king

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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:

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  • Piro: “a great one”
  • Highland Totonac: “the big boss”
  • Huichol: “the one who commanded” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Ekari: “the one who holds the country” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Una: weik sienyi: “big headman” (source: Kroneman 2004, p. 407)
  • Pass Valley Yali: “Big Man” (source: Daud Soesilo)
  • 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 If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior.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.”

(Source: Faye Edgerton in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 25ff. )

See also king (Japanese honorifics).

Translation commentary on Ezra 8:1

This verse is the formal introduction to the list. The Hebrew begins with the usual connective conjunction, but this is not translated in most versions. Good News Translation marks the new unit with “This is the list of the heads of the clans,” and New Revised Standard Version has “These are their family heads, and this is the genealogy.” Traduction œcuménique de la Bible says “Here are, with their genealogies, the family heads.” As noted in Ezra 2.1, translators should use appropriate discourse markers and structure to mark the beginning of the list.

The heads of their fathers’ houses, and this is the genealogy: The list is according to the heads of their fathers’ houses or elders of the “clans” (Good News Translation) or families (see the comments on Ezra 1.5). The genealogy refers to the register or official record of those who belong to the clans (see Ezra 2.59-60). Some versions express this in the plural (“genealogies” in New Jerusalem Bible and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), while others take it in the general sense of genealogy as Revised Standard Version has done (also New Revised Standard Version). Good News Translation restructures to include the meaning implicitly in “the list of the heads of the clans.”

Those who went up with me from Babylonia: For went up, see the comment on “go up” at Ezra 1.3. For Babylonia refer to Ezra 1.11. Although the Hebrew text says where they came from without telling where they went to, Good News Translation avoids all ambiguity by making it explicit that they went up “to Jerusalem.” Good News Translation puts “Ezra” in place of me, possibly to clarify who me is and also to indicate that Ezra may not have personally included this list in his memoirs.

In the reign of Artaxerxes the king: This group returned with Ezra in the time of the fifth Persian king Artaxerxes, while the first group returned with Zerubbabel in the time of the first Persian king Cyrus eighty years earlier.

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 .