Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, translators typically select the inclusive form (including the crowds in Jerusalem).
Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 11:10:
Uma: “The Lord bless his government. He will govern like our grandparent of old, King Daud. Praise the Lord who is in heaven!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Let us (incl.) praise this one arriving, the one who is taking the place of our (incl.) ancestor of old, King Da’ud. Let us (incl.) really praise God.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Praise the arriving king who takes the place of our ancestor long ago King David! Praise the Lord!'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Blessed be this successor to King David! Praised be God in heaven!'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Praiseworthy is the coming kingdom of the descendant of king David! Praise God who is there in highest heaven!’ (lit. at the top of the sky, i.e. beyond sun and stars)” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Greek, Hebrew, Latin, 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 story (“sky”).
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 (click or tap here to see more):
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)
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)
Kamo: yamba, which, when capitalized (Yamba), means “God” (source: David Frank)
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.”
After basileia ‘kingdom’ Textus Receptus adds en onomati kuriou ‘in the name of the Lord,’ which is omitted by all modern editions of the Greek text.
Exegesis:
hē erchomenē basileia ‘the coming kingdom’: the context demands that the participle be understood in a future sense, ‘the kingdom which is coming.’
tou patros hēmōn Dauid ‘of our father David’: only in Acts 4.25 is the phrase ‘our father David’ found elsewhere in the N.T.
ōsanna en tois hupsistois ‘Hosanna in the highest!’
ōsanna ‘hosanna!’: the meaning of the word in this verse becomes even more difficult to define by the addition of the phrase ‘in the highest.’ In English the phrase ‘Hosanna in the highest!’ is virtually devoid of meaning, since ‘hosanna’ conveys no meaning, other than as a shout of praise, while ‘in the highest,’ as Goodspeed points out, may be misunderstood as signifying ‘in the highest degree.’ If, on the other hand, it be more correctly understood as meaning ‘in the highest places,’ i.e., ‘in heaven,’ what does ‘Hosanna in heaven!’ mean?
If ‘Hosanna’ here is understood in its literal sense ‘save Thou!’ the phrase means ‘grant salvation (thou who art) in the highest heavens.’ It would appear improbable, however, that the word in this verse means something different from what it means in v. 9. If in v. 9 the word is simply a shout of praise or welcome, ‘Hail!,’ ‘Praise (him)!,’ that must be the meaning in this verse also.
en tois hupsistois ‘in the highest places,’ i.e. ‘in heaven.’ Connected with the previous ōsanna ‘hosanna!’ as a shout of praise, the phrase may be understood in two ways: (1) ‘Hail him who lives on high!’ – that is, God; (2) ‘let those who are in the heights of heaven (i.e. the angels) say “Hail!”’ (McNeile: “the angels are invoked to shout Hosanna to God”).
On the whole it appears that the Greek, and the O.T. phraseology it represents, is not to be taken in its literal sense, and that the phrase is to be understood as meaning ‘Praise be to God!’ as a shout of acclaim and thanksgiving. Lagrange: “the acclamation rises as far as heaven, as though to thank God for inaugurating his salvation, and to ask him his help.”
Translation:
Blessed is should be interpreted in a manner parallel with the form of the preceding verse, in which there are obvious problems, not only in syntactic construction but in lexical content of the words, especially blessed. Compare some of the following typical renderings: ‘let us praise the government…’ (Sayula Popoluca), ‘it is good that people praise…,’ in which ‘it is good’ is the idiomatic way of indicating the equivalent of a third person imperative (Copainalá Zoque), ‘let us talk well of the government…’ (Chicahuaxtla Triqui), ‘how good it will be…’ (Tzotzil), ‘very great the goodness of the government…’ (Tzeltal), and ‘holy is the rule of…’ in which ‘holy’ is a term with a wide area of meaning involving many phases of religious attitudes and activities (San Mateo del Mar Huave).
Our father David must in some languages be ‘our grandfather David’ or ‘our ancestor David.’ In some languages, however, there is a manifest difficulty in speaking of the rule of one’s ancestor coming in the future. In Chicahuaxtla Triqui the rendering has been ‘government which David had and which will exist again.’ This is not, however, such an elaborate paraphrase as it might at first appear, since ‘government which David had’ is roughly equivalent to ‘kingdom of David,’ and ‘which will exist again’ parallels ‘that is coming.’ In Sayula Popoluca the problem of past and future is obviated by ‘the government that is coming; it will be like the one our father David had,’ which is essentially a substitution of a simile for a metaphor. In Copainalá Zoque the metaphor is retained in ‘it is good that the people praise when our father David will rule over us,’ in which case the clause introduced by ‘when’ is not the time of the praising, but the object of the praise.
One must make certain to avoid the common mistake of speaking about ‘our father David who is coming,’ for what is coming is not David but the kingdom of David.
Is coming must be rendered as ‘exist’ or ‘be,’ since though persons can ‘come,’ institutions such as ‘governments,’ ‘rule,’ and ‘power’ must in many languages ‘become,’ ‘exist,’ or ‘be.’
Hosanna in the highest may be translated as ‘praise be to God,’ ‘let God be praised,’ ‘let praise be in heaven,’ or as in Shipibo-Conibo ‘let hosanna be shouted in heaven.’
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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