The Greek (originally quotes from the Hebrew in Isaiah) that is translated as “(make ready the way of the Lord,) make His paths straight” or something similar in English is translated in Sa’a as “You, tidy up well the paths that are dirty.” Carl Gross reports: “The Sa’a people have a practice which beautifully captures the idea expressed in the Isaianic quote. One line of this was rendered ‘You, tidy up well the paths that are dirty.’ This may conjure up the idea of an anti-litter campaign, but assurances were given that, before a feast when other villages would come to visit, or when an important person was about to come, the whole village would go out and tidy up the road, removing stones, branches, and other obstacles, as well as litter. It is a road maintenance exercise, as well as a way of welcoming honored visitors.” (Source: Carl Gross)
In Chol it says “Make straight the way of the Lord: Go, clean up the path of our Lord” (source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125), in Teutila Cuicatec “prepare your hearts; straighten out your thoughts, so that you will be ready to receive our Lord,” in Michoacán Nahuatl “prepare your hearts for our Lord as you would prepare a road for a person you would honor” and in Highland Oaxaca Chontal “when a great man arrives you sweep the road; you make it nice. Well, our master will arrive. For this reason make your minds good” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.).
The Greek that is translated in English as “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness” is translated in Una as “as for this person who will speak my words, while he will be in a place where people usually do not live, he will shout words.” (Source: Kroneman 2004, p. 408)
In Isthmus Mixe this is translated as “the messenger will cry out in the wilderness.” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006: “steppe”
Yakan: “the lonely place” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a land where no people lived” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “the place with no inhabitants” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Matumbi uses various term: lubele (desert, sandy place without water) — used in John 11:54, lupu’ngu’ti (a place where no people live, can be a scrub land, a forest, or a savanna) — used in Mark 1:3 et al.), and mwitu (a forest, a place where wild animals live) — used in Mark 1:13 et al.) (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Chichewa Contemporary translation (2002/2016): chipululu: a place uninhabited by people with thick forest and bush (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place,” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).
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.
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.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 1:3:
Uma: “‘He calls in the wilderness [lit., empty field], he says: ‘The Lord is almost come! Prepare ahead-of-time for him his road. Make-flat ahead-of-time the road that he will pass on.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “There is a person calling in the lonely place (wilderness). This is what he says: ‘Soon the Lord/Leader will come/arrive. Make the way smooth where he will pass! Make the way straight which he will follow!'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “He will be in the land where people do not live. And there he will be heard by people who come out to meet him; he will say, ‘The Lord will soon arrive. Clear out the way he will go; straighten out the path he will walk on, which is to say get ready for his coming.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “He will shout/speak-in-a-loud-voice in the place that has no inhabitants saying, ‘Prepare where-the Lord who is coming -will-walk so that the path he-will-walk-on will be good.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “‘There is one calling out in the wilderness (lit. place where-one-could-starve), saying, ‘You (pl.) make a trail for the Lord/Chief. Make-direct and improve/make-properly this which he will walk on.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Shipibo-Conibo: “This is the word of one calling where no house is: Arrange Owner God’s [Lord’s] path for him. Straighten his little paths.” (Source: James Lauriault in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 32ff. )
Balinese: “there is the voice of a man crying in the
barren field thus: ‘Open up a way where the Lord will go, make straight his paths,'” (Source: J.L. Swellengrebel in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 75ff. )
English translation by Michael Pakaluk (2019): “‘A voice of one crying in the desert, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, make straight his paths!’’),”
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 the closely related 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. ).
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 Mark 1:1-8:
This is the Best News Ever,
and it’s about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
It began, just as God had announced
in the book by the prophet Isaiah:
I’m sending my messenger
to prepare the way for you.
Listen to the voice shouting in the desert,
“Make a straight path for the Coming One’.”
So John Dipper showed up in the desert,
shouting for everyone to hear: “It’s turn around time!
Do this and be baptized, if you hope to be forgiven!”
From Jerusalem and all over Judea,
multitudes swarmed around John like flies —
they openly confessed their sins,
and he baptized them in the River Jordan.
John Dipper wore garments of camel hair
with a leather strap around his waist —
his food was locusts and honey from the fields.
His message: “Someone more powerful will come,
and I’m not worthy to be his lowest slave.
My baptism is merely with water —
his baptism is with the Holy Spirit!”
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