Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezra 5:13:
Kupsabiny: “In the first year when Cyrus ruled Babylon, he gave the authority that the House of God be built again.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “But in the first year of Cyrus, King of Babylon, the king gave a decree to rebuild the temple of God. ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “But on the first year of the reign of Cyrus in Babilonia, he commanded to build again the temple of God.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “‘’However, during the first year that Cyrus the King of Babylon started to rule, he decreed that the temple of God should be rebuilt.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:
Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))
Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:
“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”
However is a strong contrastive conjunction that draws attention to a change in events. “Then” in Good News Translation is a less emphatic discourse marker than However. In the Aramaic this is followed by the same expression of time with which the book of Ezra began: in the first year of Cyrus (see the comment on Ezra 1.1). Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation maintain the same syntactic position for this prepositional phrase of time as the Aramaic text does, while New Revised Standard Version shifts the focus from the time to the person by bringing forward the reference to the king: “However, King Cyrus of Babylon, in the first year of his reign.” It is preferable to retain the focus on time at the beginning of the verse, if this is acceptable narrative style in the receptor language.
Cyrus is referred to twice in this verse. First, he is identified as Cyrus king of Babylon (see Ezra 2.1). This is the title he took after capturing Babylon and replacing the Babylonian kings as head of the empire. Second, his name and title (Cyrus the king) are repeated as the subject of the sentence in this verse. New International Version attempts to capture the repetition: “However, in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, King Cyrus issued a decree” (also New King James Version , New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New Jerusalem Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). Translators should maintain natural forms of expression here in their own language.
Made a decree that this house of God should be rebuilt: The decree of King Cyrus (Ezra 1.2-4) is mentioned to prove their right to rebuild the Temple. The information from the decree that is given here includes the repeated phrase house of God, but specifies this house. Omitted from the information here is who should rebuild it. Some English translations conveniently use the passive verb form here (Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy), although the original text uses the active verb “to rebuild” (so New International Version, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Many languages will have a grammatical structure similar to the original text, saying “gave a decree to rebuild this house of God.” Some languages may use an indefinite subject, for example, “gave a decree that one should rebuild.” Or it may be necessary to say “… that we should rebuild.”
Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Ezra. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
5:13a In his first year, however, Cyrus king of Babylon
But, in the first year that Cyrus was king/chief of Babylon, -or-
But, in/during the first year that King Cyrus ruled ⌊the land of⌋ Babylon, -or-
Then, Cyrus became the ruler of Babylon. In his first year as king/ruler,
5:13b issued a decree to rebuild this house of God.
he commanded that ⌊we (excl.) should⌋ build this temple again. -or-
he gave us the right/permission to rebuild the house of ⌊our⌋ God. -or-
he decided/declared that this temple of God should be built again.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.