add a single hour to your span of life

The Greek that is translated as “add a single hour to your span of life” or similar in English is translated in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) with den Körper um eine Elle größer machen or “make the body one cubit taller.” The translators note that the original text offers both possibilities, adding time of life or body height.

worry

The Greek and Hebrew that are translated as “worry” or “anxious” in English are translated in Navajo (Dinė) as “my mind is killing me.” (Source: Nida 1952, p. 24)

Nida (1952, p. 124) also gives other examples:

“The Piro in Peru use almost the same idiom when they say that a worried man is ‘one who is hard chased.’ The worried person is like a pursued animal in the forest trying to elude the hunter. The impenetrable jungle of the future, the failing strength, and the exhaustion of doubt all press hard upon the soul. And one’s heart seems to fail and even disappear. This is the very phrase employed by the Tzeltal Indians in the rugged mountains of southern Mexico. They describe ‘worry’ by the words ‘their hearts are gone.'”

See also anxious / worried about many things and worries/cares of the world/this age.

complete verse (Luke 12:25)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 12:25:

  • Noongar: “I ask, can you live longer just because you want this?” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “What also is the use of your having very much thinking/worry? Because even if we are continually busy thinking, we are not able to add-to our age even just one night.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Who of you can lengthen his life even for one hour if you worry about it?” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And no matter how a person cherishes his life, there is no way that he can lengthen it by even just a little.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Another thing, even if you worry constantly, can you do-you-suppose make-longer your lives by even one hour?” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well, which of you could add to his life even a little time through agitating his mind/thinking? Of course none.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing his disciples and common people

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or 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.

Here, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.

In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.

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 Luke 12:25

Exegesis:

tis … ex humōn ‘which of you?’ cf. on 11.5.

merimnōn ‘by worrying,’ ‘by being anxious.’

dunatai epi tēn hēlikian autou prostheinai pēchun ‘can add a cubit to his lifetime.’ For hēlikia cf. on 2.52. In view of v. 20 and of the meaning of pēchus (see below) the rendering ‘life,’ ‘lifetime’ is here preferable. For prostithēmi cf. on 3.20.

pēchus lit. ‘cubit,’ ‘ell,’ a measure of length (length of a forearm, about 18 inches = 46.2 centimetres) here used to indicate a short span of time.

Translation:

Which of you, or, ‘is there anyone among you who,’ ‘certainly no one among you.’

By being anxious, or, ‘by-means-of his worrying’ (Batak Toba), “however much he worries about it” (Phillips), sometimes better placed at the end of the sentence. Further shifts or expansions may be necessary, e.g. ‘even if you are anxious can you ever add…,’ ‘however much you worry how to make yourself live longer you cannot add…’ (cf. Tzeltal).

Can add a cubit to his span of life, or, ‘can cause his life to become one span longer’ (Sranan Tongo), ‘can live a day more/longer.’ A term for cubit exists in most languages (e.g. ‘an axe handle long’ in Dan); but in many of them it cannot be used as a measure of time in this context; hence, ‘short space of time,’ “a single hour” (An American Translation), ‘a day,’ but better not ‘an instant/second,’ since the ‘cubit’ is not the smallest measure of length. His span of life, or, ‘the length/duration of his life,’ “his years” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation), ‘his-days’ (Batak Toba). Brouwer and Bahasa Indonesia RC use ‘path-of-life,’ in the sense of ‘length of life,’ with which term ‘cubit’ (as measure of length) fits in nicely.

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.

SIL Translator’s Notes on Luke 12:25

12:25

In Greek, this verse begins with a conjunction that many English versions translate as “and.” This conjunction introduces a third reason why the disciples should not worry. The reason is that worry does not accomplish anything. Some ways to introduce this third reason are:

Besides that (Translator’s Reference Translation)
-or-
As for worrying
-or-
You also should not worry because…

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?: This is a rhetorical question. It emphasizes that no one can add a single hour to the length of his life by worrying about it.

Some ways to translate this emphasis are:

• As a rhetorical question. For example:

Can worry make you live longer? (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not! (New Living Translation (1996))

• As a statement. For example:

You cannot add any time to your life by worrying about it. (New Century Version)

Translate this emphasis in a way that is natural in your language.

a single hour: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as a single hour literally means “a cubit.” Many English versions translate it that way. The cubit was a measure of length, about eighteen inches. Here it probably refers to a short time. Use an expression in your language that is commonly used for a short period of time. For example:

a day (Revised English Bible)
-or-
a single moment (New Living Translation (2004))

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