders all of over the place and they never pose a problem for a translator, they are just always elders. But how to find a contemporary term for this semi-official, complex position? This may have been our longest-standing problem. A couple of times we thought we had the solution, and then implemented it throughout the texts, only to find out that it didn’t work. Like when we used city council or village council, depending on the context. In the end we felt that the texts didn’t work with such official terms, and throughout the years in the desert, these terms didn’t make much sense. Other suggestions were ‘the eldest and wisest’, ‘the respected citizens’, ‘the Israelites with a certain position in society’, ‘the elder council’ –- and let me point out that these terms sound better in Danish than in English (‘de fremtrædende borgere,’ ‘de mest fremtrædende israelitter,’ ‘alle israelitter med en vis position,’ ‘de ældste og de klogeste,’ ‘ældsterådet’). In the end we just said ‘leaders of the people.’ After a lot of hand-wringing, it turned out that we actually found a term that worked well. So, we had to give up conveying the fact that they were old, but the most important point is that they were community leaders.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )

The German das Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022) translates likewise as “leader of the people” (Anführer des Volkes).

Translation commentary on 3 Maccabees 1:8

Since the Jews had sent some of their council and elders to greet him, to bring him gifts of welcome, and to congratulate him on what had happened: The translator’s goal here is to help the reader with the sequence of events. Verses 6-7 describe the effects of a tour that Philopator made of some cities near Raphia. Verse 8 backtracks a bit. While Philopator was on his tour, the Jews in Jerusalem sent a delegation to him, to congratulate him, give him gifts, and assure him of their welcome. This verse is a long sentence. Its first half will be best expressed as a separate sentence or even two. It would be helpful to begin the verse with “While Philopator was traveling, the Jews sent some….” Contemporary English Version translates some of their council and elders as “some of their religious leaders,” but civic leaders are in view here as well. It would be better to say “some of their political and religious leaders.” Gifts of welcome are gifts brought by friends as signs of friendship. Since this is a new section, it might be helpful to explain the phrase what had happened in to congratulate him on what had happened. Contemporary English Version has “to congratulate him on what he had done,” but we may also say “to congratulate him on defeating the Syrians.”

Here is a model for the first part of the verse:

• While Philopator was traveling, the Jews sent some of their political and religious leaders to greet [or, welcome] him. They brought him gifts to show their friendship, and congratulated him on all that he had done.

He was all the more eager to visit them as soon as possible: The Jewish welcome was so impressive that Philopator was especially eager to visit them. A model for this sentence is given in the comments on the next verse.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 3-4 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2018. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.