11That night the Lord stood near him and said, “Keep up your courage! For just as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also in Rome.”
The now commonly-used English idiom “be of good cheer” (be happy) was first coined in 1526 in the English New Testament translation of William Tyndale. (Source: Crystal 2010, p. 275)
For other idioms in English that were coined by Bible translation, see here.
In Low German it is translated as Kopp hoch, lit. “hold your head up high” (translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006).
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 23:11:
Uma: “The second night that Paulus was in that house of the soldiers, the Lord Yesus suddenly stood next to him, he said to him: ‘Strengthen your (sing.) heart. You (sing.) have already witnessed about me here in Yerusalem, and you (sing.) will certainly also witness about me in the town of Roma.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “That night Isa the Lord appeared to him, standing there beside him. He said to Paul, ‘Do not be afraid. You have already testified/witnessed for me here in Awrusalam. You must also witness for me there in Roma.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And later that night the Lord Jesus appeared to Paul and he said to him, ‘Only trust, because just like you have told your faith here in Jerusalem, it is necessary also that you tell it there in the town of Rome.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “On that night, the Lord Jesus appeared to Pablo and said, ‘Strengthen your (sing.) mind/thoughts, because you (sing.) must go confirm concerning me in Roma just like you (sing.) have done here in Jerusalem.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “When it was night, the Lord came to see/meet Pablo and said to him, ‘Act-the-man, for like you testified concerning me here in Jerusalem, like that indeed is what you must do in Roma.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
The name that is transliterated as “Jerusalem” in English is signed in French Sign Language with a sign that depicts worshiping at the Western Wall in Jerusalem:
While a similar sign is also used in British Sign Language, another, more neutral sign that combines the sign “J” and the signs for “place” is used as well. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Jerusalem” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
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).
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight
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.”
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.
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 are (され) 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, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.
The expression the following night means “the night following the day on which Paul had been before the Council.” In some languages this is rendered as “that night.”
Though this appearance of the Lord is interpreted by some as being a vision, there is no specific indication in the Greek text that this was the case. Only by implication of the appearance being at night may one argue that this was the appearance of the Lord to Paul in a dream. It is best simply to render the text as it appears, without specifying dream or vision.
Courage has been rendered both as “take courage” (Revised Standard Version) and “keep up your courage” (New English Bible). The former of these two possibilities seems to fit the Greek better.
Given your witness … do the same actually translates two different verbs (note Revised Standard Version “have testified … must bear witness”), but it is best to regard these essentially as synonyms (note Moffatt “testified … must testify” and New English Bible “affirmed the truth about me … do the same”).
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 .
The following night: This phrase refers to the first night after the day that Paul met with the Sanhedrin. For example:
That night (Good News Translation) -or-
The next night (New Century Version)
Lord: This word means “the one in authority over others” or “master.” Here the word refers to Jesus. In some languages it is clearer or more natural to explain so in the translation. For example:
the Lord ⌊Jesus⌋
stood near: Here the Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as stood near means “appear near, standing.” Jesus appeared next to Paul. He did not walk from somewhere else to stand next to Paul. Other ways to translate this phrase are:
stood by (Revised Standard Version) -or-
appeared to (New Living Translation (2004))
23:11b–c
As you have testified about Me in Jerusalem, so also you must testify in Rome: The Greek conjunction that is often translated as “for” introduces this sentence. It introduces why Paul should be encouraged. For example:
Take courage, for as you have testified about me at Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also at Rome. (Revised Standard Version)
As…so: These two words indicate that the two events of testifying are similar. Jesus wanted Paul to testify in the future the same way that Paul testified in the past. It was also a promise that Paul would continue to serve Jesus despite the Jews opposing Paul. Other ways to translate this meaning are:
You have testified about me in Jerusalem. You must also testify about me in Rome. -or-
You must testify about me in Rome just as you have testified about me in Jerusalem.
testified…testify:
The verbs testified and testify mean “report what one saw.” The word is often used where the person is expected to be truthful and accurate. Paul told others what he knew about Jesus. Other ways to translate these words are:
You have borne witness for me in Jerusalem, now you must do the same in Rome. (New Jerusalem Bible) -or-
as you have solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also (New American Standard Bible) -or-
You’ve told the truth about me in Jerusalem. Now you must tell the truth about me in Rome. (God’s Word)
23:11b
Take courage!: This phrase indicates that Jesus wanted Paul to have courage. Some Jews opposed Paul but Jesus the Christ was in control and he supported Paul. Consider how to translate this meaning. It may be an idiom or some other kind of expression. For example:
Courage! (New Jerusalem Bible) -or-
Strengthen your mind/thoughts -or-
Strengthen your(s) heart -or-
Be courageous!
23:11c
must: This word in Greek is literally “it is necessary.” God indicated that it was necessary that Paul would testify about Jesus in Rome. Other ways to translate this word are:
will certainly -or-
it is necessary…that
Rome: This name refers to the capital city of the Roman people.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.