elder (of the community)

The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated as “elders” in English is translated in the Danish Bibelen 2020 as folkets ledere or “leaders of the people.”

Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators, explains: “The term ‘elder’ turned out to pose a particularly thorny problem. In traditional bibles, you can find elders all of over the place and they never pose a problem for a translator, they are just always elders. But how to find a contemporary term for this semi-official, complex position? This may have been our longest-standing problem. A couple of times we thought we had the solution, and then implemented it throughout the texts, only to find out that it didn’t work. Like when we used city council or village council, depending on the context. In the end we felt that the texts didn’t work with such official terms, and throughout the years in the desert, these terms didn’t make much sense. Other suggestions were ‘the eldest and wisest’, ‘the respected citizens’, ‘the Israelites with a certain position in society’, ‘the elder council’ –- and let me point out that these terms sound better in Danish than in English (‘de fremtrædende borgere,’ ‘de mest fremtrædende israelitter,’ ‘alle israelitter med en vis position,’ ‘de ældste og de klogeste,’ ‘ældsterådet’). In the end we just said ‘leaders of the people.’ After a lot of hand-wringing, it turned out that we actually found a term that worked well. So, we had to give up conveying the fact that they were old, but the most important point is that they were community leaders.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )

The German das Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022) translates likewise as “leader of the people” (Anführer des Volkes).

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 8:11

And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel: Before them means in front of the drawings on the walls. Seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel refers to seventy leaders of the Israelites, not necessarily elders in age (see Ezek 8.1). The Hebrew clause here implies that they were standing in worship but most translations say simply “Seventy men who were leaders of the people of Israel were standing in front of these drawings [or, carvings].”

With Ja-azaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them: Nothing else is known of Ja-azaniah or his father Shaphan. A man named Shaphan was King Josiah’s scribe (see 2 Kgs 22.8), but there is no evidence that he had a son named Ja-azaniah. However, if this Ja-azaniah was the same man as in 11.1, Shaphan may have been his grandfather. There is no way to be sure of either of these possibilities. In many languages it may be more natural to put this clause at the end of the verse, saying “Ja-azaniah, the son of Shaphan, was standing with them.”

Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up: Ja-azaniah and each of the Israelite leaders held a censer (“incense burner” in Contemporary English Version). A censer is a small metal tray or pan containing hot coals, on which incense is sprinkled. Incense is a sweet-smelling substance derived from the resin of a tree or shrub. It is often in grain or powder form, and it produces a sweet smell when burned. When it touched the hot coals of the censers, the smoke of the cloud of incense went up, that is, a cloud of sweet-smelling smoke rose. Burning incense was a regular part of the worship practices in the Temple, but here the leaders were using it to worship false gods that God had forbidden. Translators may use a descriptive phrase for incense if their readers are not familiar with it, for example, “powder that burns with a sweet smell.” If censer is not known, nor the practice of burning incense to worship, this sentence may be rendered “Each man was worshiping by holding a tray on which hot coals burned a powder that made a sweet-smelling smoke.”

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .