Teutila Cuicatec: “God who has a great rule” (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Sa’a: “God, the Surpassing One” (source: Carl Gross)
Elhomwe: Mulluku Muullupalli or “God the Great” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Chichewa: Wammwambamwamba: A name of God. While this word is difficult to translate into English, its sense implies that God is highly above everything in his power and greatness. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal ta (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential ta (祂) is used.”
In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains in the following way: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
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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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) can be used, as in mi-kokoro (みこころ) or “will (of God)” in the referenced verses. Two verses (Ezra 10:11 and Ephesians 1:9) use mi-mune (みむね) with the same honorific prefix and meaning.
The parallelism at the beginning of this verse should be translated in such a way as to avoid making the reader think of two different events. The word sentence corresponds to decision; and the watchers obviously has the same meaning as the holy ones. For this reason Good News Translation has combined the two.
By the decree … by the word: it is important that the translation avoid giving the impression that the angels are capable of making decisions themselves. They are, in fact, only messengers or bearers of the decision made by God. For this reason Bible en français courant translates “transmitted by….”
Watchers … holy ones: see verse 13.
To the end that …: this shows the purpose of the decision communicated by the angels. The Good News Translation rendering “So then” at the beginning of a new sentence may seem weak if translated literally into some languages. “In this way” or “As a result” may be better.
The living: that is, all persons who are alive, wherever they may be.
The Most High: the Aramaic word used here occurs sometimes along with the name of God (as in 3.26; 4.2; 5.18, 21). But here and in a number of other cases it occurs alone, that is, unaccompanied by the word for “God” (4.24, 25, 32, 34; 7.18, 22, 25, 27). The corresponding Hebrew expression is often used in the Psalms in parallel with other terms for God. In some languages it is possible to say “the Most High One,” and this will be understood as referring to God, but in other languages it will be indispensable to add the word for God, even when it is not actually present in the text. It should be noted that this expression is also used in the New Testament to refer to God. It is a favorite of Luke (1.32, 35, 76; 6.35; Acts 7.48, for example).
Rules: literally “is powerful over.”
The kingdom of men: although singular in form, the word for kingdom has a collective meaning and should probably be translated as a plural in most languages (as in “human kingdoms,” Good News Translation). Also, the two occurrences of the pronoun it which follow refer to kingdom and should be made plural.
Gives: the verb used here carries a sense of “being able to” that is probably better rendered “can give,” as in Good News Translation, New American Bible, Bible en français courant, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch.
The lowliest of men: the Aramaic term has the sense of positive humility, rather than a negative sense that may possibly communicate the idea of “the scum of the earth.” It is therefore perhaps better to translate something like “the most humble person” or “the meekest of all people.”
Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René & Ellington, John. A Handbook on Daniel. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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