Following are a number of back-translations of James 1:7:
Uma: “For a person like that has a two-branched heart, there is no stability/certainty in his life. That’s why he can’t hope/expect that he will get anything from the Lord.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Such a person should really not think that he will receive anything from God.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “A person like this must not suppose that God will give him what he asks for” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “The person like that, he shouldn’t think that God will give him anything,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well as for a person like that, he will not be sure that God will give him anything he’s asking for in prayer,” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “The person who doubts will not get anything from God.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The Hebrew adonai in the Old Testament typically refers to God. The shorter adon (and in two cases in the book of Daniel the Aramaic mare [מָרֵא]) is also used to refer to God but more often for concepts like “master,” “owner,” etc. In English Bible translations all of those are translated with “Lord” if they refer to God.
In English Old Testament translations, as in Old Testament translations in many other languages, the use of Lord (or an equivalent term in other languages) is not to be confused with Lord (or the equivalent term with a different typographical display for other languages). While the former translates adonai, adon and mare, the latter is a translation for the tetragrammaton (YHWH) or the Name of God. See tetragrammaton (YHWH) and the article by Andy Warren-Rothlin in Noss / Houser, p. 618ff. for more information.
In the New Testament, the Greek term kurios has at least four different kinds of use:
referring to “God,” especially in Old Testament quotations,
meaning “master” or “owner,” especially in parables, etc.,
as a form of address (see for instance John 4:11: “Sir, you have no bucket”),
or, most often, referring to Jesus
In the first and fourth case, it is also translated as “Lord” in English.
Most languages naturally don’t have one word that covers all these meanings. According to Bratcher / Nida, “the alternatives are usually (1) a term which is an honorific title of respect for a high-ranking person and (2) a word meaning ‘boss’, ‘master’, or ‘chief.’ (…) and on the whole it has generally seemed better to employ a word of the second category, in order to emphasize the immediate personal relationship, and then by context to build into the word the prestigeful character, since its very association with Jesus Christ will tend to accomplish this purpose.”
When looking at the following list of back-translations of the terms that translators in the different languages have used for both kurios and adonai to refer to God and Jesus respectively, it might be helpful for English readers to recall the etymology of the English “Lord.” While this term might have gained an exalted meaning in the understanding of many, it actually comes from hlaford or “loaf-ward,” referring to the lord of the castle who was the keeper of the bread (source: Rosin 1956, p. 121).
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight
Following are some of the solutions that don’t rely on a different typographical display (see above):
Iyansi: Mwol. Mwol is traditionally used for the “chief of a group of communities and villages” with legal, temporal, and spiritual authority (versus the “mfum [the term used in other Bantu languages] which is used for the chief of one community of people in one village”). Mwol is also used for twins who are “treated as special children, highly honored, and taken care of like kings and queens.” (Source: Kividi Kikama in Greed / Kruger, p. 396ff.)
Binumarien: Karaambaia: “fight-leader” (Source: Oates 1995, p. 255)
Warlpiri: Warlaljamarri (owner or possessor of something — for more information tap or click here)
We have come to rely on another term which emphasizes God’s essential nature as YHWH, namely jukurrarnu (see tetragrammaton (YHWH)). This word is built on the same root jukurr– as is jukurrpa, ‘dreaming.’ Its basic meaning is ‘timelessness’ and it is used to describe physical features of the land which are viewed as always being there. Some speakers view jukurrarnu in terms of ‘history.’ In all Genesis references to YHWH we have used Kaatu Jukurrarnu. In all Mark passages where kurios refers to God and not specifically to Christ we have also used Kaatu Jukurrarnu.
New Testament references to Christ as kurios are handled differently. At one stage we experimented with the term Watirirririrri which refers to a ceremonial boss of highest rank who has the authority to instigate ceremonies. While adequately conveying the sense of Christ’s authority, there remained potential negative connotations relating to Warlpiri ceremonial life of which we might be unaware.
Here it is that the Holy Spirit led us to make a chance discovery. Transcribing the personal testimony of the local Warlpiri pastor, I noticed that he described how ‘my Warlaljamarri called and embraced me (to the faith)’. Warlaljamarri is based on the root warlalja which means variously ‘family, possessions, belongingness’. A warlaljamarri is the ‘owner’ or ‘possessor’ of something. While previously being aware of the ‘ownership’ aspect of warlaljamarri, this was the first time I had heard it applied spontaneously and naturally in a fashion which did justice to the entire concept of ‘Lordship’. Thus references to Christ as kurios are now being handled by Warlaljamarri.” (Source: Stephen Swartz, The Bible Translator 1985, p. 415ff. )
Mairasi: Onggoao Nem (“Throated One” — “Leader,” “Elder”) or Enggavot Nan (“Above-One”) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Obolo: Okaan̄-ene (“Owner of person(s)”) (source: Enene Enene)
Lotha Naga: Opvui (“owner of house / field / cattle”) — since both “Lord” and YHWH are translated as Opvui there is an understanding that “Opvui Jesus is the same as the Opvui of the Old Testament”
Seediq: Tholang, loan word from Min Nan Chinese (the majority language in Taiwan) thâu-lâng (頭儂): “Master” (source: Covell 1998, p. 248)
Thai: phra’ phu pen cao (พระผู้เป็นเจ้า) (divine person who is lord) or ong(kh) cao nay (องค์เจ้านาย) (<divine classifier>-lord-boss) (source: Stephen Pattemore)
Arabic often uses different terms for adonai or kurios referring to God (al-rabb الرب) and kurios referring to Jesus (al-sayyid الـسـيـد). Al-rabb is also the term traditionally used in Arabic Christian-idiom translations for YHWH, and al-sayyid is an honorary term, similar to English “lord” or “sir” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin).
Tamil also uses different terms for adonai/kurios when referring to God and kurios when referring to Jesus. The former is Karttar கர்த்தர், a Sanskrit-derived term with the original meaning of “creator,” and the latter in Āṇṭavar ஆண்டவர், a Tamil term originally meaning “govern” or “reign” (source: Natarajan Subramani).
Burunge: Looimoo: “owner who owns everything” (in the Burunge Bible translation, this term is only used as a reference to Jesus and was originally used to refer to the traditional highest deity — source: Michael Endl in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 48)
Yagaria: Souve, originally “war lord” (source: Renck, p. 94)
Aguacateco: Ajcaw ske’j: “the one to whom we belong and who is above us” (source: Rita Peterson in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 49)
Konkomba: Tidindaan: “He who is the owner of the land and reigns over the people” (source: Lidorio 2007, p. 66)
Chichewa: AmbuyeAmbuye comes from the singular form Mbuye which is used to refer to: (1) someone who is a guardian or protector of someone or group of people — a grandparent who has founded a community or village; (2) someone who is a boss or master over a group of people or servants and has absolute control over them; (3) owner of something, be it a property, animals and people who are bound under his/her rule — for people this was mostly commonly used in the context of slaves and their owner. In short, Mbuye is someone who has some authorities over those who call him/her their “Mbuye.” Now, when the form Ambuye is used it will either be for honorific when used for singular or plural when referring to more than one person. When this term is used in reference to God, it is for respect to God as he is acknowledged as a guardian, protector, and ruler of everything. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation).
Hdi uses rveri (“lion”) as a title of respect and as such it regularly translates adon in the Old Testament. As an address, it’s most often with a possessive pronoun as in rvera ɗa (“my lion” = “my lord” or “sir”). So, for example, Genesis 15:2 (“O Lord God”) is Rvera ɗa Yawe (“My lion Yahweh”) or Ruth to Boaz in Ruth 2:13: “May I find your grace [lit. good-stomach] my lion.” This ties in nicely with the imagery of the Lord roaring like a lion (Hosea 11:10; Amos 3:8; Joel 3:16). Better still, this makes passages like Revelation 5:5 even richer when we read about rveri ma taba məndəra la Yuda, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah”. In Revelation 19:16, Jesus is rveri ta ghəŋa rveriha “the lion above lions” (“lord of lords”). (Source: Drew Maust)
Law (2013, p. 97) writes about how the Ancient GreekSeptuagint‘s translation of the Hebrew adonai was used by the New Testament writers as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments: “Another case is the use of kurios referring to Jesus. For Yahweh (in English Bibles: ‘the Lord‘), the Septuagint uses kurios. Although the term kurios usually has to do with one’s authority over others, when the New Testament authors use this word from the Septuagint to refer to Jesus, they are making an extraordinary claim: Jesus of Nazareth is to be identified with Yahweh.”
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 to do this is through the usage of lexical honorific forms, i.e., completely different words, as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.
In these verses, itadaku (いただく), a respectful form of morau (もらう) or “receive” is used. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have combined these two verses in one sentence. In Greek what James says here is literally “(7) For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, (8) a double-minded(-souled) man, unstable in all his ways.” There are some problems in punctuation and the arrangement of the clauses. Several ways of understanding the verses are possible.
(1) We may place a major break after verse 7. “A double-minded man” becomes the subject of the second sentence. This makes verse 8 a general statement. This means that “that person” who “supposes” in verse 7 may not be the same person who is “double-minded” in verse 8. Thus King James Version has “For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (similarly Barclay, Phillips, and New English Bible margin). In this case that person refers to the “doubter” in verse 6b.
(2) A second possibility is to take the “double-minded” person in verse 8 as the subject of “receive” in verse 7, as Revised Standard Version has done: For that person must not suppose that a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways, will receive anything from the Lord. In this case that person is identified with the one who asks in verse 6a, not the “doubter”; he is being reminded that the doubter’s prayer will not be answered. This understanding, while possible, is unlikely, in that this is not the most natural rendering of the Greek order. Further it suggests that the person “supposing” and the “double-minded” person are different people.
(3) A third possibility is to take the double-minded person as in apposition to that person of verse 7, making verse 8 an added description of that person in verse 7. This can be done in three different ways.
(a) Make verse 8 a participial phrase describing that person. Thus “For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (New American Standard Bible [New American Standard Bible]; similar also Goodspeed).
(b) Put a major break at the end of verse 7, but identify the double-minded person in verse 8 as that person in verse 7 by providing “He is….” In this case “He” will be the subject of the second sentence, and “the double-minded man” will be the predicate descriptive of “he.” Thus “A man like that should not think he will receive anything from the Lord. He is always in two minds and is unstable in all he does” (Revised English Bible; similarly La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée, Translator’s New Testament, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, New International Version).
(c) Combine the two verses in one sentence. Since the double-minded person is an appositional description of that person, it is best to bring that description closer to that person. Thus “If you are like that, unable to make up your mind and undecided in all you do, you must not think that you will receive anything from the Lord” (Good News Translation; similarly New Jerusalem Bible, New Revised Standard Version).
In all these cases that person in verse 7 still refers to the “doubter” in verse 6b. To use inclusive language we may follow the New Revised Standard Version rendering by identifying the subject of verse 8 as “the doubter” or making the subject “you” as Good News Translation has done.
On the whole, the third possibility seems to fit the context better, and it is at the same time more intelligible. In order to make translation easier into languages that customarily do not use appositional statements, the verses can be broken down into two complete sentences: “That kind of person is unable to make up his mind and is undecided in all he does. He must not expect that he will receive anything from the Lord.” Contemporary English Version follows more or less this pattern and therefore may serve as a model for restructuring: “If you are that kind of person, you can’t make up your mind and you surely can’t be trusted. So don’t expect the Lord to give you anything at all.” The translator may also reverse the order of the sentence in some languages and say “Such a person must not expect that the Lord will give him anything. He is a person who is unable to make up his mind, and is undecided in all he does.”
The expression that person has a tone of disapproval or contempt, and so is rendered accordingly by a number of translations; for example, “That sort of a person” (New Jerusalem Bible), “A man of that kind” (New English Bible), “A man like that” (Revised English Bible). That sort of a person is a double-minded man (so also American Standard Version [American Standard Version]). The word “man” in Greek is normally the word for a male person but is here used in the general sense of “person.” The word double-minded, literally “double-souled,” occurs in the New Testament only in this letter, here and in 4.8. The soul is believed to be the seat of emotions, desires, and will. A “double-souled” person is one who lacks “single-mindedness,” who is torn between conflicting desires and wills. He is a person of “divided loyalty” (Phillips), someone who “can never make up his mind” (Barclay), is “indecisive” (Bible en français courant), and “irresolute” (Goodspeed; so also La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée). This indecisiveness can be rendered literally and idiomatically in some languages as “be of three hearts and two minds,” or simply “be of two hearts.”
The double-minded person is further described as unstable in all his ways. “The person who in prayer lacks certainty with regard to God is also in his conduct lacking in inner stability…” (Dibelius). The adjective rendered unstable is used in the New Testament only here and in 3.8 (“restless”). The imagery is that of a person incapable of walking steadily, “unable to steer a straight course” (Barclay; similarly New English Bible), and “wavering” (Moffatt). This kind of person is uncertain in all his ways. The word ways, a common Old Testament expression, is often used for a person’s daily life, its conduct and affairs. This is rendered in various ways; for example, “about everything he does” (Goodspeed), “in all you do” (Good News Translation), “in all he does” (New International Version, Revised English Bible), “in all his conduct” (Translator’s New Testament), and “in every activity” (New Jerusalem Bible).
It will be noted that here, as in 3.9; 4.10, 15; 5.4, 10, 11, the word Lord refers to God, not to Christ. God is the giver of gifts (1.5, 17). In a number of languages it may be necessary to identify Lord as God, because Lord is used of Christ in verse 1.
Quoted with permission from Loh, I-Jin and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Letter from James. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Some English versions (Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, and New Century Version) combine 1:7–8. Other English versions follow the Greek more closely and separate the two verses. Compare the two models below.
7aThat man should not think 7bhe will receive anything from the Lord; 8ahe is a double-minded man, 8bunstable in all he does. (New International Version (2011 Revision))
7–8Such doubters are thinking two different things at the same time, and they cannot decide about anything they do. They should not think they will receive anything from the Lord. (New Century Version)
You should follow the model that is most natural in your language.
1:7
In Greek, 1:7 begins with a conjunction that the Revised Standard Version translates as “For.” The Berean Standard Bible has left this conjunction implicit. This word introduces a further basis for James’ command in 1:6b that a person should ask in faith without wavering. In other words, when someone asks God for something, he must believe and not waver (1:6c):
(a) because he who wavers is like a wave of the sea (1:6c)
(b) and because that man (who wavers) should not think that he will receive anything from the Lord (1:7a–b).
You should begin this verse in a way that your language uses naturally to introduce an additional basis for a command.
1:7a
That man: The phrase That man refers to a person who doubts. It does not refer to any specific person. The word man refers to a person of either gender, male or female. Some other ways to translate this phrase are:
that person (NET Bible)
-or-
a person like that
should not expect: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as expect means “regard something as probably true,” or “think, assume, presume.” So the phrase should not think means that a person “should not assume” that something is true.
Some other ways to translate this phrase are:
must not expect (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
must not suppose (Revised Standard Version)
1:7b
to receive anything from the Lord: In some languages, it will be more natural to translate this clause by making the Lord the subject. For example:
the Lord will give him anything
the Lord: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Lord means “a master,” or “one who is in authority.” Here, the Lord refers to God the Father, since God is mentioned in 1:5b. (Also, Jesus generally taught that prayers should be addressed to the Father in his name (John 15:16; also Matthew 6:8, Matthew 7:11, 18:19). An exception is found in John 14:13–14 where Jesus says he will do whatever his disciples ask in his name. ) In some translations, it may be necessary to make this explicit. For example:
he will receive anything from the Lord God
-or-
he will receive anything from God
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.