pray / prayer

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, and Greek that is translated as “pray” (or “prayer”) in English is often translated as “talking with God” (Central Pame, Tzeltal, Chol, Chimborazo Highland Quichua, Shipibo-Conibo, Kaqchikel, Tepeuxila Cuicatec, Copainalá Zoque, Central Tarahumara).

Other solutions include:

  • “beg” or “ask,” (full expression: “ask with one’s heart coming out,” which leaves out selfish praying, for asking with the heart out leaves no place for self to hide) (Tzotzil)
  • “cause God to know” (Huichol)
  • “raise up one’s words to God” (implying an element of worship, as well as communication) (Miskito, Lacandon) (source of this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • “speak to God” (Shilluk) (source: Nida 1964, p. 237)
  • “talk together with Great Above One (=God)” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter, 2004)
  • “call to one’s Father” (San Blas Kuna) (source: Claudio and Marvel Iglesias in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 85ff. )
  • “beg” (waan) (Ik). Terrill Schrock (in Wycliffe Bible Translators 2016, p. 93) explains (click or tap here to read more):

    What do begging and praying have to do with each other? Do you beg when you pray? Do I?

    “The Ik word for ‘visitor’ is waanam, which means ‘begging person.’ Do you beg when you go visiting? The Ik do. Maybe you don’t beg, but maybe when you visit someone, you are looking for something. Maybe it’s just a listening ear.

    When the Ik hear that [my wife] Amber and I are planning trip to this or that place for a certain amount of time, the letters and lists start coming. As the days dwindle before our departure, the little stack of guests grows. ‘Please, sir, remember me for the allowing: shoes, jacket (rainproof), watch, box, trousers, pens, and money for the children. Thank you, sir, for your assistance.’

    “A few people come by just to greet us or spend bit of time with us. Another precious few will occasionally confide in us about their problems without asking for anything more than a listening ear. I love that.

    “The other day I was in our spare bedroom praying my list of requests to God — a nice list covering most areas of my life, certainly all the points of anxiety. Then it hit me: Does God want my list, or does he want my relationship?

    “I decided to try something. Instead of reading off my list of requests to God, I just talk to him about my issues without any expectation of how he should respond. I make it more about our relationship than my list, because if our personhood is like God’s personhood, then maybe God prefers our confidence and time to our lists, letters, and enumerations.”

In Luang it is translated with different shades of meaning (click or tap here to read more):

  • For Acts 1:14, 20:36, 21:5: kola ttieru-yawur nehla — “hold the waist and hug the neck.” (“This is the more general term for prayer and often refers to worship in prayer as opposed to petition. The Luang people spend the majority of their prayers worshiping rather than petitioning, which explains why this term often is used generically for prayer.”)
  • For Acts 28:9: sumbiani — “pray.” (“This term is also used generically for ‘prayer’. When praying is referred to several times in close proximity, it serves as a variation for kola ttieru-yawur nehla, in keeping with Luang discourse style. It is also used when a prayer is made up of many requests.”)
  • For Acts 8:15, 12:5: polu-waka — “call-ask.” (“This is a term for petition that is used especially when the need is very intense.”)

Source: Kathy Taber in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 9-16.

See also Nehemiah’s prayer (image).

complete verse (Acts 20:36)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 20:36:

  • Uma: “When Paulus finished talking, he kneeled together with all those companions of his from Efesus, and he prayed.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “After Paul had spoken, he stood with his knees together with all of them praying to God.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when Paul finished saying this, he knelt down and he called upon God.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Upon Pablo’s saying that, then they all knelt-down, and Pablo prayed.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “When all of what Pablo said was ended, they all knelt down and prayed.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Acts 20:36

The verb finished may require some complementary verb such as “finished speaking” or “stopped speaking to the people.”

As was the custom of the time, Paul knelt down when praying. It may also be necessary to add a goal to the verb prayed, for example, “prayed to God.”

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Acts 20:36

Paragraph 20:36–38

20:36

he knelt down: The common posture for prayer at the time was to stand. Kneeling in prayer indicated the person is very sad, grieving, or feeling helpless or oppressed. Here Paul expected that he would not see these friends of his again (20:38a–b).

Kneeling in biblical cultures also showed that a person was reverent and humble before God. In some languages kneeling to pray has a different meaning. If that is true in your language, you may want to:

• Explain it in your translation. For example:

he knelt ⌊reverently/humbly⌋

• Use the gesture in your culture that indicates that the person reveres God. You may then want to indicate the literal word in a footnote. An example footnote is:

Literally “knelt.” At that time, kneeling showed that the person was humble.

• Translate literally and explain it in a footnote. An example footnote is:

At that time, kneeling showed that the person was humble.

The same Greek word occurs in 9:40. See how you translated it there.

with all of them: The phrase all of them refers to the elders from the church at Ephesus. The elders probably knelt with Paul. They may have also prayed for Paul.

prayed: The word prayed refers to speaking to God, either to praise Him, thank Him, or ask Him something. This term does not refer to ritualistic words or words of magic. Use the proper word or phrase in your language. See how you translated this word in 1:24 or 16:25.

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