6And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof;
The Greek that is translated in English as “worthy” does not have an immediate equivalent in Enga. Adam Boyd (on his blog) explains how this was solved in two cases:
“Enga does not have a word that is equivalent to the word ‘worthy,’ we translate the concept by focusing on the goodness or badness of the person in comparison to the action or circumstance under consideration. For example, we translated Luke 15:19 as follows: ‘I am not a good man, so do not call me your son.’ This emphasizes that the goodness of the prodigal son is not commensurate with being called his father’s son. Similarly, in Luke 7:6, the centurion sends a message to Jesus, saying, ‘Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.’ In Enga, we have translated this as, ‘Big Man, I am an unimportant person with no reputation, so do not come to my house.’ Again, the centurion does not consider his personal value to be commensurate with the idea of a person like Jesus entering his house.”
The Greek that is rendered into “worthy” or “fit” in English versions is translated into Sierra Totonac as “proper” / “chief” — “I am not proper / chief enough.” (2nd translation into Sierra Totonac of 1999.)
The Greek that is translated as “centurion” in English is translated in Noongar as “boss of the Roman soldiers (lit.: ‘men of fighting’)” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang), in Uma as “Roman army warchief” (source: Uma Back Translation), in Western Bukidnon Manobo as “a person who was not a Jew, the captain of a hundred soldiers” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation), and in Mairasi “leader of Roman warriors” (source: Enggavoter 2004).
Following is the back-translation of Luke 7:1-10 from Finnish Sign Language (FiSL). One of the ways that distinguishes FiSL is by an intense way of using a spatial component via a signing space. Click or tap here to see more.
(Note: For a video of this passage in Finnish Sign Language, see below.)
Numbers attached with glosses refer to locations in signing space.
The English text gives a rough back translation of the FiSL behind the glosses.
Luke 7:1
JESUS TELL HUMAN GROUP HEAR>5
Jesus spoke and people listen
READY JESUS GO-1>2 CAPERNAUM INDEX>6
After he had finished Jesus went to Capernaum
(break)
Luke 7:2
ONE SOLDER LEADER OWN>6 SERVANT SICK NEARLY DIE
A servant of a military leader was sick and dying
LEADER INDEX>6 SERVANT PERSON-1 RESPECT
That leader respected his servant
(break)
Luke 7:3
INDEX>6 HEAR>5 JESUS
He heard about Jesus
PERSONx>5 ASK JEW HIGH-POSITION HUMANx-6 BRING-5>1 JESUS
He asked the respected Jewish men to bring Jesus to him
SERVANT PERSON-6 SAVE
to save the servant
(break)
Luke 7:4
JEW HIGH-POSITION HUMANx-6 JESUS MEET>5
The respected Jewish men met Jesus
BEG>5 SAY>5
Begging and asking:
(break)
ASK MALE INDEX>6 NEED OWN>5 HELP
Please, that man needs your help
(break)
Luke 7:5
WE HUMAN GROUP INDEX>6 LOVE
He loves our people
ALSO WE OWN>1 JEW CONGREGATION
For our Jewish congregation
INDEX>6 ALREADY BUILD HOUSE
He has built a house [= synagogue]
(break)
Luke 7:6
JESUS WITH TOGETHER-3>6 HOUSE-6 NEAR-3>6
Jesus approached the house together with others
LEADER SEND-4>5 OWN>6 FEW FRIENDx
The leader sent some of his friends
MEET-4>5
To meet Jesus:
(break)
LEADER INDEX>6 SAY
This leader says:
LORD INDEX>5 TROUBLE CLOSE-5>1 DO-NOT>5
Lord, do not trouble to come to me
Luke 7:7 (no break)
ALSO INDEX>1 CLOSE-1>5 CANNOT
As I did not come to you
(break)
[the rest of the verse moved to the end of verse 8]
Luke 7:8
COMMAND INDEX-h3>1 INDEX>1 OBEY
I am subject to command from above
ALSO SOLDER INDEX>2 INDEX>1 COMMAND INDEX-1>2
And I command solders
INDEX-2 OBEY
And they obey
(break)
OWN-1 SOLDER INDEX-2 INDEX-1 SAY
If I say to this solder of mine:
INDEX-2 GO>2
Go!
COMPLETE LEAVE-1>2
He will leave
INDEX-5 COME-5>1
Or to another: Come!
COMPLETE COME-5>1
He will come
(break)
ALSO SERVANT PERSON-2 INDEX-1 SAY
And if I say to this servant:
DO INDEXx-2
Do this!
COMPLETE DO
He will do it.
(break)
ANDx ALSO OWN>1 SERVANT PERSON-6 INDEX-5 ORDER-5>6
So, please, order this servant of mine
HEAL
And heal him.
(break)
LEADER INDEX-6 WELCOME-6>5
The leader asked Jesus to do this to him
Luke 7:9
JESUS SURPRISE>6
Jesus was surprised
TURN-6>5 HUMAN GROUP
He turned to people
SAY
And said:
LEADER OWN>6 FAITH COMPARE SAME JEW HUMAN GROUP INDEX-1 NEVER SEE-1>d
I have never seen the same faith among Jews than this leader has
(break)
Luke 7:10
FRIEND INDEXx-2 BACK-1>2>1 HOUSE-6 NEAR>6
When the friends returned to the house of the leader
SERVANT PERSON-6 ALREADY HEAL
That servant was already healthy.
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 7:6:
Noongar: “So Jesus went with them. When he came close to the house, the boss sent his friends to tell Jesus, ‘Lord, you should not come. I am not good enough. You should not come inside my house,” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “From there, Yesus really did go with them. When Yesus was close to his house, that warchief also ordered several of his companions to go meet Yesus saying to him like this: ‘Father, it is not necessary for you (sing.) to come to my house, because I am not a Yahudi person, I am not worthy for you (sing.) to visit.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then Isa came with them. When they came close to the house, the captain told his friends to go and meet Isa speaking to him saying, ‘Sir, don’t tire yourself, for I am not worthy for you to come here to my house.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then Jesus went with them, and when they were about to arrive at the house of this boss of soldiers, he had some of his companions meet Jesus and party so that they might tell to Jesus his words which were like this, ‘Chief, don’t bother your breath about coming into my house because I’m not worthy to disturb you in coming here.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “So Jesus went-with them. When they had almost arrived at the captain’s house, he sent some of his friends to go tell Jesus, ‘Sir, even if (polite, persuasive request) you (sing.) reportedly do not tire-yourself (sing.) to arrive at his house because it would be embarrassing if you (sing.) enter there.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Without anything further, Jesus went with them. When they were near the house, the captain caused some of his friends to meet Jesus and tell him a message saying, ‘Master, I am sure that even if you don’t continue on here to my house (it will be okay). For it really isn’t acceptable/possible for you to-come-on-business-for-me to my home because you are much greater/more-important.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
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 7:1-10:
Jesus was back in Capernaum,
where a Roman army officer’s favorite servant
was at the point of death.
So when the officer heard Jesus was in town,
he sent some Jewish leaders with a request
for Jesus to come and heal his servant.
The leaders went to Jesus and begged him to help —
“This man is truly deserving,” they stated.
“He loves our nation and even built us a synagogue.”
So Jesus went with them.
As Jesus approached the officer’s house,
the officer sent some friends with a message:
“Sir, please don’t trouble yourself on my account!
I’m not worthy for you to stand under my roof,
and I’m certainly not worthy to look you in the face.
“Just say the word, and my servant will be healed.
I myself am under orders,
and I have men under my command.
If I say ‘Jump!’ they jump;
if I say ‘Sit down!’ they sit down.”
When Jesus heard this, he was so surprised
that he said to the crowd following him,
“I’ve never seen such faith!”
The officer’s friends returned and found the servant well.
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).
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight
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.”
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 second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person. In these verses, however, the more venerable anata-sama (あなた様) is used, which combines anata with the with a formal title -sama.
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