The Greek that is translated as “servant” or “minister” or similar in English is translated in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) with Treuhänder or “trustee.”
without shifting
The Greek in Colossians 1:23 that in English is either translated as “without shifting (or: “moving”) or “without being shifted (or: “moved”)” (see Translation commentary on Colossians 1:23 and Translation commentary on Colossians 1:23) can be translated in Polish in a way that both possibilities are included: dać się with an infinitive means “to let oneself be…, ” resulting here in the possible “not letting yourselves be moved away from the hope of the gospel.” “There is a force that pushes, and people who do not yield to it.” (Source: Piotr Szuszkiewicz)
unshaken / steadfast / persevere / stand firm / trustworthy / guaranteed / established / confirm
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “unshaken,” “steadfast,” “persevere,” “stand firm,” “trustworthy,” “guaranteed,” “established,” “confirm” or similar in English is translated in the Catholic Mandarin Chinese Sigao version with a historical Chinese idiom: jiāndìng bùyí (堅定不移 / 坚定不移), lit. “firm and immovable.” (Source: Toshikazu S. Foley in Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies, 2011, p. 45ff.)
gospel
In choosing a word for the Greek that is typically translated as “gospel” in English, a number of languages construct a phrase meaning “good news,” “joyful report” or “happiness-bringing words.” In some instances such a phrase may be slightly expanded in order to convey the proper meaning, e.g. “new good word” (Tzotzil), or it may involve some special local usage:
- “good story” (Navajo (Dinė))
- “joyful telling” (Tausug)
- “joyful message” (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
- cohuen ñoñets or “message of God” (Shilluk) (source: Nida 1964, p. 237)
- “good news” (Yanesha’) (source: Martha Duff in Holzhausen 1991, p. 11)
- “voice of good spirit” (San Blas Kuna) (source: Claudio and Marvel Iglesias in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 85ff. )
- suviśēṣattinṟe (0സുവിശേഷം) or “good narrative” (Malayalam)
- susmachar (ସୁସମାଚାର) or “good matter” (Odia)
- suvārteya (ಸುವಾರ್ತೆಯ) or “good word” (Kannada) (source for this and two above: Y.D. Tiwari in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 132ff. )
- the German das Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022) translates as “all-transformative good news” (alles verändernde gute Botschaft), also “good news,” and the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) as “message of salvation” (Heilsbotschaft)
Vitaly Voinov tells this story about the translation into Rutul (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight):
“In Rutul, it was only during the most recent consultant checking session that I realized that the Rutul word for Gospel – Incir (from Arabic إنجيل — Injil) — sounds and looks exactly like the word that means ‘fig’ in Rutul. This is a case of homonymy, in which two completely non-related words from differing historical sources have come to sound exactly alike. Most Rutul speakers know that incir means ‘fig’ because they grow this fruit in their yard or buy it at the market every week. However, because the religious sphere of discourse was heavily disparaged during the Soviet era, most people simply never encountered Incir with the meaning of ‘Gospel.’ This meaning of the word, which Rutuls of the pre-Soviet era knew from the Koran, simply fell into disuse and never had much reason for returning into contemporary Rutul since there is no Christian church established among the people. So if the translator continues to use the term Incir as the rendering for ‘Gospel,’ he runs the risk that most readers will, at best, read the word with a smile because they know that it also means ‘fig,’ and, at worst, will completely misunderstand the word. The seemingly ‘easy’ solution in this case is for the translator to use a Rutul neologism meaning ‘Joyful Message’ or ‘Good News,’ [see above] instead of Incir; but in fact it is not all that easy to make this change if the translator himself insists on using the historical word because at least some Rutuls still understand it as meaning ‘Gospel.’ This is a situation in which the translation team has to gradually grow into the understanding that a fully intelligible translation of Scripture is preferable to one that maintains old words at the cost of alienating much of the readership.”
For “good news,” see also Isaiah 52:7.
Paul
The term that is transliterated as “Paul” in English means “little.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )
In American Sign Language it is translated with a sign that signifies the many letters he wrote. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Paul” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
In Spanish Sign Language it is translated with a sign depicting putting away a sword, referring to his conversion from a persecutor of Christians to a Christian leader. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
“Paul (and Saul)” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España
In Hungarian Sign Language it is translated with a sign that is based on contemporary depictions and refers to the presumed baldness of the top of his head. The description originates from the 2nd-century apocryphal text titled Acts of Paul and Thecla , which represents the earliest and most detailed physical characterization of the apostle in Christian tradition (see also the icon below). (Source: Jenjelvi Biblia and HSL Bible Translation Group)
“Paul” in Hungarian Sign Language — note that only the first part refers to “Paul,” the second part refers to “apostle” (source )
For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .
Following is a Georgian Orthodox icon of Paul the Apostle from the 14th century (located in the Art Museum of Georgia, Tbilisi).
.jpg){kind=link}
Orthodox Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )
Down below you’ll see an ivory carving that is located in the Musée national du Moyen-âge in Paris from the Byzantine empire of the 6th or early 7th century:
Source: Wikimedia
The following is a contemporary stained glass window from the Messiah Episcopal Church in St. Paul, Minnesota by Peter Dohmen. Individual glass pieces were made in Germany in accordance with Dohmen’s design, using a technique first developed by Irish monks in the 9th and 10th centuries.
Source for the image and description below: The Stained Glass Windows of Messiah Episcopal Church
“This window is dedicated to St. Paul, the great apostle and missionary, for whom our city is named. At the top of the window is a ship which symbolizes the many missionary journeys of Paul — the Church is our ship, which carries us over the way of life. In the lower section we see Paul on the road to Damascus when he saw a great light and heard our Lord’s voice, which called him to discipleship.”
Stained glass is not just highly decorative, it’s a medium which has been used to express important religious messages for centuries. Literacy was not widespread in the medieval and Renaissance periods and the Church used stained glass and other artworks to teach the central beliefs of Christianity. In Gothic churches, the windows were filled with extensive narrative scenes in stained glass — like huge and colorful picture storybooks — in which worshipers could ‘read’ the stories of Christ and the saints and learn what was required for their religious salvation. (Source: Victoria and Albert Museum )
Click or tap here to see a short video clip about Paul (source: Bible Lands 2012)
Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Paul .
hope
“Hope is sometimes one of the most difficult terms to translate in the entire Bible. It is not because people do not hope for things, but so often they speak of hoping as simply ‘waiting.’ In fact, even in Spanish, the word esperar means both ‘to wait’ and ‘to hope.’ However, in many instances the purely neutral term meaning ‘to wait’ may be modified in such a way that people will understand something more of its significance. For example, in Tepeuxila Cuicatec hope is called ‘wait-desire.’ Hope is thus a blend of two activities: waiting and desiring. This is substantially the type of expectancy of which hope consists.
In Yucateco the dependence of hope is described by the phrase ‘on what it hangs.’ ‘Our hope in God’ means that ‘we hang onto God.’ The object of hope is the support of one’s expectant waiting. In Ngäbere the phrase “resting the mind” is used. This “implies waiting and confidence, and what is a better definition of hope than ‘confident waiting’.” (Source for this and above: Nida 1952, p. 20, 133)
Other languages translate as follows:
- Mairasi: “vision resting place” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- Enlhet: “waitings of (our) innermost” (“innermost” or valhoc is a term that is frequently used in Enlhet to describe a large variety of emotions or states of mind — for other examples see here) (source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )
- Kwang: “one’s future is restored to one’s soul like a fresh, cool breeze on a hot day.” (Source: Mark Vanderkooi right here )
- Noongar: koort-kwidiny or “heart waiting” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
- Anjam: “looking through the horizon” (source: Albert Hoffmann in his memoirs from 1948, quoted in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 7)
- Ron: kintiɓwi or “put lip” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
- Highland Totonac “wait with expectation” (to offset it from the every-day meaning of hope or wait — source: Hermann Aschmann in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 171ff. ).
- Alekano: “wait not hearing two ears” (meaning to “wait without being double-minded” — source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation June 1986, p. 36ff.)
- Berom: “direct one’s liver toward”
- Mixtepec Mixtec: “wait and remain strong on the inside”
- Cerma: “swallow the spittle”
- Adyghe: “the heart expects something good”
- Keliko: “place one’s heart on the head”
- Berik: “wait persistently and hold on to God”
- Somrai: “hold the heart really tight” (source for this and six above: Wycliffe Germany )
- Marathi: aasha (आशा) with a stronger emphasis on desire
- Tamil: nampikkai (நம்பிக்கை) with a stronger emphasis on expectation (source for this and above: J.S.M. Hooper in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 2ff. )
In Mwera “hope” and “faith” are translated with the same word: ngulupai. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
C.M. Doke looks at a number of Bantu languages and their respective translations of “hope” with slightly varying connotations (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 9ff. ):
- Xhosa and Zulu: themba “hope, expect,” also “have faith in, rely upon”
- Tswana: tsholofelo “hope, expect, look for confidently”
- Southern Sotho: tshepo “trust, rely on, believe in, have confidence in”
- Kuanyama: eteelelo “waiting for”
- Swahili: tumaini “confidence, trust, expectation, hope” (as a verb: “hope, trust, expect, be confident, be truthful, rely on”
- Luganda: okusuubira “hope, trust, expect” also “look forward to, rely upon, anticipate, reckon”
- Chichewa: chiyembekezo “wait for, wait, expect”
- Koongo: vuvu “hope, expectancy, expectation, anticipation”
Syntyche D. Dahou (in Christianity Today, January 2021 or see here the same article in French ) reports on the two different terms that are being used in French (click or tap here to see the details):
“Unlike English, which uses the word hope broadly, the French language uses two words that derive from the word espérer (to hope): espoir and espérance. Both can first refer to something hoped for. In this sense, the word espoir usually refers to an uncertain object; that is, someone who hopes for something in this way does not have the certainty that it will happen (“I hope the weather will be nice tomorrow”). On the other hand, espérance describes what, rightly or wrongly, is hoped for or expected with certainty. It often refers to a philosophical or eschatological object (‘I hope in the goodness of human beings’; ‘I hope for the return of Jesus Christ’).
“When we speak of espoir or espérance, we then have in mind different types of objects hoped for. This difference matters, because both terms also commonly refer to the state of mind that characterizes the hopeful. And this state of mind will be different precisely according to the object hoped for.
“Having espoir for an uncertain yet better future in these difficult times may be a good thing, but it is not enough. Such hope can be disappointed and easily fade away when our wishes and expectations (our hopes) do not materialize.
“The opposite is true with espérance, which is deeper than our desire and wish for an end to a crisis or a future without pain and suffering. To face the trials of life, we need peace and joy in our hearts that come from expecting certain happiness. This is what espérance is: a profound and stable disposition resulting from faith in the coming of what we expect. In this sense, it is similar in meaning to the English word hopefulness.
“If we have believed in the Son of the living God, we have such a hope. It rests on the infallible promises of our God, who knows the plans he has for us, his children — plans of peace and not misfortune, to give us a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). By using the two meanings of the word, we can say that the espérance that the fulfillment of his promises represents (the object hoped for) fills us with espérance (the state of mind).”
complete verse (Colossians 1:23)
Following are a number of back-translations of Colossians 1:23:
- Uma: “So, relatives, be faithful [lit., remain] believing, don’t budge, don’t permit anyone who wants to deceive you [to do so]. Hold on strongly to the teaching that you heard. Don’t stop trusting/hoping-for what God promised to you in the Good News. That Good News has been spread to all the world. And I also have become the Lord’s servant/ordered-one, spreading that news.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “But you must continue to remain/stay with Isa Almasi. Don’t move from him and you should continue to hope/expect all which God promised which is told in the good news you have heard. This good news is already proclaimed to all people here in the world and I, Paul, that is my work to proclaim this.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “However, it’s necessary that you not abandon your faith in the true doctrine, but rather, strengthen your faith and continue your expecting of all that God has promised that you heard about long ago when the Good News was taught to you. This which is called the Good News was spread to people everywhere; as for me, Paul, I was sent so that I might spread the Good News.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “But you must of course persevere in believing without doubting and going-astray, and you must not be persuaded to distance-yourselves from our hope that the good news talks-about. Because this good news that you have heard, it is the same as what has-been-newsed-from-one-to-another throughout the entire world, and that indeed also is what I have been preaching in my service of Cristo.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “But also, you need to hold fast in your believing/obeying so that it will be sturdy and really firmly-grounded, that your assurance of the reward that the Good News promises will not move even a little bit. This Good News, that indeed is what was taught to you in the past, and now has also been taught to many different nations of people here under heaven. According to the Lord’s determined-plan he made me, I who am Pablo, one of his servants in teaching this.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “But it is necessary that we endeavor to make firm our faith which we have. And do not doubt concerning the good news which was told to you. This is the word which is told all over the world. And also this is the word which I, Paul, preach to the people.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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. )
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.