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).

See also elders of Israel (Judah).

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Ezra 5:9)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the exclusive pronoun, excluding King Darius.

complete verse (Ezra 5:9)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezra 5:9:

  • Kupsabiny: “We asked the elders that, ‘Who has told you to build again/rebuild this House?’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “We asked the leaders of the people, ‘Who gave you authority to rebuild the temple and prepare all of its furnishings?’ ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “We (excl.) asked their leaders/[lit. heads] who commanded them to build the temple again.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘We asked the Jewish leaders, ‘Who has permitted you to rebuild this temple and put furnishings in it?’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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 formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Ezra 5:9

This verse repeats almost exactly much of verse 3 above.

We asked those elders and spoke to them thus: Two verbs are used here, the first asked and the second spoke. New Revised Standard Version reverses the order of the two verbs, while Good News Translation omits the verb of speaking as being unnecessary. For those elders, see verses 5 and 8 above.

Good News Translation restructures the verse to express the content of the Aramaic direct quotation as a non-quotation. If the form of the original text is retained, it will be a quotation within a quotation. The message of the letter is already a direct quotation, and then within the letter the writers quote themselves by repeating the question they had asked. This second level of quotation is indicated in English by single quotation marks. Translators will need to use the pattern that is most acceptable in the receptor culture in this context.

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Ezra 5:9

5:9a So we questioned the elders and asked,

¶ Then/So we (excl.) asked the elders to tell us,
-or-
¶ “We asked the heads/leaders of the families

5:9b “Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and restore this structure?”

“Who commanded you (plur.) to build again this temple and to complete this structure/building?”
-or-
who sent them to come and rebuild this house/building until it is complete.

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