messenger

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “messenger” in English is translated in Noongar as moort yana-waangki or “person walk-talk” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

Isaiah

The name that is transliterated as “Isaiah” in English means “salvation of the LORD,” “YHWH is helper.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )

In Finnish Sign Language it is translated with the signs signifying “save + prophet” (referring to Genesis 2:21). (Source: Tarja Sandholm)


“Isaiah” in Finnish Sign Language (source )

In Hungarian Sign Language and French Sign Language it is translated with a sign that depicts coals that touch Isaiah’s lips (referring to Isaiah 6:6 and 6:7):


“Isaiah” in French Sign Language (source: La Bible en langue des signes française )

For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .

Following is a Russian Orthodox icon of Isaiah from the 18th century (found in the Transfiguration Church, Kizhi Monastery, Karelia, Russia). The text in the scrollis from Isaiah 2:2: “In the last days […] shall be established.”

 
Orthodox Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Isaiah .

Mark 1:2-3 in Mexican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 1:2-3 into Mexican Sign Language with back-translations into Spanish and English underneath:


© La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)

Mucho antes el profeta Isaías oyó dos personas platicando en el cielo y Dios le advirtió: Mi hijo, en el futuro yo eligiré un hombre que irá en el desierto y gritará: uds preparen el camino, arreglenlo para tener un camino derechito cuando venga el Señor.

Este prepará para él. Isaías lo oyó y lo escribió en el rollo.


Long ago the prophet Isaiah heard two people talking in heaven, and God announced: My son, in the future I will choose a man who will go in the desert and who will shout: prepare the way, fix it to have a completely straight way for when the Lord comes.

This person will prepare it for him. Isaiah heard it and wrote it down in the scroll.

Source: La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

<< Mark 1:1 in Mexican Sign Language
Mark 1:4-8 in Mexican Sign Language >>

Mark 1:1-8 in Russian Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 1:1-8 into Russian Sign Language with a back-translation underneath:


Source: Russian Bible Society / Российское Библейское Общество

Now I am going to tell you the good news about Jesus, the Son of God. God chose Him to come from Heaven to us.

A long time ago there was a man called Isaiah. He was a prophet and had a relationship with God. Everything that God spoke to him, Isaiah wrote down. Isaiah said that in the future in a wilderness land God would choose a man and that man would be a messenger. That man will call all people to be ready to meet God. He would call all people to prepare their heart. That’s the way it was written down.

Many, many years have passed and it has definitely come true.

In Israel, in the wilderness, near the Jordan River, there walked a man, a messenger, named John. He dressed in a camel skin garment covered with fur and wore a leather belt. He would take locusts and honey and eat them. He went all over Judea. People came to him from different places, and many people from the city of Jerusalem came to him. John called to them and said to them many times:

— You are sinners! You are doing evil deeds! Change yourselves! Stop committing sins and evil deeds! Become one with God! Repent of your sins and evil deeds, dip yourself in this water, and then God will forgive your sins and bad deeds.

People listened, thinking:

— We are sinful, but God will forgive our sins.

And many people came to him, dipped in the water and repented.

John said to everyone:

— There is a man, he is coming very soon. He is much greater than I am and much more powerful. I am insignificant compared to him, I am lower than him. I am dipping you in water, but He is different. Only He will cleanse your hearts forever with the Holy Spirit.

Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):

Сейчас я расскажу хорошую новость об Иисусе, сыне Божьем. Бог избрал Его, чтобы Он пришел с небес к нам.

Давно-давно был один человек по имени Исайя. Он был пророк и имел связь с Богом. Все, что Бог говорил ему, Исайя записывал. Исайя говорил, что в будущем на земле пустынной Бог изберет человека и тот человек будет вестником. Этот человек будет призывать всех людей, чтобы они были готовы к встрече с Богом. Он будет призывать всех людей, чтобы они приготовили свое сердце. Так было записано.

Прошло много-много лет, и все точно сбылось.

В Израиле, в пустыне, рядом с рекой Иордан, ходил человек, вестник, по имени Иоанн. Он одевался в одежду из кожи верблюда, покрытой шерстью, и надевал кожаный пояс. Он брал саранчу и мед и ел их. Он ходил по всей Иудее. Из разных мест приходили к нему люди, и множество людей из города Иерусалима приходили к нему. Иоанн призывал их и много раз говорил им:

— Вы грешники! Вы совершаете злые дела! Изменитесь! Перестаньте совершать грехи и злые дела! Соединитесь с Богом! Покайтесь в грехах и злых делах, погрузитесь в эту воду, и тогда Бог простит вам ваши грехи и плохие дела.

Люди слушали, думали:

— Мы грешные, но Бог простит наши грехи.

И многие люди приходили к нему, окунались в воду и каялись.

Иоанн всем говорил:

— Есть человек, он очень скоро придет. Он гораздо выше меня и гораздо могущественнее. Я незначителен по сравнению с ним, я ниже Его. Я окунаю вас в воду, но Он совсем другой. Только Он Святым Духом навсегда очистит ваши сердца.

Back-translation by Luka Manevich

Mark 1:9-13 in Russian Sign Language >>

complete verse (Mark 1:2)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 1:2:

  • Uma: “The story begins from the arrival of Yohanes the Baptizer. The arrival of Yohanes was already foretold in the letter of the prophet Yesaya. With the lips of the prophet(s), God said to his Child like this: ‘This one is my messenger, I send him ahead of you (sing.), in order to prepare your (sing.) road.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “The beginning of this good news was written by Nabi Isaya in the holy-book. He said, ‘God says, ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you so-that/and he will prepare your way.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Isaiah, the former prophet of God long ago, wrote what God said to his Son, and that was the beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, Son of God. God said, ‘There will be in the future a person whom I will cause to go ahead of you, and I will cause to announce that you will soon arrive.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “There is that which God said to his Child long-ago that he caused-Isaias -to-write who was a prophet. He said, ‘You (sing.) listen, I will send someone to precede you (sing.) to prepare where-you-(sing.)-will-walk.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “This began when what had been written by the prophets of the past was fulfilled, which said, ‘It’s true, there is one whom I will send who will go ahead of you (sing.), for he will prepare where you will go.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Shipibo-Conibo: “Thus it is written in the book of Isaiah, a teller of God’s word. Look! The taker of my word I send before you, to arrange your path before you.” (Source: James Lauriault in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 32ff. )
  • Balinese: “It says in the book of the prophet Jesaja, as follows: Father sends a messenger in front of you. my child who shall put aright your way;” (Source: J.L. Swellengrebel in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 75ff. )
  • English translation by Michael Pakaluk (2019): “Exactly as is written in Isaiah the prophet (Behold, I am sending my messenger before you, who will prepare your way… .”

For the Old Testament quote, see Malachi 3:1.

addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed.

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or modern 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 Translator 2002, 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.

In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.

Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”

In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.

Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking.” (Source Philip Noss)

In the most recent Manchu translation of 1835 (a revision of an earlier edition from 1822), God is never addressed with a pronoun but with “father” (ama /ᠠᠮᠠ) instead. Chengcheng Liu (in this post on the Cambridge Centre for Chinese Theology blog ) explains: “In Manchu tradition, as in Chinese etiquette, second-person pronouns could be considered disrespectful when speaking to superiors or spiritual beings. Manchu Shamanist prayers avoided si [‘you’] and sini [‘your’] for this very reason. To use them for God would be, in Lipovzoff’s [one of the two translators] words, ‘the most uncouth and indecent way to speak to the Almighty — as if He were a servant or slave.’ There was also a grammatical problem. In Manchu, si and sini could refer to both singular and plural subjects. For a faith that insisted on the singularity of God, this was potentially confusing. By contrast, repeating ama removed any ambiguity.”

In Dutch, Afrikaans, Gronings, and Western Frisian translations, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also formal pronoun: disciples addressing Jesus, female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

prophet

Eugene Nida wrote the following about the translation of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek terms that are typically translated with “prophet” in English:

“The tendency in many translations is to use ‘to foretell the future’ for ‘prophesy,’ and ‘one who foretells the future’ for ‘prophet.’ This is not always a recommended usage, particularly if such expressions denote certain special native practices of spirit contact and control. It is true, of course, that prophets of the Bible did foretell the future, but this was not always their principal function. One essential significance of the Greek word prophētēs is ‘one who speaks forth,’ principally, of course, as a forth-teller of the Divine will. A translation such as ‘spokesman for God’ may often be employed profitably.” (1947, p. 234f.)

Following is a list of (back-) translations from other languages (click or tap for details):

  • San Blas Kuna: “one who speaks the voice of God”
  • Central Pame and Vai: “interpreter for God”
  • Kaqchikel, Navajo (Dinė), Yaka: “one who speaks for God”
  • Northern Grebo: “God’s town crier” (see more about this below)
  • Sapo: “God’s sent-word person”
  • Shipibo-Conibo, Ngäbere: “one who speaks God’s word”
  • Copainalá Zoque: “one who speaks-opens” (a compound meaning “one who discloses or reveals”)
  • Sierra Totonac: “one who causes them to know” (in the sense of “revealer”)
  • Batak Toba: “foreteller” (this and all the above acc. to Nida 1961, p. 7)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “one who is inspired of God” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Alekano: “the true man who descended from heaven” (source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation June 1986, p. 36ff.)
  • Aguaruna: “teller of God’s word” (source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125)
  • Ekari: “person who speaks under divine impulse”
  • Mandarin Chinese: 先知 xiānzhī — “one who foreknows” (or the 1946/1970 translation by Lü Zhenzhong: 神言人 shényánrén — “divine-word-man”)
  • Uab Meto: “holy spokesman” (source for this and two above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Kouya: Lagɔɔ gbʋgbanyɔ — “the one who seeks God’s affairs” (source: Saunders, p. 269)
  • Kafa: “decide for God only” (source: Loren Bliese)
  • Martu Wangka: “sit true to God’s talk” (source: Carl Gross)
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “word passer” (source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22)
  • Obolo: ebi nriran: “one with power of divine revelation” (source: Enene Enene)
  • Mairasi: nonondoai nyan: “message proclaimer” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Highland Totonac: “speaker on God’s behalf”
  • Central Tarahumara: “God’s preacher” (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Coatlán Mixe: “God’s word-thrower”
  • Ayutla Mixtec: “one who talks as God’s representative”
  • Isthmus Mixe: “speaker for God” (source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Mezquital Otomi / Paasaal: “God’s messenger” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff. and Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
  • Noongar: Warda Marridjiny or “News Traveling” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Kutu: mtula ndagu or “one who gives the prediction of the past and the future” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Ebira: ọnịsẹ, a neologism that combines the prefix ọn for “a person” with ịsẹ for “prediction” (source: Scholz /Scholz 2015, p. 49)
  • French 1985 translation by Chouraqui: inspiré or “inspired one” (“someone in whom God has breathed [Latin: in + spiro]) (source: Watson 2023, p. 45)
  • Cherokee: adolehosgi (ᎠᏙᎴᎰᏍᎩ) or “discoverer of things,” a “term that was was traditionally applied to Cherokee medicine men or women who used divining.” (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 49)

In Ixcatlán Mazatec a term is used that specifically includes women. (Source: Robert Bascom)

About the translation into Northern Grebo:

“In some instances these spiritual terms result from adaptations reflecting the native life and culture. Among the Northern Grebo people of Liberia, a missionary wanted some adequate term for ‘prophet,’ and she was fully aware that the native word for ‘soothsayer’ or ‘diviner’ was no equivalent for the Biblical prophet who spoke forth for God. Of course, much of what the prophets said referred to the future, and though this was an essential part of much of their ministry, it was by no means all. The right word for the Gbeapo people would have to include something which would not only mean the foretelling of important events but the proclamation of truth as God’s representative among the people. At last the right word came; it was ‘God’s town-crier.’ Every morning and evening the official representative of the chief goes through the village crying out the news, delivering the orders of the chief, and announcing important coming events. ‘God’s town-crier’ would be the official representative of God, announcing to the people God’s doings, His commands, and His pronouncements for their salvation and well-being. For the Northern Grebo people the prophet is no weird person from forgotten times; he is as real as the human, moving message of the plowman Amos, who became God’s town-crier to a calloused people.” (source: Nida 1952, p. 20)

In American Sign Language it is a person who sees into the future:


“Prophet” in American Sign Language (source )

In British Sign Language it is is translated with a sign that depicts a message coming from God to a person (the upright finger) and then being passed on to others. (Source: Anna Smith)


“Prophet” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)

See also prophesy and prophesy / prophetic frenzy.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: How to Recognize a Biblical Prophet .

See also seer.

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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 first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also pronoun for “God”.