priest

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that are typically translated as “priest” in English (itself deriving from Latin “presbyter” — “elder”) is often translated with a consideration of existing religious traditions. (Click or tap for details)

Bratcher / Nida (1961) say this:

“However, rather than borrow local names for priests, some of which have unwanted connotations, a number of translations have employed descriptive phrases based on certain functions: (1) those describing a ceremonial activity: Pamona uses tadu, the priestess who recites the litanies in which she describes her journey to the upper or under-world to fetch life-spirit for sick people, animals or plants; Batak Toba uses the Arabic malim, ‘Muslim religious teacher;’ ‘one who presents man’s sacrifice to God’ (Bambara, Eastern Maninkakan), ‘one who presents sacrifices’ (Baoulé, Navajo (Dinė)), ‘one who takes the name of the sacrifice’ (Kpelle, and ‘to make a sacrifice go out’ (Hausa); (2) those describing an intermediary function: ‘one who speaks to God’ (Shipibo-Conibo) and ‘spokesman of the people before God’ (Tabasco Chontal).”

In Obolo it is translated as ogwu ngwugwa or “the one who offers sacrifice” (source: Enene Enene), in Mairasi as agam aevar nevwerai: “religious leader” (source: Enggavoter 2004), in Ignaciano as “blesser, one who does ritual as a practice” (using a generic term rather than the otherwise common Spanish loan word sacerdote) (source: Willis Ott in Notes on Translation 88/1982, p. 18ff.), and in Noongar as yakin-kooranyi or “holy worker” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

For Guhu-Samane, Ernest Richert (in The Bible Translator, 1965, p. 81ff. ) reports this: “The [local] cult of Poro used to be an all-encompassing religious system that essentially governed all areas of life. (…) For ‘priest’ the term ‘poro father’ would at first seem to be a natural choice. However, several priests of the old cult are still living. Although they no longer function primarily as priests of the old system they still have a substantial influence on the community, and there would be more than a chance that the unqualified term would (in some contexts particularly) be equated with the priest of the poro cult. We learned, then, that the poro fathers would sometimes be called ‘knife men’ in relation to their sacrificial work. The panel was pleased to apply this term to the Jewish priest, and the Christian community has adopted it fully. [Mark 1:44, for instance, now] reads: ‘You must definitely not tell any man of this. But you go show your body to the knife man and do what Moses said about a sacrifice concerning your being healed, and the cause (base of this) will be apparent.'”

For a revision of the 1968 version of the Bible in Khmer Joseph Hong (in: The Bible Translator 1996, 233ff. ) talks about a change in wording for this term:

​​Bau cha r (បូជា‌ចារ្យ) — The use of this new construction meaning “priest” is maintained to translate the Greek word hiereus. The term “mean sang (មាន សង្ឃ)” used in the old version actually means a “Buddhist monk,” and is felt to be theologically misleading. The Khmer considers the Buddhist monk as a “paddy field of merits,” a reserve of merits to be shared with other people. So a Khmer reader would find unthinkable that the mean sang in the Bible killed animals, the gravest sin for a Buddhist; and what a scandal it would be to say that a mean sang was married, had children, and drank wine.

See also idolatrous priests.

horn

The musical instrument that is most often translated as “(ram’s) horn” or “trumpet” in English is translated in the following ways:

  • Yakan: tabuli’ (big sea shell used to give signals) (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Mairasi / Bariai: “Triton shell trumpet” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • German Luther translation: Posaune, today: “trombone,” originally with the meaning of a wind instrument made from cow horn (from Latin bucina [bovi- / “cow” + the root of cano / “sing”]. Incidentally, bucina is also used in the Latin Vulgate translation). By the time of Luther’s translation it referred to the natural trumpet or a fanfare trumpet (see also trumpet). Once the meaning morphed to “trombone” in the 19th century, trombone ensembles started to play a central role in Protestant German churches and do so to the present day. In 2016, “Posaunenchöre” became added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list . (Note that Exodus 19:13 is the only exception in the Luther Bible. From the 1956 revision on, Widderhorn or “ram’s horn” is used here) (source: Zetzsche)

In the UBS Helps for Translators‘ Human-made Things in the Bible (original title: The Works of Their Hands: Man-made Things in the Bible) it says the following:

Description: The horn was a wind instrument made from the horn of an animal, usually a male sheep.

Usage: The animal horn was softened so that it could be shaped. The point of the horn was cut off to leave a small opening through which the user blew. The vibration of the lips produced the sound.

The ram’s horn served two general purposes:

1. It was blown in certain religious contexts, not as musical accompaniment to worship but as a signal for important events. Some of these events were the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, the Day of Atonement, the bringing of the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, and the coronation of kings.

2. It also served as a signal or alarm when war was approaching. Such references are particularly common in the prophetic books, when the prophets are calling the people to repent (Hosea 5:8; 8:1; Joel 2:1; 2:15; Amos 3:6).

Translation: In many passages the purpose of the ram’s horn called shofar in Hebrew was to sound an alarm. This will be easy to express in those cultures where the horns of animals are used as musical instruments to give signals to large groups of people. In other cultures it may be possible to find another instrument that is used for an equivalent purpose. In some languages, for example, instruments such as bells or drums are the warnings for war. Some translations have transliterated the word shofar. Unless the instrument is well known, such a borrowing should normally be accompanied by a footnote or a glossary entry.

In some passages it will be necessary to expand the translation in order to indicate that the blowing of the ram’s horn was not just for music; for example, in Ezekiel 7:14 Contemporary English Version has “A signal has been blown on the trumpet,” and the German Contemporary English Version says “An alarm is sounded” [elsewhere, the same German version refers to the horns as Kriegshörner or “war horns.”]

Man blowing ram’s horn (source: Knowles, revised by Bass (c) British and Foreign Bible Society 1994)

Quoted with permission.

translations with a Hebraic voice (Joshua 6:3-5)

Some translations specifically reproduce the voice of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament / Hebrew Bible.

English:
You are to go around the city, all the men of battle,
circling the city one time;
thus you are to do for six days,
while seven priests are to carry seven shofars of rams ahead of the Coffer.
But on the seventh day, you are to go around the city seven times,
while the priests sound blasts on the shofars.
And it shall be, at the drawing out of the ram’s horn:
when you hear the sound of the shofar,
that all the fighting-people are to shout a great shout,
and the wall of the city will fall down from below;
then the fighting-people are to go up, each one [straight] in front of him!

Source: Everett Fox 2014

German:
Umkreiset die Stadt, alle Kriegsmänner, rundum die Stadt, ein Mal,
so tue sechs Tage,
und sieben Priester sollen sieben Heimholerposaunen vor dem Schrein her tragen,
am siebenten Tag aber umkreiset die Stadt sieben Male,
und die Priester sollen in die Posaunen stoßen,
dann seis,
wann man mit dem Heimholerhorn langzieht,
wann ihr den Schall der Posaune hört,
auflärme alles Volk, ein großes Lärmen,
dann stürzt die Mauer der Stadt in sich zusammen,
und das Volk steigt hinauf, jedermann gradeaus.

Source: Buber / Rosenzweig 1976

French:
Contournez la ville, tous les hommes de la guerre,
encerclez la ville une fois. Vous ferez ainsi six jours.
Sept desservants porteront les sept shophars des Jubilés en face du coffre.
Le septième jour, vous contournerez la ville, sept fois.
Les desservants sonneront du shophar.
Et c’est au tir de la corne du Jubilé,
à l’audition de la voix du shophar,
tout le peuple ovationnera en grande ovation.
Le rempart de la ville tombera sur place,
et le peuple montera, chaque homme contre lui.

Source: Chouraqui 1985

For other verses or sections translated with a Hebraic voice, see here.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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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 Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Joshua 6:4

The use of the appositional each carrying a trumpet may be avoided if the first sentence of this verse is either broken into two sentences or else made into two coordinate clauses joined by “and.” For example, “Seven priests are to go in front of the Covenant Box. Each one of them is to carry a trumpet.” Or “Seven priests are to go in front of the Covenant Box, and each of them is to carry a trumpet.” It may even be advisable to translate “Seven priests are to go with you each time you march around the city. Each one of them is to carry a trumpet, and they are to go immediately in front of the Covenant Box.”

On the seventh day (verses 4b-5) the march is to be made seven times; the priests are to blow the trumpets; and at the end of the seventh march, one long note is to be sounded, at which time the soldiers are to give a loud shout, and Jericho’s walls will collapse.

The reader may get a false assumption from the statement that your soldiers are to march around the city seven times while the priests blow the trumpets. That is, it is possible to conclude that only Joshua and the soldiers are to march around the city, while the priests stand aside, blowing the trumpets. To avoid this misunderstanding, one may translate “On the seventh day all of you are to march around the city seven times while the priests blow the trumpets.” Or “On the seventh day you, your soldiers, and the priests are to march around the city seven times. While all of you are marching around the city, the priests are to blow the trumpets.”

Since in the last sentence the text mentions soldiers before priests, the reader may automatically assume that in the order of the march the soldiers went ahead of the priests. But this is not the case; only an advance guard marched ahead of the priests (verse 7). The order of this procession would have been: an advance guard of soldiers, the priests, the Covenant Box, and then the rest of the soldiers. This is basically a religious procession, though the ancient Israelites would hardly have distinguished between a religious and a military procession. To help the reader understand the order of the procession, one may translate “On the seventh day all of you are to march around the city seven times. The priests will march in front of the Covenant Box and blow the trumpets, and you will march behind the Covenant Box.” The information regarding the advance guard can then be delayed until verse 7, where it is given in the Hebrew text.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .