addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed.

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 Translator 2002, 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.”

In Dutch, Afrikaans, Gronings, and Western Frisian translations, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also formal pronoun: disciples addressing Jesus, female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

Translation commentary on The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men 1:20 – 1:21

If integrated into the book of Daniel: 3.43-44

In Revised Standard Version verse 21 begins with the clause let them be disgraced. The first part of the sentence is in verse 20. Neither of the printed Greek texts divides the verses at this point. New Revised Standard Version has moved the verse number to agree with Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, and other versions, but Revised English Bible retains the peculiar numbering of Revised Standard Version. Deliver us in accordance with thy marvelous works: The sense of the Greek here is “Rescue us in your wondrous manner,” or we may say “Use your marvelous power to rescue us.” The speaker is not necessarily asking for a “miracle” in the modern sense.

Give glory to thy name. O Lord: Compare Psa 115.1. The speaker is saying that a wondrous rescue of God’s people would demonstrate God’s glory, and be something celebrated wherever God’s wondrous deeds are recounted. A problem is to translate idiomatically here without it sounding like “You would be doing yourself a favor.” In this case we may say “so that people will praise you.” Note that Good News Translation places the phrase O Lord at the beginning of the verse. Some translators will find this reordering helpful.

Let all who do harm to thy servants …: At this point there is a shift in the subject matter. Azariah has been talking about repentance, but now he asks God to punish their enemies. Good News Translation signals this with a paragraph break. Good News Translation simply renders thy servants as “us,” but Contemporary English Version keeps this phrase by saying “We, your servants, pray that those who have harmed us….”

The writer wishes his enemies ill in four verbs: they should be put to shame … disgraced … deprived of all power and dominion, and their strength should be broken. The first two verbs state essentially the same thought, while the last two echo each other. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version therefore place the first two verbs in one sentence. Good News Translation has “Bring disgrace and shame on all who harm us,” and Contemporary English Version has combined put to shame and disgraced by saying “We, your servants, pray that those who have harmed us will be disgraced.” But we may also cast this in the active voice with “We, your servants, pray that you will bring disgrace on those who have harmed us.” Good News Translation also places the second pair of verbs in one sentence with “Take away their might and power and crush their strength.” However, in many languages the terms power, dominion, and strength will be difficult to translate. In such cases we may combine power and dominion, saying “They have tremendous power. Please take it away from them and leave them powerless.”

An alternative translation model for verse 21 is:

• We, your servants, pray that you will bring disgrace on [or, cause loss of face to] those who have harmed us. They have tremendous power. Please take it away from them and leave them powerless.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.