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).

Translation commentary on Judith 13:12

When the men of her city heard her voice, they hurried down to the city gate: If the men of her city refers to the general citizenry and not just to the guards, a better rendering would be “the people of her town” (New Revised Standard Version). But the ones in question hurried down to the city gate (from atop the tower); the writer is probably thinking of the guards who were posted at the gate, those to whom Judith was calling out in the previous verse. In this case the men of her city or even Good News Translation‘s “the men” is less apt to mislead. For gate see verse 11.

Called together the elders of the city: Good News Translation‘s “called for” is more appropriate for soldiers summoning their superiors than called together. The elders are the “town officials” (Good News Translation) or “town leaders” (Contemporary English Version).

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• When the men of Bethulia heard Judith’s voice, they ran to the city gate and called for the town leaders to come.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Judith. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.