sign

The Greek that is typically translated in English as “sign” is translated in Huehuetla Tepehua as “thing to be marveled at” (source: Larson 1889, p. 279) and in Mairasi as “big work” (source: Enggavoter 2004).

plague

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “plague” in English is translated in Bariai as “killing-off” (source: Bariai Back Translation).

In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) as Katastrophe or Katastrophenschlag, i.e. “disaster” or “disastrous strike.”

complete verse (Luke 21:11)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 21:11:

  • Noongar: “Mountains will shake, people will be without food and drink, and plagues will spread though all countries. Strange and terrible things will fall from the sky.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “There will be big earthquakes and everywhere there will be plagues and famines. And in the sky there will be terrifying signs.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “And strong earthquakes will come and famines and bad sicknesses in all the countries here in the world. The people will also see signs in the sky which cause wonder and fear.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “there will take place everywhere strong earthquakes and bitter famine — disease will spread throughout many places. And you will see a very surprising and very fearful sign which comes from heaven.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “There will also be many fearful earthquakes, famines and sicknesses which will kill many people in the many-countries. And there will also be fearful and amazing signs in the sky.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “The earth will have strong quakes, and in whichever place there will be severe famines and epidemics will spread all over. And in the sky frightening things will be seen and amazing signs.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

sky

Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Aramaic all have one term only that refers to what can be expressed in English as “sky” or “heaven(s)” (as a physical and spiritual entity). While there is a slight overlap between the meaning of the two English terms, “sky” (from Old Norse sky meaning “cloud”) typically refers to the physical entity, and “heaven” (from Old English heofon meaning “home of God”) typically refers to the spiritual entity. While this enriches the English lexicon, it also forces English Bible translators to make decisions that can be found only in the context in the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts. Most versions tend to use “heaven(s)” even if the meaning is likely “sky,” but the Contemporary English Version (NT: 1991, OT: 1995, DC: 1999) is an English translation that attempted to be more specific in the separation of the two meanings and was used as the basis for the links to verses used for this and this record (“heaven”).

Norm Mundhenk (in The Bible Translator 2006, p. 92ff. ) describes the difficulty that English translations face (click or tap here to see more):

“A number of years ago an old lady asked me a question. What did Jesus mean when he said, ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away’? I do not remember what answer I gave, but I was surprised at how concerned she seemed to be about the verse. It was only later, after I had left her, that I suddenly realized what it was that she was so concerned about. She knew that death could not be far away, and all her life she had looked forward to being with God in heaven. But this verse said that ‘heaven will pass away’! What did that mean for her hopes? In fact, of course, in this verse Jesus was talking about the skies or the heavens, not about Heaven as the place of God’s presence. If I had realized the problem in time, I could easily have set the lady’s mind at rest on this question that was troubling her so much. However, I suspect that she is not the only person to be misled by the wording of this verse. Therefore, it is very surprising to find that even today many English versions (including the New International Version, New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, Good News Translation) still say ‘heaven and earth’ in verses like Matt 24:35 and its parallels (Mark 13:31 and Luke 21:33). The Contemporary English Version (CEV) and Phillips’ translation seem to be aware of the problem, and in Mark 13:31 both of these have ‘earth and sky’ instead of ‘heaven and earth.’ But in some other passages (such as Matt 5:18) the traditional wording is still found in both of those translations. The New Century Version (NCV) does have ‘earth and sky’ more consistently, and the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has ‘sky and earth’ in these passages. (Although ‘sky and earth’ is closer to the Greek, it seems more natural in English to say ‘earth and sky’; but either way, at least the meaning is correct.)

“Louw and Nida’s Lexical Semantics of the Greek New Testament (publ. 1992) suggests that the Greek expression being translated here, ho ouranos kai he ge is ‘a more or less fixed phrase equivalent to a single lexical unit’ and that it means everything that God created, that is, the universe. They then quote Mark 13:31 as an example, using ‘heaven and earth’ in their translation of it. However, they go on to say that there ‘may be certain complications involved in rendering ho ouranos kai he ge as ‘heaven and earth,’ since ‘heaven’ might be interpreted in some languages as referring only to the dwelling place of God himself. The referents in this passage are ‘the sky and the earth,’ in other words, all of physical existence, but not the dwelling place of God, for the latter would not be included in what is destined to pass away.’ In my opinion, English itself is one of the languages where the word ‘heaven’ will be interpreted as referring only to the dwelling place of God himself, and translations into English should not use ‘heaven’ in these passages. It is probably because these passages are so very familiar that translators do not realize the meaning they are giving their readers when they use the expression ‘heaven and earth’ here. In modern English we might talk about a rocket ‘soaring into the heavens,’ but we would certainly not describe it as ‘soaring into heaven,’ because ‘heaven’ is not another way of referring to the sky or to outer space.

“In fact, it is surely important in all languages to have some way of distinguishing the concept of ‘sky’ from the concept of ‘dwelling place of God.’ In these passages translators should never use a term meaning ‘the dwelling place of God.’ It may not be necessary to use a term meaning ‘sky’ either, if there is some other expression in the language which gives the correct meaning of ‘everything that has been created’ or ‘the universe.’ There are of course places in the New Testament where Heaven, as the place where God lives, is contrasted with the earth. In these passages, translators should be careful to give the correct meaning. A good example of this is in the Lord’s Prayer, in Matt 6:10: ‘Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ Similarly, 1 Cor 15:47 says that ‘the first man [a reference to Adam] was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.’ Passages like these are referring to Heaven, not to the sky. Other NT passages where heaven refers to God’s dwelling place, in contrast with earth, are Matt 5:34-35, 16:19, 18:18, Acts 7:49, James 5:12, and Rev 5:3.

“Sometimes in the New Testament, the word ‘heaven’ is used because of the Jewish reluctance to use the name of God. ‘Heaven’ in these cases is used in place of ‘God’ and refers to God himself. This is the case in the many references in Matthew to ‘the kingdom of heaven’ where other gospels have ‘the kingdom of God’ (e.g., compare Matt 4:17 with its parallels in Mark 1:15 and Luke 10:9). It is also most likely the case in references like Matt 16:1, Luke 20:4, 5, John 3:27, and even perhaps Col 1:5.

“There are some places, such as Matt 11:25, where God is called ‘Lord of heaven and earth.’ Since God is of course the Lord of Heaven as well as of the universe, it may not matter so much which interpretation is given in these passages (others are Luke 10:21 and Acts 17:24). Nevertheless, the intended meaning here is likely to be ‘the universe.’ This is because this expression in Greek, as Louw and Nida say, is a set expression referring to everything that has been created. Acts 17:24 in fact combines the idea of the creation of the universe with the idea of God as Master or Lord of the universe. (…)

“Old Testament background The use of ‘heaven and earth’ in the New Testament is very similar to what we find in the Old Testament, because it is largely based on the Old Testament.

“The Old Testament begins with the story of creation, which is presented as the creation of the heavens and the earth, with lights to shine in the heavens and give light to the earth. Birds are created to live in the heavens, animals to live on earth, and fish to live in the sea (Gen 1:1-2:4).

“As we can see from the way the creation story is told, it is meant to be understood as the creation of the universe. Although in English the regions above the earth have traditionally been called ‘the heavens’ in the story of creation, they cannot be called ‘Heaven,’ in the sense of the place where God dwells. In terms of modern English, it would probably be better to say ‘the sky and the earth’ or ‘the earth and the sky.’ The story of creation then becomes an important theme throughout the Old Testament. (…)

“In most passages, whether in the Old Testament or the New Testament, when ‘heaven and earth’ or ‘the heavens and the earth’ are mentioned, the meaning is the created universe. It is not a reference to Heaven, as the dwelling place of God. In English, translators have not been careful to keep this distinction clear, and this is probably true in many other languages as well. However, as we have seen, this can lead to real confusion for ordinary Bible readers. It is better if translators find ways to make the meaning clear in these passages. ‘Heaven’ should be mentioned only in passages which clearly mean the dwelling place of God. In other passages, an expression should be used which means only ‘sky.’ Or else, the whole expression ‘heaven and earth’ can be translated in a way to show that the whole universe is meant.”

Other languages that have a semantic distinction similar to English include:

  • Hungarian: ég — “sky”; menny — “heaven”
  • Tagalog: kalawakan — “sky”; langit/kalangitan — “heaven”
  • Swedish: sky — “sky”; Himmel — “heaven”
  • Loma: “up” — “sky”; “God’s place” — heaven”
  • Mossi: saase — “sky”; nyingeri — “the up above”(source for Loma and Mossi: Bratcher/Nida)
  • Roviana: mamaṉa — “sly”; maṉauru — “heaven” (an old word, meaning “empty, open space of the sky”) (source: Carl Gross)
  • Kayaw: mô̄la or “canopy-under”/mô̄khû̄la or “canopy-above-under” — “sky” (atmosphere where there is just air); mô̄khû̄ or “canopy-on/above” — “heaven” (invisible abode of God and angels)
  • Burmese: မိုး ကောင်း ကင်/moe kaungg kain — “sky”; ကောင်း ကင်/kaungg kain — “sky” or “heaven”; ကောင်း ကင်ဗုံ/kaungg kain bone — “heaven”
  • Mairasi: Sinyavi — an indigenous term that is used for both “sky” and heaven”; Surga — loanword from Sanskrit via Indonesian referring to “heaven” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Noongar: worl — “sky”; Boolanga-Yirakang Boodjer — “Country of God” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Kupsabiny: “up” for “sky” vs. “God’s Homestead” for “heaven” (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)

In some languages, such as Yagaria, a term that was originally used as “sky” (gokudana) was adopted by the Christian community as “heaven.” This resulted in a language shift so that now all communities uses “empty space / air” (galogina or hakalogina) as “sky” and gokudana is exclusively used for the Christian concept of heaven. (Source: Renck 1990, p. 133)

Many languages follow the original biblical languages in not making that distinction, such as:

In some languages, such as Wandala, the vocabulary for terms for either “heaven” or “sky” is much richer than just to include those two distinction. While zhegela, the term that is specifically used for the physical sky was only used in early translations of the New Testament for “sky,” other terms such as samaya (used for both “sky” and “heaven”), zlanna (specifically used for the perfect abode of God and the goal of the faithful, as in Matthew 8:11), kwárá (a locational term used to speak of a chief’s rule [lit., “voice”] such as Matthew 3:2), or sleksire (“chieftaincy,” “kingship,” or “royalty” [originally from slekse “chief”] and used where there are no locational overtones, such as in Matthew 16:28) are used. (Source: Mona Perrin in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 51ff.)

The English translation by Sarah Ruden (2021) uses “sky” throughout. Ruden explains (p. li): “The Greek word ouranos refers evenhandedly to the physical sky and the place—often pictured as a royal court — where supreme divinity resides. ‘Sky’ seems generally better, first of all in avoiding the wackier modern imagery that comes with the English ‘heaven.’ And even when a supernatural realm is meant, ‘sky’ will often do, because the divine realm was thought to be located there, in addition to the weather and the heavenly bodies, whereas ‘heaven’ to us is fundamentally a religious term, and the ancients did not tend to separate linguistic domains in this way. I have retained the plural ‘skies’ where I see it in the Greek, because it is a Hebraism familiar in English translations of scripture and (I hope) not too archaic or jarring.”

Translation commentary on Luke 21:10 – 21:11

Exegesis:

tote elegen autois ‘then he said to them,’ introductory formula which serves not to introduce a new discourse, but to emphasize the significance of what follows.

(V. 11) seismoi te megaloi ‘and there will be great earthquakes,’ going with esontai. seismos. te corresponds with kai before kata topous, and the second kai serves to connect limoi and loimoi, ‘there will be both great earthquakes and plagues and famines,’ thus bringing out that two groups of events are envisaged, i.e. catastrophes in nature, and human afflictions.

kata topous ‘in various places.’ Syntactically the phrase goes with what follows, but not to the extent that the earthquakes do not occur in various places.

limoi kai loimoi esontai ‘there will be famines and plagues.’

loimos ‘pestilence,’ ‘plague,’ ‘contagious disease.’

phobētra te kai … sēmeia megala estai ‘there will be terrors and … great signs.’ te kai connects phobētra and sēmeia as belonging closely together. Hence megala goes with both substantives.

phobētron ‘terror,’ ‘terrible event,’ here probably referring to cosmic catastrophes.

ap’ ouranou ‘from heaven,’ ‘from the sky,’ going with both phobētra and sēmeia.

Translation:

Then he said, preferably, “he went on to say” (Good News Translation).

Nation will rise against nation, or, ‘nations will defy each other’ (Bahasa Indonesia RC). Instead of nation, or, ‘people/tribe,’ one may have to use ‘men of a nation, or, tribe, or, country’ (cf. Tae,’ Western Highland Purepecha).

(V. 11) In various places, or, ‘now here, then there’ (Nieuwe Vertaling), should be given such a position in the sentence that it can qualify the three nouns, e.g. at the very end (some English versions), or at the very beginning (Javanese).

Famines, see on 4.25.

Pestilences, or, ‘spreading illness (i.e. epidemic)’ (Tae’), ‘the bowing-down of stalks-of-reed’ (Toraja-Sa’dan using a figurative phrase, comparing the people falling down in an epidemic with broken rushes).

Terrors and great signs, or, ‘great terrifying things and signs’; or, because of the close relationship between the two nouns, ‘terrifying and great signs,’ ‘great signs that cause people to fear’ (Tae’ 1933). Signs. Some languages have a distinctive term for things that foreshadow coming events, e.g. “portents” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation, similarly Balinese).

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 21:11

21:11a

There will be great earthquakes, famines, and pestilences in various places: In this clause Jesus mentioned three things that will happen before the end. Probably all three of these things will happen in various places. Some other ways to translate the clause are:

there will be severe earthquakes, famines and plagues in many places… (Revised English Bible)
-or-
In various places there will be great earthquakes, sicknesses, and a lack of food. (New Century Version)
-or-
Terrible earthquakes, famines, and plagues will happen in many lands.

great earthquakes: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as earthquakes refers to sudden and violent movements of the ground. The word great implies that the shaking would be especially violent. When the ground shakes violently, buildings are often destroyed, and many people and animals may be killed.

In some languages it may be more natural to use a phrase or clause to translate this meaning. For example:

The earth will shake violently and cause great destruction.

famines: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as famines refers to long periods of time when people do not have enough food to eat. Famines usually happen when there is no rain for a long time and crops do not grow. People become very hungry, and many people die because they do not have food. The word “famine” does not refer to the time before harvest each year when people are more hungry than usual.

Other ways to translate famines are:

There will be no food to eat ⌊and many people will die of hunger⌋.
-or-
times of great hunger

pestilences: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as pestilences refers to contagious diseases that can spread to many people within a short time. These diseases cause great suffering, and many people die from them. Other ways to translate this are:

widespread contagious diseases
-or-
plagues (Good News Translation)
-or-
dreadful diseases (God’s Word)

in various places: The phrase in various places refers to different places in many parts of the world.

21:11b

along with fearful sights and great signs from heaven: This part of the verse continues to describe events that will happen before the end. In Greek, it contains the same verb as in 21:11a. Another way to translate it is:

and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven (Revised Standard Version)

The phrase from heaven probably tells where both the fearful sights and great signs will happen. Another way to say this is:

in the sky terrors and signs ⌊will appear⌋

It is possible that fearful sights and great signs refer to the same events. The great signs will terrify people. Some ways to translate fearful sights and great signs from heaven are:

• Translate them as two different events or sights. For example:

terrors and great signs from heaven (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
terrifying sights/events and miraculous signs in the sky

• Translate them as one event or sight. For example:

terrifying signs in the sky

fearful sights: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as fearful sights is literally “terrors.” It can refer to any sight or event that causes great fear. Other ways to translate it are:

dreadful sights (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
-or-
terrifying things (Good News Translation)
-or-
terrors (Revised Standard Version)

great signs: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as signs refers to events or sights that have a special meaning. In this context, the signs are amazing things that happen or appear in the sky. The text does not make explicit exactly what these signs mean. However, it implies that God causes them to show people on earth that something important or dreadful will soon happen.

Some scholars believe that these signs are the same ones that are mentioned in 21:25–26. However, those signs will happen immediately before Jesus returns to earth. Many scholars believe that these signs in 21:25–26 will happen in the same time period as the events of 21:8–9.

See also the notes on 21:7b. Other ways to translate great signs are:

miraculous signs (God’s Word)
-or-
amazing things/events to warn/show ⌊people⌋ ⌊to expect something crucial/dreadful⌋

from heaven: The phrase from heaven means “from the sky,” and more specifically, “from” or “in” the clouds or the stars. Jesus probably referred here to strange things that would happen to the sun, moon, and stars. He continued to tell about this in 21:25–26. See heaven, Meaning 1, in the Glossary.

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