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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, a god, or a person or persons to be honored, the honorific prefix go- (御 or ご) can be used, as in go-keikaku (ご計画), a combination of “plan” (keikaku) and the honorific prefix go-. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 4:28:
Uma: “This planning of theirs, was to kill Yesus. But in fact what they did fulfilled what you (sing.) had already decided [made certain] from-the-first! As a result everything happened according to your (sing.) power and your (sing.) own desire, Lord.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “They do this because formerly yet you planned from/by your will and your power that this should happen.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And they have agreed on what they will do to him according to what you foreordained that they would do.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “And they did all that you (sing.) previously because of your (sing.) power had already-decided should be fulfilled.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “But well, all which they have decided to do is all in harmony with what you indeed determined would happen.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
San Mateo del Mar Huave: “Thus they did because you have stated from before that thus it would be.”
Teutila Cuicatec: “They carried out all that you decreed would have to come to pass.”
Eastern Highland Otomi: “Because this is what you ordained in the beginning that would happen.”
Chuj: “But they just did like you had said long ago how that those things must be done.” (Source of this and three above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
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 (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) is used here in mi-te (御手) or “hand (of God).”
Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed.
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight
Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or modern English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.
As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.
In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.
Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”
In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.
Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking.” (Source Philip Noss)
In the most recent Manchu translation of 1835 (a revision of an earlier edition from 1822), God is never addressed with a pronoun but with “father” (ama /ᠠᠮᠠ) instead. Chengcheng Liu (in this post on the Cambridge Centre for Chinese Theology blog ) explains: “In Manchu tradition, as in Chinese etiquette, second-person pronouns could be considered disrespectful when speaking to superiors or spiritual beings. Manchu Shamanist prayers avoided si [‘you’] and sini [‘your’] for this very reason. To use them for God would be, in Lipovzoff’s [one of the two translators] words, ‘the most uncouth and indecent way to speak to the Almighty — as if He were a servant or slave.’ There was also a grammatical problem. In Manchu, si and sini could refer to both singular and plural subjects. For a faith that insisted on the singularity of God, this was potentially confusing. By contrast, repeating ama removed any ambiguity.”
Your power translates “your hand”; “the hand of God” is a biblical phrase which signifies “the power or might of God,” especially as seen in his mighty acts of salvation.
The statement of the principal event “gathering together” and its purpose to do everything that … had already decided is not difficult to combine in most languages. What complicates the picture is the addition of the phrase by your power and will. This explanation of the means, or as some might interpret it the attendant circumstances, may need to be expressed as a separate clause.
The first clause can be rendered as “they came together to do exactly what already had been decided would happen.” The parenthetical expression can then be rendered as “you could decide it this way because of your power and will.” An even fuller statement of this might be “you could decide exactly what would happen because you had the strength and because this is the way you wanted it.” It is difficult to know in all instances whether Greek boulē should be rendered “wanted it,” as a close translation of “will,” or whether the concept is closer to “design” or “plan,” in which case one could translate “because you had planned it this way.”
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 .
They carried out: Here They refers to the people in 4:27a.
Your hand: This Greek idiom is used here to refer to “power.” For example:
your power (New International Version)
and will: Here this word means “plan, intention, purpose.” In some languages a verb must be used. For example:
what you planned
decided beforehand would happen: This phrase indicates here that God had already planned for those people to kill Jesus. Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
determined before to be done (King James Version) -or-
already-decided should be fulfilled
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®).
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.