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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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, tsukawas-are-ru (遣わされる) or “send” is used.
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system, one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and others for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are Twents as well as Indonesian and Malay. In the latter two languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
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.”
Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Luke 4:16-30:
Jesus — now a grown man — returned one day
to his hometown of Nazareth,
where he attended synagogue on a Sabbath.
He was handed a Bible and instructed to read from Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord has descended upon me
and has chosen me to proclaim great news for the poor,
to set prisoners free, to heal blindness and suffering,
and to announce this is the Lord’s chosen time.
Jesus closed the Bible and handed it to the leader,
then sat down, and with everyone staring at him, said,
“These words have all come true today.”
Though completely amazed at the teaching of Jesus,
the entire congregation was puzzled and questioned,
“Isn’t this the son of Joseph?”
So Jesus responded:
“You think I’m really the one in need of help,
and you challenge me to work in my own hometown
the same miracles you heard I worked in Capernaum.
Need I remind you — prophets are rejected at home!
“During the time of Elijah the prophet,
there was a drought for three years,
and people were starving everywhere.
But God sent Elijah to help only a foreign widow.
“During the time of Elisha the prophet,
many men in our nation suffered from leprosy,
but God healed only Naaman, who lived in Syria.”
At this, everyone in the synagogue became furious.
They threw Jesus out of their town,
dragged him to the edge of a cliff,
and started to throw him down from there.
But Jesus slipped through the crowd and disappeared.
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®).
pneuma kuriou ep’ eme ‘the Spirit of the Lord is upon me,’ cf. on 2.25. The Spirit is the Spirit of prophetic inspiration, cf. Hos. 9.7; Micah 3.8; Ezek. 2.2; 3.24; 11.5.
hou heineken echrisen me ‘because he has anointed me.’
hou heineken lit. ‘because of the fact that,’ with the implication that the purpose of echrisen me ‘he anointed me’ is to bring about what the main clause refers to, as often in the Septuagint. heineken (here and 18.29), heneken (9.24; 21.12) or heneka (6.22) ‘because of,’ ‘on account of.’
chriō ‘to anoint,’ in the New Testament only in figurative meaning. In view of the fulfilment to which v. 21 refers it appears that Jesus understands the descending of the Spirit upon him (3.22) as his being anointed with the Spirit.
euaggelisasthai ptōchois ‘to preach good news to poor people.’ For euaggelizomai cf. on 1.19. The phrase, which is dependent upon echrisen, serves to indicate God’s commission implied in the anointing with the Spirit.
ptōchos lit. ‘begging,’ hence ‘poor.’ Here as often in the Old Testament it does not denote people who are only economically poor but people who have little or nothing to expect from the circumstances which determine their life and are therefore dependent upon God. The omission of the article before ptōchois (as before the other nouns in this verse) shows that the reference is not to one specific group but to people who are in this situation generally.
apestalken me ‘he has sent me’ cf. on 1.19. On this clause depend the subsequent infinitives kēruxai (twice) and aposteilai.
kēruxai aichmalōtois aphesin kai tuphlois anablepsin ‘to proclaim release for captives and recovery of sight for blind.’ For kērussō cf. on 3.3; for aphesis cf. on 1.77.
aichmalōtos ‘captive,’ refers in Is. 61.1 perhaps to people who have been sold as slaves because of their debts and who were set free in the year of jubilee (see below), and may be taken here as referring to all people who are in some form of slavery, including that of sin.
tuphlos ‘blind,’ here refers to blind people as socially weak and personally unhappy, cf. 14.13, 21. They are among the specific objects of Jesus’ Messianic ministry of healing (cf. 7.21, 22 where also the ptōchoi are mentioned as those who receive the good news!).
anablepsis ‘recovery of sight,’ or, with a shift from the abstract to the concrete, “new eyes” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation).
aposteilai tethrausmenous en aphesei ‘to let go, or to send away, the down-trodden in liberty.’ Here apostellō is used in a weaker meaning (‘to let go’ without indication of purpose or commission). en aphesei does not refer (as does aphesin above) to the release of prisoners but to a freedom in a social and religious sense which is the opposite of the state to which tethrausmenous (see below) refers.
tethrausmenous, from thrauō ‘to break,’ lit. ‘the broken ones,’ fig. ‘the oppressed,’ ‘the down-trodden,’ socially and religiously.
(V. 19) kēruxai eniauton kuriou dekton ‘to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour,’ or ‘the acceptable year of the Lord,’ dependent upon the interpretation of dekton. eniautos.
dektos (also v. 24) (1) ‘acceptable,’ ‘welcome’ or (2) ‘favourable.’ In v. 24 only the former meaning is possible (see below), but here both may apply: (1) ‘the acceptable, or agreeable year of the Lord’ (Revised Standard Version, Nieuwe Vertaling, Zürcher Bibel, Rengstorf) must be understood as agreeable to men; (2) ‘the favourable year of the Lord’ i.e. the year of the Lord’s favour, i.e. the year in which the Lord bestows his favour. The latter is preferable.
Translation:
Here, again the use of honorific requires attention. In order to make the right choice the translator should carefully envisage the situation to which the quotation refers, i.e. that of a messenger of God who tells the people what God has done to him and what he himself is going to do. The position of the messenger is such that he may be taken to address the people in non-honorific language.
The lines (a) and (b) may have to be co-ordinated, e.g. ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; for that purpose he has anointed me. He did so in order that I may preach…,’ or, ‘The Lord has anointed me. Now his Spirit is upon me. This happens in order that I may preach….’
The Spirit of the Lord The relationship between ‘the Lord’ or ‘God’ and ‘his Spirit’ is not the same as that between ‘man’ and ‘his heart/mind/soul.’ To avoid misunderstanding one may have to say, ‘the Spirit from God,’ ‘the Spirit that God gives/sends’; in languages that distinguish between alienable and inalienable possessives, the first may be obligatory. For Lord see on 1.6, sub (c).
He has anointed me. For the verb, here used in a figurative sense. The words refer to Jesus’ experience described in 3.22; hence in Foe the past tense referring to what happened before the day of speaking has to be used, and the aspect which indicates that the speaker describes something that he can see going on.
To preach good news, see on 3.18.
The poor (also in 6.20; 7.22; 14.13, 21; 16.20, 22; 18.22; 19.8; 21.2f), or, ‘those who have very little’; or if such terms are too exclusively economic, ‘the wretched/miserable’ (Balinese), ‘the pitiable.’
To proclaim release to the captives, or avoiding the verbal noun, ‘to announce to the captives that they will be released’ (Sranan Tongo), or, “You shall be (set) free!” In making his choice between possible restructurings the translator should take into account the parallelism with the next phrase, which makes the use of identical constructions preferable. — To proclaim, i.e. to make widely known with authority, has been rendered, ‘to cause-to-be heard-here-and-there’ (Trukese), ‘to spread by saying’ (Tzeltal); cf. also on “to preach” in 3.3. Where more than one term is available one should select the one that is most widely applicable and can also be used metaphorically. Some of the expressions used are ‘the tied-up ones’ (Pohnpeian, Ekari), ‘men that are-imprisoned’ (Javanese), ‘those taken and carried away’ (Marathi), ‘those who have become booty (lit. what-is-taken-as-plunder)’ (Balinese).
And recovering of sight to the blind. For shifts that may be necessary in the syntactic structure, see above. To recover sight, or, ‘to regain (one’s) sight,’ ‘to be able to see again.’ For blind one says, ‘(having) eyes dark/night’ in Ekari, ‘having no eyes’ in Zarma, ‘not seeing’ in honorific Balinese. Some languages have distinctive terms for congenital and non-congenital blindness, the latter to be used here.
Lines (e) and (f) are dependent on “he has sent me” in line (c), which clause has to be repeated in some languages before (e) (as done in Sranan Tongo), and maybe also before (f).
To set at liberty, or, ‘to set free,’ ‘to deliver.’ It may be necessary to add a reference to that which they were delivered from, e.g. ‘to deliver the oppressed from their enemies,’ ‘to help the oppressed against (or, to overcome) what oppresses them.’
Those who are oppressed, or, ‘maltreated,’ ‘defeated.’
(V. 19) The structure of to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, preferably, ‘the favourable year of the Lord’ (see Exegesis), usually will have to be changed, e.g. ‘to proclaim that the favourable year of the Lord has come’ (cf. Sranan Tongo), or, ‘that this is the year of the Lord’s favour,’ “In this year the Lord will show his favour (towards man!)” — For ‘favour’ see references on 1.30.
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.
These verses are from the ancient Greek translation of Isaiah 61:1–2. They contain a prophecy concerning the Messiah. In it, the Messiah is speaking about himself, so the word “me” refers to the Messiah.
In this passage, there are four groups of people:
(a) poor people
(b) prisoners
(c) blind people
(d) oppressed people
Some, and perhaps all, of these groups of people have both a literal and a spiritual meaning. It is good to refer to these groups of people in a literal way that can also be interpreted in a spiritual sense.
4:18a
The Spirit of the Lord is on Me: The phrase The Spirit of the Lord is on Me means, “The Spirit of God is with me to give me power.” It indicates that the Lord’s Spirit was with the Messiah. Some other ways to translate this are:
The Lord’s Spirit has come to me (Contemporary English Version) -or-
The Lord has put his Spirit in me (New Century Version) -or-
The Spirit of God is with me ⌊to help me⌋
This phrase is similar to one in 2:25d.
The Spirit of the Lord: The word Lord here refers to God. If this is not clear in your language, you can translate this as:
the Spirit of God -or-
God’s Spirit -or-
the Spirit of the Lord God
See Lord, Context 2, in the Glossary.
Spirit: You should use the same word for Spirit here as in the term Holy Spirit in 4:1a. Be careful to use a word that does not refer to a ghost or spirit of a dead person.
4:18b
because He has anointed Me: The clause because He has anointed Me refers back to 4:18a. The reason why the Lord’s Spirit was with the Messiah was that the Lord had anointed him. The Lord’s Spirit was with him to enable him to do the ministry described in 4:18–19.
It is also possible to leave the connection between 4:18a and 4:18b implied. For example:
18aThe Spirit of the Lord is with me. 18bHe has anointed me… (God’s Word)
He has anointed Me: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as anointed means “poured oil on the head.” In Old Testament times, people poured oil on the head of someone to appoint him to a special task or role.
Here the word anointed has a figurative sense. It indicates that God had appointed the Messiah to do the things that are listed in 4:18–19. It does not indicate that God literally poured oil on the Messiah’s head. Some other ways to translate this clause are:
he has appointed me (New Living Translation (1996)) -or-
he has chosen me (Contemporary English Version)
to preach good news to the poor: The expression to preach good news is the translation of one Greek word. The Spirit of God had appointed the Messiah to tell poor people about the good things that God would do to help them.
Some other ways to translate this phrase are:
to tell the Good News to the poor (God’s Word) -or-
to bring Good News to the poor (New Living Translation (2004)) -or-
to announce to poor people the message ⌊from God⌋ that causes joy
Be sure that the term you choose does not refer only to a news report or to a story that is not true.
This word also occurs in 1:19b, 2:10b, and 3:18b.
the poor: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the poor refers to people who do not have enough food or other things that they need, such as clothing or shelter.
4:18c
He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives: The clause He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives means that God had sent the Messiah to announce to people who were captives that they would be set free. Another way to translate this is:
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released (New Living Translation (2004))
proclaim liberty to the captives: The word proclaim means “to announce, to tell, to send out news about something.” The phrase proclaim liberty to the captives means to tell prisoners/captives that there is freedom for them. The captives will be released and liberated.
In some languages, it may be necessary to translate liberty as a verb or adjective. For example:
to tell the captives that they are free (New Century Version)
The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible here translates as liberty often means “forgiveness.” So here liberty could also have a spiritual sense. It could mean that the Messiah/Christ will proclaim that he offers forgiveness to those who are captive to sin. For example:
to announce forgiveness to the prisoners of sin (God’s Word)
the captives: The word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as captives refers to people who are “prisoners of war.” They are captured during a war and taken to another country. For this reason, while many English versions translate this word as “prisoners,” many others, like the Berean Standard Bible, translate it as “captives.” This word does not refer to people who are in prison because they have committed a crime. Another way to translate this is:
people who are being held captive
The word captives can also refer to people who are “prisoners to sin.” See the example above from the God’s Word.
If you have several words for “prisoner,” try to choose a term that can refer to captives of both types: prisoners of war and prisoners of sin.
4:18d
This verse tells the second thing that God had sent the Messiah to proclaim. In some languages it may be necessary to repeat the verb “sent” from 4:18c. For example:
and ⌊he sent me⌋ ⌊to declare/announce⌋ recovery of sight for the blind
and recovery of sight to the blind: The clause recovery of sight to the blind indicates here that the Messiah would cause blind people to see again.
In some languages, it may be natural to use verbs instead of the nouns recovery and sight. For example:
and to tell the blind that they can see again (New Century Version)
recovery of sight: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as recovery of sight implies that these blind people had once been able to see and had become blind. Now the Messiah would cause them to see again.
4:18e
This verse tells the third thing that God had sent the Messiah to proclaim. In some languages it may be necessary to repeat the verb “sent” from 4:18c. For example:
⌊He has sent me⌋ to release the oppressed
to release: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as to release is literally “send into freedom.” So it is possible to translate this phrase as “to free.” For example:
to free (New Century Version)
the oppressed: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as oppressed is literally “crushed” or “broken.” This refers to people whom others had mistreated and hurt. Some other ways to translate this are:
broken victims (Revised English Bible) -or-
those who have been treated unfairly (New Century Version) -or-
everyone who suffers (Contemporary English Version)
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