living God

The Hebrew that is rendered in English as “the living God” is translated into Bukusu as Wele omenyile mindali or “God who is there.” In the Bukusu culture it is impossible to talk about a “living God.” That would make a mockery of God. The expression “the God who is there” is a confession of the fact that he is active and present. (Source: Gerrit van Steenbergen)

In Manya, Ɲɛnɛmayatii Ala or “The owner of life God” is used. (Source: John Mark Sheppard)

serve (Igede)

The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated in English as “serve,” “minister,” “walk with,” or “service” is translated in Igede as myị ẹrụ or “agree with message (of the one you’re serving).” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

See also serve.

Daniel

The term that is transliterated as “Daniel” in English is translated in American Sign Language with the sign for the letter D and for “lion,” referring to the story in Daniel 6. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)


“Daniel” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor

In Swiss-German Sign Language it is translated with the sign for “prayer” that illustrates Daniel’s close relationship with God.


“Daniel” in Swiss-German Sign Language, source: DSGS-Lexikon biblischer Begriffe , © CGG Schweiz

See also Daniel (image).

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Daniel .

second person pronoun with low register

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 show different degree of politeness is through the choice of a second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.

In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also first person pronoun with low register and third person pronoun with low register.

Translation commentary on Daniel 6:20

The name Daniel occurs three different times in the first half of this verse. Such repetition may be awkward in many languages and can be reduced as in Good News Translation.

Cried out … and said: the use of both of these verbs may be redundant in certain languages, and the verbs can be reduced so that the first one is used exclusively: “shouted” or “called out.”

In a tone of anguish: some ancient translations have “in a loud voice.” But most follow the idea of anguish or sorrow: “anxiously” (New English Bible/Revised English Bible and New Revised Standard Version as well as Good News Translation), “in a sorrowful voice” (An American Translation), “in a mournful voice” (New Jerusalem Bible). One Aramaic lexicon says that the word means “sad.” It is clear in any case that the king was very distressed over the situation of Daniel.

The living God: this expression is used frequently in the New Testament (Matt 26.63; John 6.69; Heb 9.14, for example) and elsewhere in the Old Testament (Deut 5.26; Josh 3.10; 1 Sam 17.26). But in some languages this poses serious problems, since the descriptive term living is considered unnecessarily redundant.

Serve continually …: see verse 16, where the same terms are used, except for from the lions.

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 .