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.
The Hebrew adonai in the Old Testament typically refers to God. The shorter adon (and in two cases in the book of Daniel the Aramaic mare [מָרֵא]) is also used to refer to God but more often for concepts like “master,” “owner,” etc. In English Bible translations all of those are translated with “Lord” if they refer to God.
In English Old Testament translations, as in Old Testament translations in many other languages, the use of Lord (or an equivalent term in other languages) is not to be confused with Lord (or the equivalent term with a different typographical display for other languages). While the former translates adonai, adon and mare, the latter is a translation for the tetragrammaton (YHWH) or the Name of God. See tetragrammaton (YHWH) and the article by Andy Warren-Rothlin in Noss / Houser, p. 618ff. for more information.
In the New Testament, the Greek term kurios has at least four different kinds of use:
referring to “God,” especially in Old Testament quotations,
meaning “master” or “owner,” especially in parables, etc.,
as a form of address (see for instance John 4:11: “Sir, you have no bucket”),
or, most often, referring to Jesus
In the first and fourth case, it is also translated as “Lord” in English.
Most languages naturally don’t have one word that covers all these meanings. According to Bratcher / Nida, “the alternatives are usually (1) a term which is an honorific title of respect for a high-ranking person and (2) a word meaning ‘boss’, ‘master’, or ‘chief.’ (…) and on the whole it has generally seemed better to employ a word of the second category, in order to emphasize the immediate personal relationship, and then by context to build into the word the prestigeful character, since its very association with Jesus Christ will tend to accomplish this purpose.”
When looking at the following list of back-translations of the terms that translators in the different languages have used for both kurios and adonai to refer to God and Jesus respectively, it might be helpful for English readers to recall the etymology of the English “Lord.” While this term might have gained an exalted meaning in the understanding of many, it actually comes from hlaford or “loaf-ward,” referring to the lord of the castle who was the keeper of the bread (source: Rosin 1956, p. 121).
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Following are some of the solutions that don’t rely on a different typographical display (see above):
Iyansi: Mwol. Mwol is traditionally used for the “chief of a group of communities and villages” with legal, temporal, and spiritual authority (versus the “mfum [the term used in other Bantu languages] which is used for the chief of one community of people in one village”). Mwol is also used for twins who are “treated as special children, highly honored, and taken care of like kings and queens.” (Source: Kividi Kikama in Greed / Kruger, p. 396ff.)
Binumarien: Karaambaia: “fight-leader” (Source: Oates 1995, p. 255)
Warlpiri: Warlaljamarri (owner or possessor of something — for more information tap or click here)
We have come to rely on another term which emphasizes God’s essential nature as YHWH, namely jukurrarnu (see tetragrammaton (YHWH)). This word is built on the same root jukurr– as is jukurrpa, ‘dreaming.’ Its basic meaning is ‘timelessness’ and it is used to describe physical features of the land which are viewed as always being there. Some speakers view jukurrarnu in terms of ‘history.’ In all Genesis references to YHWH we have used Kaatu Jukurrarnu. In all Mark passages where kurios refers to God and not specifically to Christ we have also used Kaatu Jukurrarnu.
New Testament references to Christ as kurios are handled differently. At one stage we experimented with the term Watirirririrri which refers to a ceremonial boss of highest rank who has the authority to instigate ceremonies. While adequately conveying the sense of Christ’s authority, there remained potential negative connotations relating to Warlpiri ceremonial life of which we might be unaware.
Here it is that the Holy Spirit led us to make a chance discovery. Transcribing the personal testimony of the local Warlpiri pastor, I noticed that he described how ‘my Warlaljamarri called and embraced me (to the faith)’. Warlaljamarri is based on the root warlalja which means variously ‘family, possessions, belongingness’. A warlaljamarri is the ‘owner’ or ‘possessor’ of something. While previously being aware of the ‘ownership’ aspect of warlaljamarri, this was the first time I had heard it applied spontaneously and naturally in a fashion which did justice to the entire concept of ‘Lordship’. Thus references to Christ as kurios are now being handled by Warlaljamarri.” (Source: Stephen Swartz, The Bible Translator 1985, p. 415ff. )
Mairasi: Onggoao Nem (“Throated One” — “Leader,” “Elder”) or Enggavot Nan (“Above-One”) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Obolo: Okaan̄-ene (“Owner of person(s)”) (source: Enene Enene)
Lotha Naga: Opvui (“owner of house / field / cattle”) — since both “Lord” and YHWH are translated as Opvui there is an understanding that “Opvui Jesus is the same as the Opvui of the Old Testament”
Seediq: Tholang, loan word from Min Nan Chinese (the majority language in Taiwan) thâu-lâng (頭儂): “Master” (source: Covell 1998, p. 248)
Thai: phra’ phu pen cao (พระผู้เป็นเจ้า) (divine person who is lord) or ong(kh) cao nay (องค์เจ้านาย) (<divine classifier>-lord-boss) (source: Stephen Pattemore)
Arabic often uses different terms for adonai or kurios referring to God (al-rabb الرب) and kurios referring to Jesus (al-sayyid الـسـيـد). Al-rabb is also the term traditionally used in Arabic Christian-idiom translations for YHWH, and al-sayyid is an honorary term, similar to English “lord” or “sir” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin).
Tamil also uses different terms for adonai/kurios when referring to God and kurios when referring to Jesus. The former is Karttar கர்த்தர், a Sanskrit-derived term with the original meaning of “creator,” and the latter in Āṇṭavar ஆண்டவர், a Tamil term originally meaning “govern” or “reign” (source: Natarajan Subramani).
Burunge: Looimoo: “owner who owns everything” (in the Burunge Bible translation, this term is only used as a reference to Jesus and was originally used to refer to the traditional highest deity — source: Michael Endl in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 48)
Yagaria: Souve, originally “war lord” (source: Renck, p. 94)
Aguacateco: Ajcaw ske’j: “the one to whom we belong and who is above us” (source: Rita Peterson in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 49)
Konkomba: Tidindaan: “He who is the owner of the land and reigns over the people” (source: Lidorio 2007, p. 66)
Chichewa: AmbuyeAmbuye comes from the singular form Mbuye which is used to refer to: (1) someone who is a guardian or protector of someone or group of people — a grandparent who has founded a community or village; (2) someone who is a boss or master over a group of people or servants and has absolute control over them; (3) owner of something, be it a property, animals and people who are bound under his/her rule — for people this was mostly commonly used in the context of slaves and their owner. In short, Mbuye is someone who has some authorities over those who call him/her their “Mbuye.” Now, when the form Ambuye is used it will either be for honorific when used for singular or plural when referring to more than one person. When this term is used in reference to God, it is for respect to God as he is acknowledged as a guardian, protector, and ruler of everything. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation).
Hdi uses rveri (“lion”) as a title of respect and as such it regularly translates adon in the Old Testament. As an address, it’s most often with a possessive pronoun as in rvera ɗa (“my lion” = “my lord” or “sir”). So, for example, Genesis 15:2 (“O Lord God”) is Rvera ɗa Yawe (“My lion Yahweh”) or Ruth to Boaz in Ruth 2:13: “May I find your grace [lit. good-stomach] my lion.” This ties in nicely with the imagery of the Lord roaring like a lion (Hosea 11:10; Amos 3:8; Joel 3:16). Better still, this makes passages like Revelation 5:5 even richer when we read about rveri ma taba məndəra la Yuda, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah”. In Revelation 19:16, Jesus is rveri ta ghəŋa rveriha “the lion above lions” (“lord of lords”). (Source: Drew Maust)
Law (2013, p. 97) writes about how the Ancient GreekSeptuagint‘s translation of the Hebrew adonai was used by the New Testament writers as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments: “Another case is the use of kurios referring to Jesus. For Yahweh (in English Bibles: ‘the Lord‘), the Septuagint uses kurios. Although the term kurios usually has to do with one’s authority over others, when the New Testament authors use this word from the Septuagint to refer to Jesus, they are making an extraordinary claim: Jesus of Nazareth is to be identified with Yahweh.”
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®).
pas hos an homologēsē en emoi ‘everyone who acknowledges me.’
homologeō ‘to acknowledge,’ ‘to confess,’ here with en, probably an Aramaism. To acknowledge Jesus means to acknowledge allegiance to Jesus.
emprosthen tōn anthrōpōn ‘before, or, in the presence of men,’ i.e. publicly, here and now.
kai ho huios tou anthrōpou ‘the Son of man on his part….’ For ho huios tou anthrōpou cf. on 5.24.
homologēsei en autō emprosthen tōn aggelōn tou theou ‘will acknowledge him before the angels of God,’ i.e. in the eschatological judgment the Son of man will answer for him.
(V. 9) ho de arnēsamenos me enōpion tōn anthrōpōn ‘he who disowns me before men.’ de marks transition and contrast. arnēsamenos is in the aorist because, from the standpoint of the final judgment, it refers to an act in the past. enōpion is equivalent to emprosthen (v. 8). For arneomai cf. on 8.45. To disown Jesus means to deny allegiance to him.
aparnēthēsetai enōpion tōn aggelōn tou theou ‘will be disowned before the angels of God,’ in the eschatological judgment Jesus will not answer for him. aparneomai is equivalent to arneomai.
Translation:
Every one who acknowledges me…, the Son of man also will acknowledge … The structure of this verse may have to be recast, e.g. ‘when a person acknowledges me…, the Son of man on his part will acknowledge him…,’ or in co-ordination, e.g. ‘let anybody acknowledge me…, and I the Son of man will acknowledge him…’ (cf. The Four Gospels – a New Translation).
Acknowledges me is often rendered by a descriptive phrase, cf. e.g. “confesses publicly that he belongs to me” (Good News Translation), ‘say openly … that they have believed on me’ (Tzeltal), ‘approves me’ (West Nyanja, a term explained as “to utter response in chorus, or in a speech approve, by word of mouth or by clapping of hands, the words of the speaker, to … do the part of an approver and say, ‘yes, yes, we say so too’ ”; also used for ‘to confess,’ in the sense of reciting the Creed); or by comparable expressions in direct discourse; or again by, ‘declares/mentions my name’ (Kekchi, Sranan Tongo), ‘talks my good name’ (Northern Grebo), ‘testifies to me’ (cf. e.g. Zarma, Pohnpeian), ‘takes my side’ (Shona 1966), ‘speaks for me’ (Ekari).
(V. 9) He who denies me … will be denied …, or, ‘when a person disowns/rejects me…, he will be disowned/rejected, or, I will disown/reject him….’ To deny can often be rendered by the opposite or negative of the expression used for “to acknowledge”, e.g. ‘not be willing to acknowledge’ (Thai 1967), ‘say I do not (or, don’t want to) believe,’ etc., ‘pretend not to know’ (Ekari); in Zarma one uses ‘to take oath,’ nearly always with negative connotation: to swear that it is not true, or that one will not.
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.
In these verses Jesus contrasted the results of acknowledging him to people and of disowning him to people. This connects with his theme in 12:4–7 that his disciples should fear God rather than people.
12:8a
I tell you: Jesus often used the words I tell you to begin a statement that he wanted to emphasize. He was asking people to listen with extra attention. Some ways to show the emphasis in this context could be:
Let me tell you this -or-
Listen -or-
I assure you
If you have another way in your language to emphasize a statement or to alert people to listen with special attention, you may be able to use it here.
everyone who confesses Me before men: In this context the Greek clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as everyone who confesses Me before men refers to anyone who publicly tells people that he is a disciple of Jesus. It may refer especially to a person who publicly declares his loyalty to Jesus in a courtroom setting, as in 12:11–12. Some other ways to translate this clause are:
those who declare publicly that they belong to me (Good News Translation) -or-
all those who stand before others and say they believe in me (New Century Version) -or-
anyone who affirms in front of other people here on earth that he is my follower
confesses Me: Someone who confesses Jesus declares or affirms that he is a follower of Jesus. He affirms that Jesus is his Master/Lord.
before men: The phrase before men means “in public.” It refers to speaking in front of or in the presence of people, whether men or women.
12:8b
the Son of Man will also confess him before the angels of God: This part of the verse is similar to 12:8a. However, the exact words that Jesus will say to the angels about his disciples may be different from the words that his disciples will say about him to other people. It is good to translate the verb confess here in a similar way as in 12:8a and also in a way that fits the context of 12:8b. Some ways to do that could be:
⌊I,⌋ the Son of Man, will also stand before the angels of God and say that he ⌊is my disciple⌋ -or-
⌊I,⌋ the Son of Man, will affirm to the angels of God that he ⌊belongs to me⌋
Jesus often referred to himself as the Son of Man. In some languages it may be necessary to make it clear that Jesus was referring to himself. For example:
I, the Son of Man
The phrase Son of Man also occurs in 9:22a and 11:30b.
before the angels of God: The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as before the angels of God corresponds to the phrase “before men” in 12:8a. It means “in front of” or “in the presence of” the angels of God. It is implied that God is also present. In some languages it may be necessary to make this information explicit. For example:
in front of ⌊God and⌋ his angels
the angels of God: The phrase the angels of God refers to spirit beings who serve God. See angel, Meaning 1, in the Glossary. Refer to them here in a way that fits the context. One way to do that could be:
the spirit beings who serve God ⌊in heaven⌋
General Comment on 12:8a–b
In some languages it may be awkward or redundant to repeat a descriptive phrase for the term “acknowledge” in both 12:8a and 12:8b. If that is true in your language, you may be able to use a shorter phrase in 12:8b that refers back to the phrase in 12:8a. For example:
8a…those who declare publicly that they belong to me, 8bthe Son of Man will do the same for them before the angels of God. (Good News Translation)
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