wisdom

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Ge’ez, Latin, and Greek that is translated as “wisdom” in English is rendered in various ways:

  • Amganad Ifugao / Tabasco Chontal: “(big) mind”
  • Bulu / Yamba: “heart-thinking”
  • Tae’: “cleverness of heart” (source for this and all above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Palauan: “bright spirit (innermost)” (source: Bratcher / Hatton)
  • Ixcatlán Mazatec: “with your best/biggest thinking” (source: Robert Bascom)
  • Noongar: dwangka-boola, lit. “ear much” (source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018 — see also remember)
  • Kwere “to know how to live well” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Dobel: “their ear holes are long-lasting” (in Acts 6:3) (source: Jock Hughes)
  • Gbaya: iŋa-mgbara-mɔ or “knowing-about-things” (note that in comparison to that, “knowledge” is translated as iŋa-mɔ or “knowing things”) (source: Philip Noss in The Bible Translator 2001, p. 114ff. )
  • Chichewa: nzeru, meaning both “knowledge” and “wisdom” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Uma: “clearness” (source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Kako: “heart thinking” (source: Reyburn 2002, p. 190)

In Hungarian Sign Language it is translated with a hand gesture referring to God to indicate a human quality to communicate that wisdom does not originate from man but is linked to and connected with the fear of God (source: Jenjelvi Biblia and HSL Bible Translation Group):


“Wisdom” in Hungarian Sign Language (source )

See also wisdom (Proverbs) and knowledge.

Translation commentary on Baruch 3:14

Notice the structure of this verse:

Learn
where there is wisdom,
where there is strength,
where there is understanding,
that you may … discern
where there is length of days,
and life,
where there is light for the eyes,
and peace.

Good News Translation slightly restructures this verse by combining the first three “where” clauses into one, and the last two “where” clauses into one. Rather than one long sentence with a purpose clause, Good News Translation makes two sentences. The idea of learning with a purpose is expressed by “Then” beginning the second sentence. New English Bible has radically restructured the verse by converting the first three “where” clauses into a series of questions, and answering them with “Learn…”: “Where is understanding, where is strength, where is intelligence? Learn that, and then you will know where to find life and light to walk by, long life and peace.”

Some translators may wish to consider combining the terms wisdom and understanding.

Strength, as Moore points out, may well refer to moral and spiritual strength rather than physical strength. Compare Micah 3.8: “But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.” The Hebrew word translated “power” in that verse is translated in the Greek Bible by the word for strength used here in Baruch. If translators have a term for strength that can mean “spiritual [or, moral] power,” it should be used here. Otherwise, it will be helpful to say something like “power of the heart” if that has the sense of “spiritual power.”

That you may at the same time discern …: Discern means to discover something through your own mental activity, rather than being taught. Good News Translation translates this as a statement: “Then you will know….”

Length of days refers to long life. Good News Translation keeps length of days, and life from being repetitive by giving life a qualitative interpretation: “a long and full life” (similarly Contemporary English Version). See Psa 16.11.

Light for the eyes refers to guidance, so both Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version say “light to guide you.”

Peace again refers to the quality of life, happiness, and prosperity.

Concerning Wisdom as the source of the blessings mentioned here, see Pro 3.16; 8.14.

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.