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)
The Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, and Greek that is translated in English typically as “obedience” or “obey” is translated in Tepeuxila Cuicatec as “thing hearing,” because “to hear is to obey.” (Source: Marjorie Davis in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 34ff. )
In Huba it is translated as hya nǝu nyacha: “follow (his) mouth.” (Source: David Frank in this blog post )
In Central Mazahua it is translated as “listen-obey” and in Huehuetla Tepehua as “believe-obey” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), and in Noongar as dwangka-don, lit. “hear do” (source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018).
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)
In Quetzaltepec Mixe, “serve” is translated as “obey.” (Source: Robert Bascom)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Daniel 7:27:
Kupsabiny: “The rulership over the world, (the) power and (the) greatness of rulership in (the) world will be taken (from him) and be given to the people of the God of authority. Their rulership will stay forever and all rulers will kneel to and obey them.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “The greatness and power of all the kingdoms of the earth will be given into the hands of the holy people of the Most High God. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom. All kingdoms will listen to/obey him and serve him.’” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Then the ruling and dominion of the kingdoms in the whole earth will-be-given-over to the holy people of the most high God. So they will-rule forever/[lit. until whenever], and all the kingdoms will-serve and obey them.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Then all the power and the greatness of all the kingdoms on the earth will be given to the people who belong to the Supreme God. The kingdom that he rules (OR, they rule) will endure forever. And the rulers of all the nations on the earth will serve and obey him (OR, them).’” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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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-kuchi (御国) or “kingdom (of God)” in the referenced verses. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
And: New International Version and New American Bible translate “Then.” But most English versions rightly leave the conjunction untranslated.
The kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms: this literal rendering of the Aramaic is confusing, since it is unclear what is meant by the kingdom … of the kingdoms. The three terms may be reduced to two in many languages by redistributing the components of meaning.
The kingdoms under the whole heaven: the words under the whole heaven, or literally “under all the heavens,” constitute another way of saying “in the whole world” or “on all the earth.” The word for whole or “all” may legitimately be transposed to qualify “kingdoms.” Hence the Good News Translation rendering “all the kingdoms on earth.” Compare also “all the kingdoms under heaven” (New Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and New English Bible/Revised English Bible).
The passive expression shall be given will have to be made active in many languages, and God will become the subject. In these cases a possible model for the first part of this verse is “Then the Most High God will give power to rule to those people who belong to him. They will rule over all the kingdoms in the whole world, with power and greatness.”
Their kingdom: grammatically the possessive pronoun in Aramaic may refer to “the people” or to “the Most High (God).” But virtually all English versions take the pronoun as referring to “people,” as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. The parallel with verse 14 as well as certain other indications in the context of this chapter argue strongly in favor of this interpretation.
The people of the saints of the Most High: this expression differs from the one in verses 18, 22, and 25 in the addition of the word people. This addition may cause problems in some languages, since the saints are people, and the translation of the term “saints” may in fact be something like “people of God.” It would, of course, be absurd to say “the people of the people of God.” The meaning is the same as in the previous verses, where only “the saints of the Most High” occurs.
An everlasting kingdom: devout believers were convinced that, when the Jewish worship was reestablished, the much-acclaimed divine event that would bring in the final age would take place, and that nothing could change the situation after that.
All dominions shall serve and obey them: the two Aramaic verbs corresponding to Revised Standard Versionserve and obey have very similar meanings. The first, already used in verse 14, has a slightly broader meaning than the second. And for this reason it is possible to reverse the order as is done in Bible en français courant, “will obey him and will serve him.” Naturalness in the translation must be the determining factor.
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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