14When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.’
The Greek proverb which is translated directly by some English versions as “kick against the goads (=a spiked stick used for driving cattle)” and refers to “pointless fighting” became “throw chaff into the wind” in the Khmer Standard Version translation of 2005 (the translators also considered “spit vertically upwards”). (Source David Clark)
In Lalana Chinantec it is translated as “as a bull which kicks a sharp stick which his owner holds so do you,” in Teutila Cuicatec as “you are doing the same as an ox that is hurting itself, kicking the sharp stick that people drive it with,” in Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac as “like a horse when it kicks the stick with which it is driven” (source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), and in Elhomwe as “because you are against me, you are hurting yourself” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext).
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, translators typically select the exclusive form (only including Paul and his companions).
Source: SIL International Translation Department (1999).
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 26:14:
Uma: “Down we (excl.) all fell. And I heard someone speaking to me in the Yahudi language, he said to me: ‘Saulus! Saulus! Why do you (sing.) persecute me? But it is you (sing.) yourself that will hurt, if you keep opposing the call of your (sing.) Lord.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “We (excl.) all fell to the ground. Then I heard a voice speaking to me in the Hibrani language. The voice said, ‘O Saul, Saul. Why do you persecute me? You are just the one-having-difficulty when you oppose me.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And all of us, we fell down and I heard someone talking in the Hebrew language, and he said, ‘Hey Saul, why are you doing bad things to me? You are having a hard time because there is no use in resisting me.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “and we (excl.) all fell-over. Then I heard a voice saying in the language Hebreo, ‘Saulo, Saulo, why do you (sing.) hardship-me? It is your (sing.) own self that you (sing.) are-hardshipping in your (sing.) opposing me like a water-buffalo that kicks the poking-instrument of the plower.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “We(excl.) all went-down-on-our-faces on the ground and then I heard a voice which spoke to me, saying in the Hebreo-language, ‘Saulo, Saulo, why are you doing like this which is persecuting me? I tell you that you are only hurting yourself through your fighting-against/disobeying my will.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
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 show 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. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
According to 9.4 only Paul fell down, while here it is stated all of us fell to the ground. It is explicitly stated here that Saul (Paul) was spoken to in the Hebrew language, while in 9.4 and 22.7 only the use of the word Saul implies this fact.
“It is hard for you to kick against the stick” must be understood in the sense of “you hurt yourself by kicking against the stick.” The kind of stick referred to was a sharp-pointed stick used by a person goading an ox or a donkey while working. What appears as a metaphor in Greek is rendered here as a kind of simile, since it would be difficult for the average person to understand what is really involved in an ox kicking against its owner’s stick and how this might apply to an individual.
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 .
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