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).

complete verse (Ezra 6:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezra 6:7:

  • Kupsabiny: “Do not prevent this construction of this House of God. Let the leader and the elders of the Jews build again/rebuild this House of God where it was.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Do not obstruct that building work. The Governor of Judah and the leaders of the Jews must rebuild the temple of God in its place.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “You (plur.) do- not -disturb the building[lit. cause-to-stand] of it. Just let the governor and the other leaders/[lit. heads] of the Jews to build it where (it) had-stood in-the-past.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Do not interfere with/hinder the work of building the temple of God! The temple must be rebuilt at the same place where the former temple was. And do not hinder the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews while they are doing this work.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezra 6:7

This verse continues the command from the preceding verse. Although both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation translate the three commands in verses 6-7 separately (“keep away”; let the work … alone; let … rebuild this house …), Good News Translation links the second command with the first one by means of the conjunction “and.”

Let the work … alone: The verb here is a masculine plural imperative that means “leave,” that is, “Permit the work to continue…” (see Chouraqui), “Let the work continue” (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), or “Allow the work … to go on” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). This affirmative command may be restated as a negative command as Good News Translation has done (“do not interfere with…”). In some languages this may be expressed as “Do not put your mouths into…” or “Do not let your mouths enter….” This command may also be restructured to make the governor and the elders the objects of the verb here and to combine it with the next command. Thus, the order is to allow the governor and the elders to get on with the work of rebuilding the Temple (so New Jerusalem Bible, Revised English Bible). However, because the emphasis is on the theme of the work of rebuilding the Temple in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah (see Neh 2.16), translators should retain this focus in the first part of the verse as both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have done.

Governor of the Jews: The same term is used here as for the Persian governor Tattenai. See Ezra 5.3.

For elders of the Jews, see Ezra 5.5.

Its site is the place where the Temple had stood before it was destroyed (see Ezra 2.68).

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 .