salvation

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The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated with “salvation” (or “deliverance”) in English is translated in the following ways:

  • San Blas Kuna: “receive help for bad deeds” (“this help is not just any kind of help but help for the soul which has sinned)
  • Northwestern Dinka: “help as to his soul” (“or literally, ‘his breath'”) (source for this and the one above: Nida 1952, p. 140)
  • Central Mazahua: “healing the heart” (source: Nida 1952, p. 40)
  • Tzeltal: col: “get loose,” “go free,” “get well” (source: Marianna C. Slocum in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 49f. )
  • Aari: “the day our Savior comes” (in Rom 13:11) (source: Loren Bliese)

in Mairasi its is translated as “life fruit” or “life fruit all mashed out.” Lloyd Peckham explains: “In secret stories, not knowable to women nor children, there was a magical fruit of life. If referred to vaguely, without specifying the specific ‘fruit,’ it can be an expression for eternity.” And for “all masked out” he explains: “Bark cloth required pounding. It got longer and wider as it got pounded. Similarly, life gets pounded or mashed to lengthen it into infinity. Tubers also get mashed into the standard way of serving the staple food, like the fufu of Uganda, or like poi of Hawaii. It spreads out into infinity.” (See also eternity / forever)

In Lisu a poetic construct is used for this term. Arrington (2020, p. 58f.) explains: “A four-word couplet uses Lisu poetic forms to bridge the abstract concrete divide, an essential divide to cross if Christian theology is to be understood by those with oral thought patterns. Each couplet uses three concrete nouns or verbs to express an abstract term. An example of this is the word for salvation, a quite abstract term essential to understanding Christian theology. To coin this new word, the missionary translators used a four-word couplet: ℲO., CYU. W: CYU (person … save … person … save). In this particular case, the word for person was not the ordinary word (ʁ) but rather the combination of ℲO., and W: used in oral poetry. The word for ‘save’ also had to be coined; in this case, it was borrowed from Chinese [from jiù / 救]. These aspects of Lisu poetry, originally based on animism, likely would have been lost as Lisu society encountered communism and modernization. Yet they are now codified in the Lisu Bible as well as the hymnbook.”

In the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) it is translated with chipulumutso which is used to refer to an act of helping someone who is in problems but cannot help him/herself come out of the problems because of weakness. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also save and save (Japanese honorifics) / salvation (of God) (Japanese honorifics).

Translation commentary on Baruch 4:24

As the neighbors of Zion have now seen your capture: This means “just as, at the present time, the neighboring cities are aware [or, have seen] that you have been taken captive.” It does not mean that they have just now seen it, or that the capture has just now taken place. Good News Translation renders it well by not expressing now (similarly Contemporary English Version). In languages that do not have the passive voice, we may say, for example, “The neighboring cities also watched as your enemies forcibly took you away.” For the neighbors of Zion, see the comments on verses 9 and 14. This verse is referring back particularly to verse 14.

They soon will see your salvation by God: Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version bring the Everlasting up from the last line and combine it with God here to form “the Eternal God.” Many translators will find this helpful. A possible restructuring is “Soon they will see the Eternal God [or, the God who lives forever] rescue you.”

Which will come to you with great glory and with the splendor of the Everlasting: Translators who do not structure these two lines as poetry may combine them in a way similar to Good News Translation or say something like “as he comes with great power and shining light.” We may compare the picture in this verse with that in Isa 60.1-3. The glory and splendor of the Lord, which is to accompany the exiles on their westward trek homeward, is like the sun rising in the east. Jerusalem will see the glory and splendor of the Lord when she looks eastward and sees her returning children.

The last three lines of this verse are effectively combined in Good News Translation, but with one problem. The Good News Translation restructuring has the neighboring cities seeing God. What they will actually see, according to the text, is the rescue (which is what salvation means here) of the exiles by God. The wording of Good News Translation is not a problem, unless someone takes it literally. The translator may wish to guard against this by perhaps translating as follows:

• Just as the neighboring cities saw you taken captive, they soon will see you returning home when the Eternal God comes with great power and shining light [or, splendor] to rescue you.

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.