complete verse (Hebrews 1:11)

Following are a number of back-translations of Hebrews 1:11:

  • Uma: “All of that will certainly be destroyed. But you, you do not change. The sky and world will become old like clothes,” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “The earth and the sky will finally disappear, but you do not move/change. All this becomes old like clothes that cannot be used any longer.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And even though in the future earth and sky will go out of existence, You will not go out of existence. They are like cloth which are destructible.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Later they will all cease-to-exist, but you (sing.) however exist forever. They are like clothes that get-old and are replaced, because later you (sing.) will replace them. But as for you (sing.), you (sing.) remain-unchanged, because there is no end to your (sing.) life.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “The day will come when all of these things, they will all be removed. But as for you (sing.), you will hold-fast/last for ever. As for them, they will grow old like cloth.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “But concerning all that there is, there will come the day when it will end. But as for you, you live forever. All these things which you have made will pass away. It is like old clothing when they are of no use any longer.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

For the Old Testament quote, see Psalm 102:25 – Psalm 102:27.

addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed.

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or modern English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.

Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”

In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.

Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking.” (Source Philip Noss)

In the most recent Manchu translation of 1835 (a revision of an earlier edition from 1822), God is never addressed with a pronoun but with “father” (ama /ᠠᠮᠠ) instead. Chengcheng Liu (in this post on the Cambridge Centre for Chinese Theology blog ) explains: “In Manchu tradition, as in Chinese etiquette, second-person pronouns could be considered disrespectful when speaking to superiors or spiritual beings. Manchu Shamanist prayers avoided si [‘you’] and sini [‘your’] for this very reason. To use them for God would be, in Lipovzoff’s [one of the two translators] words, ‘the most uncouth and indecent way to speak to the Almighty — as if He were a servant or slave.’ There was also a grammatical problem. In Manchu, si and sini could refer to both singular and plural subjects. For a faith that insisted on the singularity of God, this was potentially confusing. By contrast, repeating ama removed any ambiguity.”

In Dutch, Afrikaans, Gronings, and Western Frisian translations, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also formal pronoun: disciples addressing Jesus, female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

Translation commentary on Hebrews 1:11

The main point of this verse is the contrast between the Lord, who will always remain in existence, and the world he has made, which will not.

The word for disappear is often used in the Bible in contexts which speak of violent destruction; therefore Barclay and Translator’s New Testament translate “be destroyed.” However, the idea of destruction is not present in the second half of the verse, which simply speaks of growing old. They will disappear may be rendered as “They will no longer be seen,” “They will no longer exist,” or “There will be a time when they will no longer be.”

The Greek verb for remain, as written in the oldest manuscripts, may mean either “you remain” (compare Revised Standard Version) or you will remain. Most early translations have the future tense. The immediate context (They will disappear, they will … wear out) suggests the future, but you are (verse 12) is a present tense in the Greek. Whether present or future is chosen, the meaning is much the same, since remain suggests a permanent state, including both present and future. Therefore it is important in rendering remain to indicate continued existence rather than merely remaining in a place. Hence, you will remain may be rendered as “you will always exist.”

It may be somewhat difficult to speak of the earth and the sky as “wearing out like clothes,” but sometimes one may speak of such a process as “they will become useless like old clothes.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .