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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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.
The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “show” or “experience” or similar in English is translated in the Shinkaiyaku Bible as o-mise (お見せ), combining “show” (mise) with the respectful prefix o-. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 13:35:
Uma: “‘That is also the meaning of the words of Daud while he was praying, he said like this: ‘My body you (sing.) will not abandon in the grave until rotten, because I an your (sing.) servant that you (sing.) have chosen.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “In another verse in the holy-book Jabur it is also said, ‘You will not abandon your holy servant to decay.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And there was another prophecy of David which were the words of Jesus. He wrote this in the book of the Psalms, and he said, ‘As for me, your faithful servant, you will not permit that my body rots in the grave.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise of his, because there is also something-written that David said to God, ‘I am the one who is faithful to serve you (sing.). You (sing.) will not allow my body to rot.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “And there is something else written in The Songs which says, ‘You will not leave my body to rot in the grave, I who always obey your will.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
For the Old Testament quotes, see Psalm 16:10 (from the Greek Septuagint).
Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed.
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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 Translator2002, 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.”
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, itteo-rare-ru (言っておられる) or “saying” is used.
Luke has previously quoted Psalm 16.10 (see 2.27). It is quite likely that in the early Christian tradition this verse had become closely attached to the verse taken from Isaiah and that together they formed a type of “testimony” to Jesus. There is a complication in the identification of the pronoun he in verse 35, for in both of the preceding expressions of direct discourse it is God who is speaking. However, the he of verse 35 cannot be God for then you would refer to someone else other than God. One must therefore introduce some identification for he by saying “as the Scripture says,” “as it is said in the Scripture,” or “as the writer of the Psalm says.” In fact, in some instances it is necessary to indicate that this particular expression is directed to God, “as the writer of the Psalm says, speaking to God.”
Your devoted servant is often rendered as “your servant who is devoted to you” or “your servant who is loyal to you.” The Greek word for devoted here and for sacred in verse 34 is the same. This is apparently the only meaningful link between the quotations.
To suffer decay is “to die and to rot.” In a sense “to die” implies the decomposition of the body, but the special emphasis upon “rotting” or “decay” (already mentioned in v. 34) may need to be made explicit, for note also the emphasis upon this same theme in verses 36 and 37.
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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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