18I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command.
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 7:37:
Uma: “Musa was also the one who said to the Israel people long ago like this: ‘God will raise up one from your relatives, to be a prophet, like me here.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “It was this Musa who said to our (incl.) forefathers of the tribe of Isra’il, ‘In the future God will send to you a prophet like me and he will be your fellow(-men or -Jew understood).'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Now as for Moses, he told the people, he said, ‘In the future there is also one who will be inspired by God who will lead you just like me whom he has inspired. And this one whom he will inspire in the future will also be your companion Jew.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “It was Moses also who said to the descendants of Israel, ‘In-the-future indeed (prophetic formula) there will be a prophet like me whom God will send to you. He will be our fellow-countryman a descendant of Israel.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “And that Moises was indeed the one who told to our ancestors, saying, ‘The day will come when God will set up from among your people a Prophet just like me.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
For the Old Testament quotes, see Deuteronomy 18:15 and 18:18.
Eugene Nida wrote the following about the translation of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek terms that are typically translated with “prophet” in English:
“The tendency in many translations is to use ‘to foretell the future’ for ‘prophesy,’ and ‘one who foretells the future’ for ‘prophet.’ This is not always a recommended usage, particularly if such expressions denote certain special native practices of spirit contact and control. It is true, of course, that prophets of the Bible did foretell the future, but this was not always their principal function. One essential significance of the Greek word prophētēs is ‘one who speaks forth,’ principally, of course, as a forth-teller of the Divine will. A translation such as ‘spokesman for God’ may often be employed profitably.” (1947, p. 234f.)
Following is a list of (back-) translations from other languages (click or tap for details):
Ayutla Mixtec: “one who talks as God’s representative”
Isthmus Mixe: “speaker for God” (source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Mezquital Otomi / Paasaal: “God’s messenger” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff. and Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Noongar: Warda Marridjiny or “News Traveling” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Kutu: mtula ndagu or “one who gives the prediction of the past and the future” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ebira: ọnịsẹ, a neologism that combines the prefix ọn for “a person” with ịsẹ for “prediction” (source: Scholz /Scholz 2015, p. 49)
French 1985 translation by Chouraqui: inspiré or “inspired one” (“someone in whom God has breathed [Latin: in + spiro]) (source: Watson 2023, p. 45)
In Ixcatlán Mazatec a term is used that specifically includes women. (Source: Robert Bascom)
“In some instances these spiritual terms result from adaptations reflecting the native life and culture. Among the Northern Grebo people of Liberia, a missionary wanted some adequate term for ‘prophet,’ and she was fully aware that the native word for ‘soothsayer’ or ‘diviner’ was no equivalent for the Biblical prophet who spoke forth for God. Of course, much of what the prophets said referred to the future, and though this was an essential part of much of their ministry, it was by no means all. The right word for the Gbeapo people would have to include something which would not only mean the foretelling of important events but the proclamation of truth as God’s representative among the people. At last the right word came; it was ‘God’s town-crier.’ Every morning and evening the official representative of the chief goes through the village crying out the news, delivering the orders of the chief, and announcing important coming events. ‘God’s town-crier’ would be the official representative of God, announcing to the people God’s doings, His commands, and His pronouncements for their salvation and well-being. For the Northern Grebo people the prophet is no weird person from forgotten times; he is as real as the human, moving message of the plowman Amos, who became God’s town-crier to a calloused people.” (source: Nida 1952, p. 20)
In British Sign Language it is is translated with a sign that depicts a message coming from God to a person (the upright finger) and then being passed on to others. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Prophet” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 18:18:
Kupsabiny: “I shall give (them) a prophet who is like you to come from your people. I shall be telling him what I want so that he can be saying it to people.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “From among their people I will make one prophet like you. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them the commands that I speak.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “I will-send them a prophet like you (plur.), their blood-relative. I will-cause- him -to-say all that I want to say to them.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “So I will send from among them a prophet who will be like you. I will tell him what to say, and then he will tell people everything that I tell him to say.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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 first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
I will put my words in his mouth: the literal equivalent in many languages will be natural and vivid; in English it is better to say something like “I will give him the message he is to deliver,” or “I will tell him what to say” (Good News Translation).
He shall speak to them: them is the people of Israel. So we may say “He will tell the people of Israel everything that I command” (similarly Good News Translation).
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.