God / god (Japanese honorifics)

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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 to do this is through the usage of appropriate suffix title referred to as keishō (敬称) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017 by either using -san or –sama with the latter being the more formal title.

In these verses, “God” and “god” is addressed in the Shinkaiyaku Bible as kami-sama (神様), combining the word for “God” (kami) and the suffix title –sama. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

complete verse (Acts 28:6)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 28:6:

  • Uma: “The townspeople said his hand would swell up, or perhaps he would suddenly fall over and die. Yet after waiting a long time, nothing happened to him. From there, their thinking changed again, they said: ‘Paulus is a person of power!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “What they waited for was that his hand would swell or that he would suddenly just fall down dead. But when they had waited a long while and they did not see anything happen to Paul, then the mind of those people of Malta changed. They said that he was a god.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “They thought that then and there immediately Paul’s hand would swell up and he would fall over and he would suddenly stiffen up dead. However when some time passed and nothing happened to Paul, they changed their minds and they said, ‘So he must be a god!'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “They expected that his hand would swell-up or he would fall-over to die, but when they had waited for-a-long-time and they saw nothing happen, they changed their minds saying, ‘Why obviously then he is a god.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Those taga Malta continued to wait for Pablo to swell up or fall down suddenly and die. But no. When they had been observing for a long time now and they could observe no change in the appearance of Pablo, they changed their mind. ‘Ah,’ they said, ‘this person really isn’t just an ordinary person. He is one of the gods.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Acts 28:6

Waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead may need to be somewhat recast in some languages—for example, “they were expecting him to soon swell up or suddenly fall down dead.” In some languages this may even be expressed as direct discourse “they kept thinking, He will certainly soon swell up or suddenly fall down dead.”

Not seeing anything unusual happening to him may be translated as “they did not see that Paul was suffering anything” or “they saw that Paul was not in any way suffering anything.”

Just as to be bitten by a snake was considered to be an indication of divine punishment, so to be protected from the bite of the snake was considered to be an indication of divine protection; and so they changed their minds and said, “He is a god!” It is known from other Greek sources that persons who underwent divine protection were called “friends of the god,” but it is not known where people were themselves called gods because of some act of divine protection.

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 28:6

28:6a

The islanders were expecting him to swell up or suddenly drop dead: The people of the island recognized that the snake was poisonous. They were expecting the poison to cause him to become swollen or suddenly die. For example:

They were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. (Good News Translation)

were expecting: The Greek tense probably indicates the people waited some time expecting Paul to swell or die. For example:

waited, expecting (Revised Standard Version)

him to swell up: The snake bite would probably have caused his hand and possibly his arm to become swollen rather than the whole body. In some languages what became swollen must be explicitly said. For example:

his hand would swell-up
-or-
his ⌊hand⌋ ⌊and arm⌋ to swell

28:6b

after waiting a long time: The people knew about how long it would be before someone bitten by this kind of snake would swell up or die. So they waited longer than that time. It could have been some minutes or perhaps even an hour. These verses do not tell us the exact kind of snake it was. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

when they had waited a long time (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
after they waited longer than usual

seeing nothing unusual happen to him: This indicates that Paul remained healthy. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

without seeing anything out of the ordinary happen to him (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
watched him for a long time, but nothing bad happened to him (New Century Version)

28:6c

they changed their minds: This indicates the people no longer thought Paul was a murderer but instead thought he was a god. Other ways to translate this clause are:

their thinking changed
-or-
they began to think differently
-or-
they changed what they thought

said he was a god: The people of the island believed in many gods. Since Paul did not swell up and die, they began to think that he had power over nature and therefore was a god.

said: The Greek tense probably indicates that they continued saying this for some time. For example:

began to say (New Jerusalem Bible)

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Sung version of Acts 28

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