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)
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 20:19:
Uma: “With humbleness of heart and with tears flowing, I worked the work of the Lord in your midst. And much suffering hit me because of the plans/purposes of the Yahudi people who wanted to kill me.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “I worked for the Lord, my liver was very low (humble) and often my tears dropped,’ he said. ‘I worked on even though I had difficulties because of the plans of the Yahudi opposing me.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “I carried out what God wanted me to do and I did not raise myself above others. My tears fell because you were dear to my breath. There were many hard and painful things that I had to endure because of the bad things that the Jews did to me.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “I have fulfilled what the Lord Jesus has-commanded without making-myself-important. I have also shed-tears from my sorrow (lit. hurt of my mind) on-account-of my fellow Jews hardshipping of me, repeatedly-planning to kill-me koma.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Isn’t it so that I continued my serving of the Lord with much humility/patience and even with my tears included ? Yes indeed, I persevered in it even though I experienced many hardships at the hand of the Jews.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
The Hebrew adonai in the Old Testament typically refers to God. The shorter adon (and in two cases in the book of Daniel the Aramaic mare [מָרֵא]) is also used to refer to God but more often for concepts like “master,” “owner,” etc. In English Bible translations all of those are translated with “Lord” if they refer to God.
In English Old Testament translations, as in Old Testament translations in many other languages, the use of Lord (or an equivalent term in other languages) is not to be confused with Lord (or the equivalent term with a different typographical display for other languages). While the former translates adonai, adon and mare, the latter is a translation for the tetragrammaton (YHWH) or the Name of God. See tetragrammaton (YHWH) and the article by Andy Warren-Rothlin in Noss / Houser, p. 618ff. for more information.
In the New Testament, the Greek term kurios has at least four different kinds of use:
referring to “God,” especially in Old Testament quotations,
meaning “master” or “owner,” especially in parables, etc.,
as a form of address (see for instance John 4:11: “Sir, you have no bucket”),
or, most often, referring to Jesus
In the first and fourth case, it is also translated as “Lord” in English.
Most languages naturally don’t have one word that covers all these meanings. According to Bratcher / Nida, “the alternatives are usually (1) a term which is an honorific title of respect for a high-ranking person and (2) a word meaning ‘boss’, ‘master’, or ‘chief.’ (…) and on the whole it has generally seemed better to employ a word of the second category, in order to emphasize the immediate personal relationship, and then by context to build into the word the prestigeful character, since its very association with Jesus Christ will tend to accomplish this purpose.”
When looking at the following list of back-translations of the terms that translators in the different languages have used for both kurios and adonai to refer to God and Jesus respectively, it might be helpful for English readers to recall the etymology of the English “Lord.” While this term might have gained an exalted meaning in the understanding of many, it actually comes from hlaford or “loaf-ward,” referring to the lord of the castle who was the keeper of the bread (source: Rosin 1956, p. 121).
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Following are some of the solutions that don’t rely on a different typographical display (see above):
Iyansi: Mwol. Mwol is traditionally used for the “chief of a group of communities and villages” with legal, temporal, and spiritual authority (versus the “mfum [the term used in other Bantu languages] which is used for the chief of one community of people in one village”). Mwol is also used for twins who are “treated as special children, highly honored, and taken care of like kings and queens.” (Source: Kividi Kikama in Greed / Kruger, p. 396ff.)
Binumarien: Karaambaia: “fight-leader” (Source: Oates 1995, p. 255)
Warlpiri: Warlaljamarri (owner or possessor of something — for more information tap or click here)
We have come to rely on another term which emphasizes God’s essential nature as YHWH, namely jukurrarnu (see tetragrammaton (YHWH)). This word is built on the same root jukurr– as is jukurrpa, ‘dreaming.’ Its basic meaning is ‘timelessness’ and it is used to describe physical features of the land which are viewed as always being there. Some speakers view jukurrarnu in terms of ‘history.’ In all Genesis references to YHWH we have used Kaatu Jukurrarnu. In all Mark passages where kurios refers to God and not specifically to Christ we have also used Kaatu Jukurrarnu.
New Testament references to Christ as kurios are handled differently. At one stage we experimented with the term Watirirririrri which refers to a ceremonial boss of highest rank who has the authority to instigate ceremonies. While adequately conveying the sense of Christ’s authority, there remained potential negative connotations relating to Warlpiri ceremonial life of which we might be unaware.
Here it is that the Holy Spirit led us to make a chance discovery. Transcribing the personal testimony of the local Warlpiri pastor, I noticed that he described how ‘my Warlaljamarri called and embraced me (to the faith)’. Warlaljamarri is based on the root warlalja which means variously ‘family, possessions, belongingness’. A warlaljamarri is the ‘owner’ or ‘possessor’ of something. While previously being aware of the ‘ownership’ aspect of warlaljamarri, this was the first time I had heard it applied spontaneously and naturally in a fashion which did justice to the entire concept of ‘Lordship’. Thus references to Christ as kurios are now being handled by Warlaljamarri.” (Source: Stephen Swartz, The Bible Translator 1985, p. 415ff. )
Mairasi: Onggoao Nem (“Throated One” — “Leader,” “Elder”) or Enggavot Nan (“Above-One”) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Obolo: Okaan̄-ene (“Owner of person(s)”) (source: Enene Enene)
Lotha Naga: Opvui (“owner of house / field / cattle”) — since both “Lord” and YHWH are translated as Opvui there is an understanding that “Opvui Jesus is the same as the Opvui of the Old Testament”
Seediq: Tholang, loan word from Min Nan Chinese (the majority language in Taiwan) thâu-lâng (頭儂): “Master” (source: Covell 1998, p. 248)
Thai: phra’ phu pen cao (พระผู้เป็นเจ้า) (divine person who is lord) or ong(kh) cao nay (องค์เจ้านาย) (<divine classifier>-lord-boss) (source: Stephen Pattemore)
Arabic often uses different terms for adonai or kurios referring to God (al-rabb الرب) and kurios referring to Jesus (al-sayyid الـسـيـد). Al-rabb is also the term traditionally used in Arabic Christian-idiom translations for YHWH, and al-sayyid is an honorary term, similar to English “lord” or “sir” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin).
Tamil also uses different terms for adonai/kurios when referring to God and kurios when referring to Jesus. The former is Karttar கர்த்தர், a Sanskrit-derived term with the original meaning of “creator,” and the latter in Āṇṭavar ஆண்டவர், a Tamil term originally meaning “govern” or “reign” (source: Natarajan Subramani).
Burunge: Looimoo: “owner who owns everything” (in the Burunge Bible translation, this term is only used as a reference to Jesus and was originally used to refer to the traditional highest deity — source: Michael Endl in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 48)
Yagaria: Souve, originally “war lord” (source: Renck, p. 94)
Aguacateco: Ajcaw ske’j: “the one to whom we belong and who is above us” (source: Rita Peterson in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 49)
Konkomba: Tidindaan: “He who is the owner of the land and reigns over the people” (source: Lidorio 2007, p. 66)
Chichewa: AmbuyeAmbuye comes from the singular form Mbuye which is used to refer to: (1) someone who is a guardian or protector of someone or group of people — a grandparent who has founded a community or village; (2) someone who is a boss or master over a group of people or servants and has absolute control over them; (3) owner of something, be it a property, animals and people who are bound under his/her rule — for people this was mostly commonly used in the context of slaves and their owner. In short, Mbuye is someone who has some authorities over those who call him/her their “Mbuye.” Now, when the form Ambuye is used it will either be for honorific when used for singular or plural when referring to more than one person. When this term is used in reference to God, it is for respect to God as he is acknowledged as a guardian, protector, and ruler of everything. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation).
Hdi uses rveri (“lion”) as a title of respect and as such it regularly translates adon in the Old Testament. As an address, it’s most often with a possessive pronoun as in rvera ɗa (“my lion” = “my lord” or “sir”). So, for example, Genesis 15:2 (“O Lord God”) is Rvera ɗa Yawe (“My lion Yahweh”) or Ruth to Boaz in Ruth 2:13: “May I find your grace [lit. good-stomach] my lion.” This ties in nicely with the imagery of the Lord roaring like a lion (Hosea 11:10; Amos 3:8; Joel 3:16). Better still, this makes passages like Revelation 5:5 even richer when we read about rveri ma taba məndəra la Yuda, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah”. In Revelation 19:16, Jesus is rveri ta ghəŋa rveriha “the lion above lions” (“lord of lords”). (Source: Drew Maust)
Law (2013, p. 97) writes about how the Ancient GreekSeptuagint‘s translation of the Hebrew adonai was used by the New Testament writers as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments: “Another case is the use of kurios referring to Jesus. For Yahweh (in English Bibles: ‘the Lord‘), the Septuagint uses kurios. Although the term kurios usually has to do with one’s authority over others, when the New Testament authors use this word from the Septuagint to refer to Jesus, they are making an extraordinary claim: Jesus of Nazareth is to be identified with Yahweh.”
I did my work as the Lord’s servant is in the stressed position of the Greek clause.
In Greek a single preposition appears before all humility, many tears, and hard times. The meaning of this preposition when used with all humility is clear: either “with all humility” or “in all humility” (so New English Bible, Jerusalem Bible). The question is whether tears should be taken along with all humility as an expression of Paul’s inner attitude, or whether it should be taken with hard times as an expression of the difficulties that were brought upon Paul because of the plots of the Jews. The Good News Translation takes with all humility and many tears as an expression of Paul’s inner attitude (see also Phillips), while others take tears and hard times together as an indication of the difficulties brought upon Paul because of the plot of the Jews: “in all humility amid the sorrows and trials that came upon me” (New English Bible; see also Jerusalem Bible).
The expression with all humility and many tears is extremely difficult to translate satisfactorily in some receptor languages. In the first place, one cannot conveniently combine such features as humility and tears. Humility must frequently be translated as “I was always very humble” or, in a negative fashion, “I was never proud.” On the other hand, tears must refer to the sorrow or grief which Paul suffered. This cannot imply that all the time he was working he was also crying. One may, however, combine tears with the following expression I did my work, as “while I was doing my work as a servant for the Lord I was often caused to cry.”
There are additional problems in the translation of hard times, for in many languages one cannot speak of “hard occasions.” Rather, the term hard is equivalent to the suffering which Paul endured on various occasions. Therefore the last clause of verse 19 may, in some languages, be rendered as “by their plots the Jews caused me to suffer much.”
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 .
20:19 in Greek continues the sentence that began at 20:18b with “You know how.” You may want to repeat those words here. Also see the note at 20:18b–21b.
with great humility and with tears, especially in the trials that came upon me through the plots of the Jews: This phrase in Greek says literally: “with all humility and tears and trials.” There are several ways to interpret the two Greek words often translated “and”:
(1) They both mean “and.” They indicate that Paul served the Lord in three ways. For example:
with all humility and with tears and with trials (New American Standard Bible)
(Revised Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition, King James Version, NET Bible)
(2) The first Greek word means “and” but the second one means something else. For example:
With all humility and many tears…during the hard times that came to me (Good News Translation)
(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, Good News Translation, New Revised Standard Version, New Living Translation (2004), New Century Version)
(3) The second Greek word means “and” but the first one means something else. For example:
in all humility, with all the sorrows and trials that came to me (New Jerusalem Bible)
(New Jerusalem Bible, Revised English Bible, Contemporary English Version)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), because this author can find no justification for interpretations (2) or (3).
20:19a
I served the Lord: This refers to Paul doing things that honored the Lord. It would include praying, telling others about him, teaching, and helping others. Other ways to translate this clause are:
I did my work as the Lord’s servant (Good News Translation) -or-
I did the things/deeds that the Lord told me to do
See how you translated the word served in Matthew 6:24, Ephesians 6:7, Philippians 2:22, or 1 Thessalonians 1:9.
the Lord: Here, this phrase probably refers to Jesus. Some languages must indicate who this phrase refers to. If that is true in your language, add his name to your translation. For example:
the Lord ⌊Jesus⌋
Lord: This word means “the one in authority over others” or “master.” Jesus rules over all things. See how you translated this word in 1:6 or 19:20.
with great humility: Paul was humble when he served the Lord. Some languages use an idiom to indicate the meaning of humility. For example:
my liver was very low -or-
I held myself underneath others -or-
I put myself low -or-
I did not raise myself above others
with tears: To serve the Lord withtears means that the way Paul served the Lord was characterized by weeping for people. That is, he often wept while he did the Lord’s work. He probably wept because he was sad about the difficulties the believers had or about when they were weak or sinned. Other ways to translate this phrase are:
many tears (Good News Translation) -or-
with all the sorrows (New Jerusalem Bible) -or-
I often cried
20:19b
especially in the trials that came upon me through the plots of the Jews: The Greek words are literally “and (with) trials, the/those happening to me by the plots of the Jews.” The Jews plotted to harm Paul, but he served God even in those difficulties. He probably used those circumstances to serve God more. Other ways to translate this are:
and with trials which befell me through the plots of the Jews (Revised Standard Version) -or-
during the hard times that came to me because of the plots of some Jews (Good News Translation) -or-
during the difficult times I went through when the Jews plotted against me (God’s Word)
the Jews: In this verse and in most contexts in Acts, the phrase the Jews refers only to those Jews who opposed Paul and his work. Other ways to translate this phrase are:
some Jews (Good News Translation) -or-
the Jews ⌊who oppose me⌋
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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