Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 22:7:
Uma: “When the king heard what had happened, he was very angry. He ordered his soldiers to go kill those killers, and to burn their town.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then the sultan was very angry. He sent his soldiers to kill the people who had killed his servants. He also commanded to burn their town.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then the king became very angry. He sent his soldiers, and those who had murdered, the soldiers killed them. And they burned up the village of those they killed.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “The king was extremely angry when he heard what had happened, and he sent his soldiers to go kill those who had killed his slaves, and to burn their town.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “When that king knew, his anger was extreme. He sent his soldiers there, wiped out those murderers of their fellowman, and then burned their city.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “The king became very angry. He sent soldiers to kill those people who had killed his messengers. The towns in which they lived were burned.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:
Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))
Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:
“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”
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®).
Angry may be too weak to express adequately the feelings of the king in response to the mistreatment and murder of his servants. “Furious” is the preference of New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, and Barclay (New American Bible “grew furious”), while Moffatt and New International Version have “enraged.” In many languages, rather than saying the king was angry, “became angry” would be more natural.
As in Good News Translation, and may better be translated “so.”
He sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city: in place of destroyed, Good News Translation chooses “killed,” which is more natural for English speakers when persons are used as the object. In such a context the verbs destroyed and burned assume a causative force, since it is obvious that the king himself did not perform these actions: “… sent his soldiers with orders to kill … and burn” or “… gave his soldiers orders, ‘Go and kill all those people and burn their city to the ground.’ ” The sentence can also be “… sent his soldiers to kill those murderers and to burn down their city.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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