worship

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The Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek terms that are often translated as “worship” (also, “kneel down” or “bow down”) are likewise translated in other languages in certain categories, including those based on physical activity, those which incorporate some element of “speaking” or “declaring,” and those which specify some type of mental activity.

Following is a list of (back-) translations (click or tap for details):

  • Javanese: “prostrate oneself before”
  • Malay: “kneel and bow the head”
  • Kaqchikel: “kneel before”
  • Loma (Liberia): “drop oneself beneath God’s foot”
  • Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “wag the tail before God” (using a verb which with an animal subject means “to wag the tail,” but with a human subject)
  • Tzotzil: “join to”
  • Kpelle: “raise up a blessing to God”
  • Kekchí: “praise as your God”
  • Cashibo-Cacataibo: “say one is important”
  • San Blas Kuna: “think of God with the heart”
  • Rincón Zapotec: “have one’s heart go out to God”
  • Tabasco Chontal: “holy-remember” (source of this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Bariai: “lift up God’s name” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Q’anjob’al: “humble oneself before” (source: Newberry and Kittie Cox in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. )
  • Alur: rwo: “complete submission, adoration, consecration” (source: F. G. Lasse in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 22ff. )
  • Obolo: itọtọbọ ebum: “express reverence and devotion” (source: Enene Enene)
  • Ngäbere: “cut oneself down before” (“This figure of speech comes from the picture of towering mahoganies in the forest which, under the woodman’s ax, quiver, waver, and then in solemn, thunderous crashing bury their lofty heads in the upstretched arms of the surrounding forest. This is the experience of every true worshiper who sees ‘the Lord, high and lifted up.’ Our own unworthiness brings us low. As the Valientes say, ‘we cut ourselves down before’ His presence. Our heads, which have been carried high in self-confidence, sink lower and lower in worship.)
  • Tzeltal: “end oneself before God.” (“Only by coming to the end of oneself can one truly worship. The animist worships his deities in the hope of receiving corresponding benefits, and some pagans in Christendom think that church attendance is a guarantee of success in this life and good luck in the future. But God has never set a price on worship except the price that we must pay, namely, ‘coming to the end of ourselves.'”) (Source of this and the one above: Nida 1952, p. 163)
  • Folopa: “die under God” (“an idiom that roughly back-translates “dying under God” which means lifting up his name and praising him and to acknowledge by everything one does and thanks that God is superior.”) (Source: Anderson / Moore, p. 202)
  • Chokwe: kuivayila — “rub something on” (“When anyone goes into the presence of a king or other superior, according to native law and custom the inferior gets down on the ground, takes a little earth in the fingers of his right hand, rubs it on his own body, and then claps his hands in homage and the greeting of friendship. It is a token of veneration, of homage, of extreme gratitude for some favor received. It is also a recognition of kingship, lordship, and a prostrating of oneself in its presence. Yet it simply is the applicative form of ‘to rub something on oneself’, this form of the verb giving the value of ‘because of.’ Thus in God’s presence as king and Lord we metaphorically rub dirt on ourselves, thus acknowledging Him for what He really is and what He has done for us.”) (Source: D. B. Long in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 87ff. )
  • In the German New Testament translation Fridolin Stier (1989) it is consistently translated as “bow (to someone) deeply” (tief verneigen)

In Luang it is translated with different shades of meaning:

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

complete verse (Acts 7:43)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 7:43:

  • Uma: “You worshipped a lord that called Molokh, and his house you continually carried around with you. You also worshipped the idol that looked like the star Refan. It was those images that you made to worship. That’s why I will allow you to be taken captive, and carried away, as far as the far side of the village of Babel.’ Those were the words of the Lord God to our ancestors long ago.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But what you were carrying along was the place-for-keeping the image of your god Molok, and the image in the shape like a star your god Rompa. Those were the images which you made for you to worship. Therefore I will send you away beyond the land of Babilon.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The things you carried around were the place where you caused Moloch to live, the one you worship and also the image of the star which you worship which is Rephan. These are images which you made that you worship. That’s why I am going to have you taken far away there beyond the place Babylon.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “It was certainly not, because what you kept-taking-with-you, it was the tent of the false/imitation god called Moloc and the star-image of the false/imitation god called Refan. Those were the false/imitation gods you made in order that you might worship-them. Therefore I will cause-you -to-be-removed so that you will go to a country that is farther than Babilonia.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Proof was, you were carrying around the representations you had made of the created-things which are in the sky, they being what you were worshipping. What I am referring to which you were carrying around were the collapsible little-houses which were where you worshipped the representations of Moloc, and too, that image of Renfan which was made like a star. That’s why I determined that you be attacked, and be taken beyond Babilonia.”” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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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 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.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also pronoun for “God”.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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 formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Acts 7:43

It is often not difficult to find an equivalent for the word tent, for example, “sanctuary” or even “canopy,” since in so many societies it is common practice to provide some type of covering for the image of a god when it is carried in a public procession.

The Good News Translation has added the god before Moloch and the image of before the star in order to indicate that Moloch was a god, and what the people of the Israel actually carried was a likeness, or an image, of the star of the god Rephan (unless the reference to the star of your god Rephan is taken in some general way to suggest that they worshiped this particular star). Moloch was the Canaanite god of sun and sky, and Rephan may have been the Egyptian god of the planet Saturn. The statement I will send you away beyond Babylon agrees neither with the Hebrew nor with the Septuagint, both of which have “beyond Damascus.”

In most languages there is no distinction made between image and idol. Technically, an image is only a representation of a god and has no inherent power within itself, while an idol not only represents the god but has certain inherent characteristics of special spirit power.

The expression I will send you away is not to be understood in the normal sense of “sending on a commission” but rather “cause you to be taken away” or “cause you to be led away.”

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 .