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).

Translation commentary on Judith 6:16

Four things happen in this verse, and they must be kept clear when read aloud. Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation are worded in such a way that the listener can be in doubt as to the object of the first verb and the subject of the second.

They called together all the elders of the city: First, the leaders mentioned in the previous verse (Uzziah and the other two) call the elders together—just the elders, not the women and young men. Elders were respected elderly males who wielded considerable authority in their communities, but presumably in this present context they had less authority than Uzziah and the other two town officials (“magistrates”), who were the leading elders (“rulers” in 7.23). The elders were recognized for their maturity and ability to lead. If in one’s language the two ideas of maturity and leadership can be combined into one term like elders, then that term should be used. Otherwise the phrase “clan leaders” or simply “other leaders” is a possible alternative.

And all their young men and their women ran to the assembly: This is the second event. Young applies only to the men, not to the women; see Good News Translation‘s “and all the women and the young men.” The text does not say that the elders were running, as Good News Translation‘s “also ran” suggests. We may solve this problem by translating “while all the women and the young men ran to the assembly.” Ran to the assembly will be difficult to translate in some languages since assembly implies both an object (people) and an event (meet). In such languages one may say “ran to where all the leaders were meeting.”

They set Achior in the midst of all their people: In this third event the subject they is not clear. Is it the officials, the elders, the crowd? Good News Translation avoids the problem with the passive voice. If the translator must use the active, it would be wise to say that the “officials” brought Achior forward. They, after all, are the ones in charge.

Uzziah asked him what had happened: This final event may be rendered “Uzziah asked Achior what had happened to him in the Assyrian camp.”

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.