“The primary meaning of that Greek word is ‘bright, visible splendor.’ The same word has a variety of secondary and extended senses. Since there is not a well-understood Creole word for ‘glory’ and we had to translate it according to meaning, the renderings of ‘glory’ in Creole were diverse, as the following examples, all from the book of Luke, show:
Luke 2:9: èvèk klèté Bondyé té ka kléwé toupatou anlè yo (‘and God’s light was shining everywhere on them’)
Luke 2:14a: An syèl yo ka glowifyé Bondyé, yo ka di i gwan (‘In heaven they are praising God, they are saying he is great‘)
Luke 2:32b: èk i kay fè Izwayèl on plas pou moun konnèt (‘and he will make Israel a place for people to know‘)
Luke 4:6a: Mwen kay ba’w tout pouvwa èk wichès sé wéyòm sala (‘I will give you all power and riches of these kingdoms’)
Luke 9:26b: lè mwen kay vini an pouvwa mwen ka kléwé kon zéklè (‘when I will come in my power shining like lightning‘)
Luke 12:27b: pa menm Sòlomonn an tout wichès li ki té sa abiyé otan bèl kon yonn anpami yo (‘not even Solomon in all his riches was dressed as nice as one of them’)
Luke 14:10b: Sa kay ba’w lonnè wèspé an zyé lézòt sé moun-an (‘That will give you honor respect in the eyes of the other people’)
Luke 17:18: ki viwé di Bondyé mèsi (‘who returned to tell God thank you‘)
Luke 19:38b: Annou glowifyé Bondyé (‘Let’s praise God’)
Luke 21:27: épi pouvwa èk gwan klèté (‘with power and great light‘)
Luke 24:26: èk apwé sa i kay jwenn wèspé (‘and after that he will get respect‘)
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 12:27:
Noongar: “See the flowers in the bush! They don’t work. They don’t make clothes to wear. I tell you, King Solomon had much wealth but he did not have more beautiful clothes than these flowers.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “Consider the lives of flowers. They do not work, they do not make their clothes. But I say to you, even King Salomo with all of his riches, his clothes were not as pretty as those flowers.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Look at the flowers as to how they grow. They don’t work, they don’t weave. And-what’s-more I tell you, even King Sulaiman who was rich in old times, his clothes were not as good/nice as one of these flowers.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Look at the flowers, how they are growing — they do not work; they do not weave, but in spite of that, I tell you that even King Solomon long ago, who was very rich and famous, the beauty of his clothing did not amount to even a little fingernail, compared to these flowers.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “‘Look at the way the flowers get-big. They don’t work and weave their clothes, but I tell you that even King Solomon whose wealth was excessive, he had no clothes whose beauty equaled that of one of these flowers.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “And another thing, think about flowers. Isn’t it so that they don’t work hard or make cloth? But it’s the truth, even king Solomon who was spoken highly of for the big-size of his wealth, he indeed couldn’t dress to surpass one of these flowers in looking nice.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is transliterated as “Solomon” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the sign for “wise” referring to 1 Kings 3:12. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
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 Translator2002, 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.
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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 first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
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 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).
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®).
katanoēsate ta krina pōs auxanei ‘consider the lilies how they grow,’ i.e. ‘consider how the lilies grow.’ ta krina is emphatic by position. For auxanō cf. on 1.80.
krinon ‘lily.’
ou kopia oude nēthei ‘they do not toil or spin,’ referring to human efforts towards the sustaining of life in an agricultural setting. kopiaō (cf. on 5.5) refers to the (hard) work on the land (usually done by men), and nēthō ‘to spin’ to domestic work (usually done by women).
legō de humin ‘but I tell you,’ cf. on 3.8.
oude Solomōn en pasē tē doxē autou ‘not even Solomon in all his splendour.’ doxa refers here to the magnificence which surrounds a king in every respect.
periebaleto hōs hen toutōn ‘was dressed like one of them.’ The aorist tense does not refer here to an event, but to a situation of the past.
periballō (also 23.11) ‘to put on,’ in middle form ‘to dress (oneself).’
Translation:
Lilies, or, the name of some brightly coloured flower, especially the purple, or scarlet, wild anemone; or more generically, ‘(wild) flowers’ (Batak Toba, Huixtec, Central Mazahua), ‘blooms.’
How they grow refers here to the result of their growth, i.e. their outward appearance, rather than to the process of growing; it has, therefore, sometimes been omitted, i.e. left to be understood from the context, e.g. in Shona 1966.
To spin, or, ‘to spin thread,’ or some term referring to an equivalent feminine activity, e.g. ‘to weave cloth(es)’ (Tzeltal, similarly in Shona 1963; and in one West Nyanja version, lit. ‘to beat cloth,’ i.e. to beat the threads into position in the loom), or a term for rolling fibres to make thread (Shona 1966), twisting bark threads on the thigh to make strings (Ekari, similarly another West Nyanja version), beating out bark-cloth (Kele); or more generically, “make clothes for themselves” (Good News Translation).
Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. The sentence structure often has to be recast, e.g. ‘not even S., as glorious (or, rich) as he was, had clothes as beautiful as one of these flowers’ (cf. Good News Translation), or, if a term for ‘array,’ ‘clothing’ cannot be applied to flowers, ‘although the clothes of S. were very beautiful, their beauty did not equal the beauty of one flower’ (Tzeltal). Glory, here referring to a human being’s outward appearance, may be rendered, ‘pomp,’ ‘splendour,’ ‘magnificence,’ ‘beauty,’ ‘greatness of life’ (Tae’ 1933); such a rendering will often differ from the one used for ‘(heavenly or divine) glory’ in 2.9. Arrayed, or, ‘attired,’ especially said of princely dress, or simply, ‘clothed.’
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.
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