The Greek phrase that is (awkwardly) rendered as “people were marrying and being given in marriage” in some English versions (Good News Translation: “men and women married”) is rendered more straight-forwardly in Chechen and Khakas which uses different words for “marry” for men and women. (Source: David Clark)
In Tlahuitoltepec Mixe it is translated as “no one will go as a wife-seeker, and no one will cause his child to be married.” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)
Los saduceos, que no creen en la resurección, ellos también vinieron diciendo: “Maestro, una pregunta. Hace mucho Moisés escribó la ley que dice que si un hombre casa una mujer y el hombre se muere y no hay hijos le toca a su hermano casar la misma mujer para que nazcan hijos para su hermano.
Oye, una pregunta de ejemplo: había siete hermanos y el mayor se casó con una mujer, después el hombre murió y no había hijos, y le tocó al segundo hermano a casar la misma mujer, pero el hombre se murió y no había hijos.
En la misma manera les tocó al tercero hermano, el cuarto, el quinto, el sexto y el séptimo, todos los hermanos muerieron sin que la mujer tuviera hijos, y también la mujer murió.
En el futuro todas las personas resucitarán, también los siete hermanos y la mujer pero la mujer ha sido casado en la misma manera a los siete hermanos. ¿Quién de ellos será su esposo, cuál?”
Jesús (dijo): “Ay, uds están equivocados porque no entienden la palabra de Dios, uds no saben qué tan poderoso es Dios.
Oigan, en el cielo los ángeles no se casan, y en la misma manera las personas que mueren y resucitarán en el futuro no se casarán. Uds los Saduceos piensan que no hay resurección pero uds están equivocados.
Oigan, miren, el rollo que Moisés escribió ¿uds jamás lo han leído? ¿No saben? Mucho antes cuando Moisés vio el arbusto en llamas Dios le habló y dijo: “Moisés, yo soy Dios; Abraham, Isaac y Jacob creían en mi.”
Los tres adentro todavía viven, uds piensan que murieron y después de mucho tiempo desintegraron pero uds están equivocados.”
The Sadducees, who do not believe in the resurrection, came also saying: “Teacher, we ave a question. Long ago Moses wrote the law which says that when a man marries a woman and the man dies without their being children it falls to his brother to marry the same woman so that children are born for his brother.
“Listen, a question that is an example: there were seven brothers and the oldest married a woman, then the man died and there were no children and it fell to the second brother to marry the same woman, but the man died and there were no children.
“In the same way it fell to the third brother, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth and the seventh, all the brothers died without the woman having children, and the woman also died.
“In the future all the people will be resurrected and also the seven brothers and the woman, but the woman has been married to the seven brothers in the same way. Who of them will be her husband, which one?”
Jesus (said): “Oh, you are mistaken, because you don’t understand the Word of God, you do not know how powerful God is.
“Listen, in heaven the angels do not marry, and in the same way the people who die and will be resurrected in the future wil not get married. You Sadducees think there is no resurrection but you are mistaken.
“Listen, look, the scroll that Moses wrote, have you never read it? Don’t you know? Long ago when Moses saw the burning bush God spoke to him and said: “Moses, I am God, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob believed in me.”
“The three of them are still living inside, you think that they died and after a long time decomposed but you are mistaken.”
Here is a group of Sadducees. They believed that a person lives, dies, but then does not rise again. A person disappears after death — and that’s it. That’s what they thought. And then one day they met Jesus and began to ask him:
— Teacher! In the Law of Moses it is clearly written that if a man married a woman and if this man died and had no children, then this man’s brother must marry the widow. The children born in this marriage will be the continuation of the name of the deceased man, to continue his line. So it is written. Let’s look at this example. One man had seven brothers. This man got married, then died, and he had no children. The second brother also married this woman, and the second brother also died, and had no children. And the third brother also married her and also died, and had no children. And so did the fourth brother, and the fifth, sixth, and finally the seventh. The woman was left a lonely widow, and after some time she also died. Then this woman will be resurrected. Then whose wife of the seven brothers will she be? After all, all seven of them were her husbands. How will that be?
Jesus answered:
— You think that a person dies and then there is no resurrection. You are mistaken! You distort what the Scripture says! You do not understand the power of God! When a person is resurrected after death, there will no longer be marriage. There, everyone will be like angels. The Scripture says that in ancient times Moses saw a burning bush, and from there God said to him: Here is Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. I am the God of each of them!
Do you really think they all died? Of course not. They all have life.
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
Вот группа саддукеи. Они считали, что человек живет, умирает, но потом не воскресает. Человек после смерти исчезает — и все. Так они думали. И вот однажды они повстречали Иисуса и стали спрашивать его:
— Учитель! В Законе Моисея точно написано, что если человек вступил в брак с женщиной и если этот человек умер, а детей у него не было, то брат этого человека должен взять в жены вдову. Дети, которые родятся в этом браке будут продолжением имени умершего человека, продолжат его род. Так написано. Рассмотрим такой пример. У одного человека было семь братьев. Этот человек женился, затем умер, а детей у него не было. Второй брат тоже женился на этой женщине, и второй брат тоже умер, а детей не было. И третий брат тоже женился на ней и тоже умер, а детей не было. И так же четвертый брат, и пятый, шестой, и наконец последний седьмой. Женщина осталось одинокой вдовой, а через какое-то время и она умерла. Потом эта женщина воскреснет. Тогда чьей женой из семерых братьев она будет? Они ведь все семь были ее мужьями. Как же тогда?
Иисус ответил:
— Вот вы считаете, что человек умирает, а потом воскресенья нет. Вы заблуждаетесь! Вы искажаете то, что говорит Писание! Вы не понимаете силу Бога! Когда человек воскресает после смерти, то там уже не будет брака. Там все будут, как ангелы. В Писании говорится, что в древности Моисей увидел горящий куст, и оттуда Бог сказал ему: Вот Авраам, Исаак, Иаков. Я — Бог каждого из них!
Неужели вы думаете, что все они умерли? Конечно, нет. У всех у них есть жизнь.
Apali: “God’s one with talk from the head” (“basically God’s messenger since head refers to any leader’s talk”) (source: Martha Wade)
Michoacán Nahuatl: “clean helper of God” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Noongar: Hdjin-djin-kwabba or “spirit good” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Wè Northern (Wɛɛ): Kea ‘a “sooa or “the Lord’s soldier” (also: “God’s soldier” or “his soldier”) (source: Drew Maust)
Iwaidja: “a man sent with a message” (Sam Freney explains the genesis of this term [in this article ): “For example, in Darwin last year, as we were working on a new translation of Luke 2:6–12 in Iwaidja, a Northern Territory language, the translators had written ‘angel’ as ‘a man with eagle wings’. Even before getting to the question of whether this was an accurate term (or one that imported some other information in), the word for ‘eagle’ started getting discussed. One of the translators had her teenage granddaughter with her, and this word didn’t mean anything to her at all. She’d never heard of it, as it was an archaic term that younger people didn’t use anymore. They ended up changing the translation of ‘angel’ to something like ‘a man sent with a message’, which is both more accurate and clear.”)
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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) is used as in mi-tsukai (御使い) or “messenger (of God).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 12:25:
Uma: “For when the people who have died live again, their life is like the life of angels in heaven, they no longer take-wives or take-husbands.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “For when the dead will live again,’ said Isa, ‘they will be already like the angels in heaven. They no longer take a wife or a husband.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For when people are raised from the dead no man will take wives and no women will have husbands. For all people will be like angels of God in heaven and they will not get married.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Because when the dead live again, they don’t get-married but rather they will be like the angels in heaven.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Because when those who have died will be made alive again, as for people, they will no longer be being married. They will then be like the angels in heaven.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
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 (“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)
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 (click or tap here to see more):
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.)
Under the auspices of the Dhama Mate Swe Association , a new Burmese translation of the New Testament was published in 2024 which uses terminology that attempts to overcome “insurmountable barriers to the Buddhist world.” One term that this version uses is ရွှေမြို့တော် (shway myahoettaw) or “Golden City” for “heaven,” referring it to the golden city described in Revelation 21 but at the same time using a Buddhist term for a desired destination that does not have the Buddhist connotation of ကောင်း ကင် (kaungg kain) as being the Trāyastriṃśa (တာဝတိံသာ) heaven, home of Śakra/Indra. This Burmese translation formed the basis of translations of parts of the New Testament into other languages spoken in Burma, including Sumtu Chin, Ekai Chin, Songlai Chin, Danau, Kadu, Kanan, Khün, Lahta Karen, Rakhine, Marma (Northern Rakhine), Riang Lai, Samtao, Shwe Palaung, Tai Laing, Taungyo, and Chak (Thet). (Source: Jay Pratt)
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.”
The Greek that is translated in English as the singular “heaven” but is actually a plural form in the original Greek is translated in that plural form in the Greek original (ouranōn or ouranois instead of the singular ouranos) are translated in the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) as the plural form “heavens” ((die) Himmel). Note that this is particularly often used in the Gospel of Matthew (see the referenced verses).
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®).
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