Isthmus Mixe: “stays with me” (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August, 1966, p. 86ff)
Teutila Cuicatec: “in all authority at the right side” (source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.).
Bariai: “chief seat at the right hand” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
In Lamnso’, the seat on the right-hand side signifies that the person seated there would have a higher position than the one to his left (vs. just being a seat of honor). To circumvent any misunderstanding of the biblical text, the translation here refers to the “highest seat next to God.” (Source: Karl Grebe in Holzhausen 1991, p. 52)
(Note that in Elhomwe the idiom “I see you through the left hand” stands for “useless.” [Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext])
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 2:34:
Uma: “‘Relatives, it was not Daud who went-up to heaven. But there are words of Daud that foretell the going-up of Yesus to heaven, like this their sound: The Lord God said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right side,” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Na, it was not Da’ud who ascended to heaven, but/instead he said this, he said, ‘God spoke to my Leader, he said: come sit here at my right hand, here in the most important seat,” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And as for that which David prophesied, he was not talking about his own body, because David was not the one made immortal by God and taken to heaven. There is still another written word of David which says, he says, ‘God said to my Lord,’ he said, ‘You just sit here on my right side” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “There is something that David wrote concerning the one-who-was-raised to heaven that says, ‘The Lord God said to my Lord: Sit-down at my right-side until I defeat your (sing.) enemies.’ But what David was-speaking-about, it was not himself, because it was not he who was raised to heaven but rather his Lord who is Jesus.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Of course it wasn’t David who rose up into the sky/heaven. Therefore he wasn’t meaning himself in what he said, which was, ‘God said to my Lord/Chief Cristo, ‘Today you sit down here on my right,” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Aramaic all have one term only that refers to what can be expressed in English as “sky” or “heaven(s)” (as a physical and spiritual entity). While there is a slight overlap between the meaning of the two English terms, “sky” (from Old Norse sky meaning “cloud”) typically refers to the physical entity, and “heaven” (from Old English heofon meaning “home of God”) typically refers to the spiritual entity. While this enriches the English lexicon, it also forces English Bible translators to make decisions that can be found only in the context in the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts. Most versions tend to use “heaven(s)” even if the meaning is likely “sky,” but the Contemporary English Version (NT: 1991, OT: 1995, DC: 1999) is an English translation that attempted to be more specific in the separation of the two meanings and was used as the basis for the links to verses used for this and this record (“sky”).
Norm Mundhenk (in The Bible Translator 2006, p. 92ff. ) describes the difficulty that English translations face (click or tap here to see more):
“A number of years ago an old lady asked me a question. What did Jesus mean when he said, ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away’? I do not remember what answer I gave, but I was surprised at how concerned she seemed to be about the verse. It was only later, after I had left her, that I suddenly realized what it was that she was so concerned about. She knew that death could not be far away, and all her life she had looked forward to being with God in heaven. But this verse said that ‘heaven will pass away’! What did that mean for her hopes? In fact, of course, in this verse Jesus was talking about the skies or the heavens, not about Heaven as the place of God’s presence. If I had realized the problem in time, I could easily have set the lady’s mind at rest on this question that was troubling her so much. However, I suspect that she is not the only person to be misled by the wording of this verse. Therefore, it is very surprising to find that even today many English versions (including the New International Version, New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, Good News Translation) still say ‘heaven and earth’ in verses like Matt 24:35 and its parallels (Mark 13:31 and Luke 21:33). The Contemporary English Version (CEV) and Phillips’ translation seem to be aware of the problem, and in Mark 13:31 both of these have ‘earth and sky’ instead of ‘heaven and earth.’ But in some other passages (such as Matt 5:18) the traditional wording is still found in both of those translations. The New Century Version (NCV) does have ‘earth and sky’ more consistently, and the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has ‘sky and earth’ in these passages. (Although ‘sky and earth’ is closer to the Greek, it seems more natural in English to say ‘earth and sky’; but either way, at least the meaning is correct.)
“Louw and Nida’s Lexical Semantics of the Greek New Testament (publ. 1992) suggests that the Greek expression being translated here, ho ouranos kai he ge is ‘a more or less fixed phrase equivalent to a single lexical unit’ and that it means everything that God created, that is, the universe. They then quote Mark 13:31 as an example, using ‘heaven and earth’ in their translation of it. However, they go on to say that there ‘may be certain complications involved in rendering ho ouranos kai he ge as ‘heaven and earth,’ since ‘heaven’ might be interpreted in some languages as referring only to the dwelling place of God himself. The referents in this passage are ‘the sky and the earth,’ in other words, all of physical existence, but not the dwelling place of God, for the latter would not be included in what is destined to pass away.’ In my opinion, English itself is one of the languages where the word ‘heaven’ will be interpreted as referring only to the dwelling place of God himself, and translations into English should not use ‘heaven’ in these passages. It is probably because these passages are so very familiar that translators do not realize the meaning they are giving their readers when they use the expression ‘heaven and earth’ here. In modern English we might talk about a rocket ‘soaring into the heavens,’ but we would certainly not describe it as ‘soaring into heaven,’ because ‘heaven’ is not another way of referring to the sky or to outer space.
“In fact, it is surely important in all languages to have some way of distinguishing the concept of ‘sky’ from the concept of ‘dwelling place of God.’ In these passages translators should never use a term meaning ‘the dwelling place of God.’ It may not be necessary to use a term meaning ‘sky’ either, if there is some other expression in the language which gives the correct meaning of ‘everything that has been created’ or ‘the universe.’ There are of course places in the New Testament where Heaven, as the place where God lives, is contrasted with the earth. In these passages, translators should be careful to give the correct meaning. A good example of this is in the Lord’s Prayer, in Matt 6:10: ‘Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ Similarly, 1 Cor 15:47 says that ‘the first man [a reference to Adam] was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.’ Passages like these are referring to Heaven, not to the sky. Other NT passages where heaven refers to God’s dwelling place, in contrast with earth, are Matt 5:34-35, 16:19, 18:18, Acts 7:49, James 5:12, and Rev 5:3.
“Sometimes in the New Testament, the word ‘heaven’ is used because of the Jewish reluctance to use the name of God. ‘Heaven’ in these cases is used in place of ‘God’ and refers to God himself. This is the case in the many references in Matthew to ‘the kingdom of heaven’ where other gospels have ‘the kingdom of God’ (e.g., compare Matt 4:17 with its parallels in Mark 1:15 and Luke 10:9). It is also most likely the case in references like Matt 16:1, Luke 20:4, 5, John 3:27, and even perhaps Col 1:5.
“There are some places, such as Matt 11:25, where God is called ‘Lord of heaven and earth.’ Since God is of course the Lord of Heaven as well as of the universe, it may not matter so much which interpretation is given in these passages (others are Luke 10:21 and Acts 17:24). Nevertheless, the intended meaning here is likely to be ‘the universe.’ This is because this expression in Greek, as Louw and Nida say, is a set expression referring to everything that has been created. Acts 17:24 in fact combines the idea of the creation of the universe with the idea of God as Master or Lord of the universe. (…)
“Old Testament background The use of ‘heaven and earth’ in the New Testament is very similar to what we find in the Old Testament, because it is largely based on the Old Testament.
“The Old Testament begins with the story of creation, which is presented as the creation of the heavens and the earth, with lights to shine in the heavens and give light to the earth. Birds are created to live in the heavens, animals to live on earth, and fish to live in the sea (Gen 1:1-2:4).
“As we can see from the way the creation story is told, it is meant to be understood as the creation of the universe. Although in English the regions above the earth have traditionally been called ‘the heavens’ in the story of creation, they cannot be called ‘Heaven,’ in the sense of the place where God dwells. In terms of modern English, it would probably be better to say ‘the sky and the earth’ or ‘the earth and the sky.’ The story of creation then becomes an important theme throughout the Old Testament. (…)
“In most passages, whether in the Old Testament or the New Testament, when ‘heaven and earth’ or ‘the heavens and the earth’ are mentioned, the meaning is the created universe. It is not a reference to Heaven, as the dwelling place of God. In English, translators have not been careful to keep this distinction clear, and this is probably true in many other languages as well. However, as we have seen, this can lead to real confusion for ordinary Bible readers. It is better if translators find ways to make the meaning clear in these passages. ‘Heaven’ should be mentioned only in passages which clearly mean the dwelling place of God. In other passages, an expression should be used which means only ‘sky.’ Or else, the whole expression ‘heaven and earth’ can be translated in a way to show that the whole universe is meant.”
Other languages that have a semantic distinction similar to English include (click or tap here to see more):
Mossi: saase — “sky”; nyingeri — “the up above”(source for Loma and Mossi: Bratcher/Nida)
Roviana: mamaṉa — “sly”; maṉauru — “heaven” (an old word, meaning “empty, open space of the sky”) (source: Carl Gross)
Kayaw: mô̄la or “canopy-under”/mô̄khû̄la or “canopy-above-under” — “sky” (atmosphere where there is just air); mô̄khû̄ or “canopy-on/above” — “heaven” (invisible abode of God and angels)
Mairasi: Sinyavi — an indigenous term that is used for both “sky” and heaven”; Surga — loanword from Sanskrit via Indonesian referring to “heaven” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Kupsabiny: “up” for “sky” vs. “God’s Homestead” for “heaven” (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
In some languages, such as Yagaria, a term that was originally used as “sky” (gokudana) was adopted by the Christian community as “heaven.” This resulted in a language shift so that now all communities uses “empty space / air” (galogina or hakalogina) as “sky” and gokudana is exclusively used for the Christian concept of heaven. (Source: Renck 1990, p. 133)
Many languages follow the original biblical languages in not making that distinction, such as (click or tap here to see more):
In some languages, such as Wandala, the vocabulary for terms for either “heaven” or “sky” is much richer than just to include those two distinction. While zhegela, the term that is specifically used for the physical sky was only used in early translations of the New Testament for “sky,” other terms such as samaya (used for both “sky” and “heaven”), zlanna (specifically used for the perfect abode of God and the goal of the faithful, as in Matthew 8:11), kwárá (a locational term used to speak of a chief’s rule [lit., “voice”] such as Matthew 3:2), or sleksire (“chieftaincy,” “kingship,” or “royalty” [originally from slekse “chief”] and used where there are no locational overtones, such as in Matthew 16:28) are used. (Source: Mona Perrin in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 51ff.)
Under the auspices of the Dhama Mate Swe Association , a new Burmese translation of the New Testament was published in 2024 which uses terminology that attempts to overcome “insurmountable barriers to the Buddhist world.” One term that this version uses is ရွှေမြို့တော် (shway myahoettaw) or “Golden City” for “heaven,” referring it to the golden city described in Revelation 21 but at the same time using a Buddhist term for a desired destination that does not have the Buddhist connotation of ကောင်း ကင် (kaungg kain) as being the Trāyastriṃśa (တာဝတိံသာ) heaven, home of Śakra/Indra. This Burmese translation formed the basis of translations of parts of the New Testament into other languages spoken in Burma, including Sumtu Chin, Ekai Chin, Songlai Chin, Danau, Kadu, Kanan, Khün, Lahta Karen, Rakhine, Marma (Northern Rakhine), Riang Lai, Samtao, Shwe Palaung, Tai Laing, Taungyo, and Chak (Thet). (Source: Jay Pratt)
The English translation by Sarah Ruden (2021) uses “sky” throughout. Ruden explains (p. li): “The Greek word ouranos refers evenhandedly to the physical sky and the place—often pictured as a royal court — where supreme divinity resides. ‘Sky’ seems generally better, first of all in avoiding the wackier modern imagery that comes with the English ‘heaven.’ And even when a supernatural realm is meant, ‘sky’ will often do, because the divine realm was thought to be located there, in addition to the weather and the heavenly bodies, whereas ‘heaven’ to us is fundamentally a religious term, and the ancients did not tend to separate linguistic domains in this way. I have retained the plural ‘skies’ where I see it in the Greek, because it is a Hebraism familiar in English translations of scripture and (I hope) not too archaic or jarring.”
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 choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
A still further argument against the assumption that in previous quotations David was speaking about himself is now introduced. This recapitulates what was said in verse 29b, but in a different way, since now the focus is shifted to the exaltation (vv. 32-33).
It is probably necessary to have some marginal note for verse 34 to indicate that this reference to going to heaven applies to the special exaltation of Jesus to the right hand of God. In some instances one can simply indicate this contrast between David and Jesus by adding to the first clause “as Jesus did,” for example, “For David himself did not go up into heaven as Jesus did.” The quotation from Psalm 110.1, given in verses 34-35, is almost an exact reproduction of the Septuagint. In the original context of the Psalm it was God* telling his* chosen king* to sit at his* right side until he* had made the king’s enemies a place for him* to put his* feet. As used in the present context the Lord is God the Father and my Lord refers to Jesus; by raising Jesus from the dead God made him Lord and Messiah. Although the word translated until may in other contexts indicate that the action of the main verb will be terminated at the point indicated by until, it is impossible to suppose that the same holds true in the present context. This is simply another way of saying that God has given the Lord Jesus his power and authority, and all Jesus’ enemies will be made subject to him.
If the literal form of the phrase The Lord said to my Lord is retained, it is almost certain that some marginal note is required to indicate that this is God who is speaking to my Lord.
As suggested above, there is a real problem involved in rendering until, since in many languages such a conjunction specifies the end of a period, after which some other arrangement is presumed. Therefore, it may be more in keeping with the proper exegesis of this passage to translate until as “in the meantime” or “during that time,” for example, “Sit here at my right side and during that time I will put your enemies….”
In many languages the figure of the footstool is meaningful, especially if one can supplement this with some marginal note to indicate that this is a figure of speech, indicating victory over one’s enemies. However, in languages in which the figure is inadmissible, one can always employ a non-metaphorical equivalent, for example, “until I cause you to have victory over your enemies” or “I cause your enemies to be subjected to your authority.” The concept of being “subjected to your authority” may be rendered in some languages as “must obey your words.”
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 .
For: This conjunction For introduces an explanation for what Peter said about Jesus in 2:33. Peter knew that Jesus was with God because Psalm 110:1 indicated that the Christ would sit there. Consider how to indicate that 2:34c–35 explains why Peter said that Jesus was exalted and with God. Here are some other ways to translate this word:
Indeed, -or-
Listen,
David did not ascend into heaven: This clause implies that David was not the Christ. The phrase ascend into heaven refers specifically here to the promise for the Christ.
In some languages a literal translation would imply that David was not a good person or that God rejected David. If that is true in your language, you may want to:
• Explain in the text. For example:
David did not ascend to heaven ⌊as the Christ⌋
• Translate literally and explain in a footnote. Here is an example footnote:
This clause implies that David was not the Christ. The phrase “ascend to heaven” refers specifically here to the promise for the Christ.
heaven: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as heaven can mean either “heaven” or “sky.” Here it refers to the place where God lives. See how you translated heaven in 1:11.
2:34b
but he himself says: The word he is emphasized in the Greek text. The Berean Standard Bible indicates this by using the pronoun himself.
2:34c
The quote in 2:34c–35 is from Psalm 110:1. You may want to include this information in a footnote or cross-reference in your translation.
The Lord said to my Lord: This clause indicates that God spoke to someone whom David called my Lord. In 2:36 Peter indicated that the words my Lord refer to Jesus, the Christ. But 2:34c–35 is a quote from Psalm 110:1, so you should not try to explain the connection here.
The Lord: The word Lord means “master,” or “the one who has authority over others.” See how you translated this word in 1:6.
my Lord: This refers to a different person than “the Lord” above. It may be more clear in some languages to use a different word than Lord here that a similar meaning. For example:
my Master/Chief -or-
my ⌊Big⌋ Leader
2:34d
Sit at My right hand: In Jewish culture the seat at the right side of the king was the position of highest honor and authority under the king. Here God told David’s “Lord” to take this position of honor and to rule along with him (God).
In some languages this implied information may not be clear. If that is true in your language, you may want to explain in a footnote. Here is an example footnote:
In Jewish culture the seat at the right side of the king was the position of highest honor and authority next to the king.
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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