tempter

“In the Lak language of Dagestan, the names “Iblis” and “sheytan” (referring to Satan and his minions, respectively) were borrowed from the Arabic Islamic tradition, but they entered Lak as feminine nouns, not masculine nouns. This means that they grammatically function like nouns referring to females in Lak; in other words, Laks are likely to think of Iblis as a woman, not a man, because of the obligatory grammatical patterning of Lak noun classes. Thus, when the team explained (in Russian) what the Lak translation of Jesus’ wilderness temptation narrative at the beginning of Matthew 4 said, it sounded something like the following: ‘After this, the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Iblis… .The temptress came to Jesus, and she said to Him…’

“Since this information (that the devil is a female spirit) is part of the very name used for Satan in Lak, nothing can really be done about this in the translation. The Lak translator did not think that the feminine gender of Iblis should cause any serious misunderstandings among readers, so we agreed to leave it in the translation. This puts an interesting spin on things. The devil is of course a spirit, neither male nor female in a biologically-meaningful sense. But Bible translators are by nature very risk-aversive and, where possible, want to avoid any translation that might feed misleading information to readers. So what can a translator do about this? In many cases, such as the present one, one has to just accept the existing language structure and go on.” (Source: Vitaly Voinov)

See also devil and complete verse (Matthew 4:3).

Son of God

The Greek and Latin that is translated as “Son of God” in English is translated in Shipibo-Conibo as “God’s Child” and in Garifuna as “God’s offspring.” (Source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)

Nida (1984, p. 113) remarks on this “It was a common expression in Hebrew to say that someone was the ‘Son of…’ something to express that they shared characteristics with that thing etc. E.g. ‘son of peace’ ‘son of thunder.’ Therefore ‘Son of God’ meant that Jesus shared characteristics with God. This wasn’t carried over into Greek and was interpreted more biologically.”

In San Mateo Del Mar Huave it is translated as “Son of Father God,” where “Father” is a term of respect. (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)

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) is used as in mi-ko (御子) or “son (of God)” in the referenced verses. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also Son of Man and Sons of Thunder.

Temptation story in Scots (Matthew 4:1-11)

The translation of the New Testament into Scots by Lorimer (1983) has a an alternate translation of Jesus’ temptation in the Gospel of Matthew where the text is in Scots except that the devil is speaking in English.

Lorimer’s son, who edited and released the translation posthumously notes: “In the sole surviving draft, my father spells the Deil’s English like Scots mispronounced. My father’s Scots phonetics merely labour the point. In the transcript here printed, I have accordingly substituted conventional English spelling; and by quoting from the Authorised Version [King James Version] the Deil reminds us how much influence it has exerted in Scotland during the last three hundred and fifty years.” (p. 455n) [Note that only the second of the three statements by the devil is quoted from the Authorised Version, the first is quoted from the Revised Standard Version and the third is a new translation.]

Following is the text (in: Lorimer 1983, p. 455):

Syne jesus wis led awà bi the Spirit tae the muirs for tae be tempit bi the Deil.

Whan he hed taen nae mait for fortie days an fortie nichts an wis fell hungrisome, the Temper cam til him an said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to turn into loaves.”

Jesus answert, “It says i the Buik:

Man sanna live on breid alane, but on ilka wurd at comes furth o God’s mouth.”

Neist the Deil tuik him awa til the Halie Citie an set him on a ledgit o the Temple an said til him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down to the ground. For it says in the Bible:

He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Jesus answert, “Ithergates it says i the Buik: ‘Thou sanna pit the Lord thy God tae the pruif’.”

Aince mair the Deil tuik him awà, this time til an unco heich muntain, whaur he shawed him aa the kíngdoms o the warld an their glorie an said til him, “All this I will give you, if you will only go down on your knees and worship me.”

Than Jesus said til him, “Awà wi ye, Sautan! It says i the Buik:

Thou sal ivurship the Lord thy God, an him sal thou sair alane.”

At that the Deil loot him abee, an immedentlie angels cam an fettelt for him.

formal pronoun: demons or Satan addressing Jesus

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or 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. Here, Satan, demons or demon-possessed men address Jesus with the formal pronoun, signaling submission. Jesus on the other hand, responds with an informal pronoun which signals his more powerful position.

In Burmese there are three different levels of speech: common language, religious language (addressing and honoring monks, etc.), and royal language (which is not in active use anymore). Earliest Bible translations used exclusively royal and religious language (in the way Jesus is addressed by others and in the way Jesus is referred to via pronouns), which results in Jesus being divine and not human. Later editions try to make distinctions. In the Common Language Version (publ. 2005), Satan is shown to recognize Jesus as Lord when he addresses Jesus as ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) (see pronoun for “God”). At the same time he is rude to Jesus when he refers to himself by the pronoun nga (ငါ) which indicates a similar or superior position, declaring himself to be the same or superior to Jesus’ Lordship. (See Matthew 4:9 and Luke 4:6 and 7.) (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )

complete verse (Matthew 4:3)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 4:3:

  • Uma: “The King Tempter came saying to him: ‘If you (sing.) are really the Child of God, well then, order those rocks to become food!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “So-then the leader of demons arrived and said to Isa, ‘If you are truly the Son of God, tell these stones to become food.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then Satan came near to him and tempted him saying, ‘If you truly are the Son of God, command (magically) that these stones turn into food.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Whereupon the one-who-tempts went to where he was and said, ‘If it’s true that you (sing.) are the Child of God, command these stones so that they will become food.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “What-else-but the causer-to-fall (into sin, fig.) arrived who is Satanas. He said, ‘Since you are the Son of God, just speak and cause these rocks to become food.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The devil came to where Jesus was standing. He searched for a way to cause him him to sin and said to him: ‘If you are the Son of God, cause those stones to become bread,’ he said.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “And the bad man of testing went to him and then said, ‘If you are God’s Son, speak to these stones in order that they become your bread.'” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Kupsabiny: “The Tempter came to him and told him that, ‘If you are the Child of God, turn these stones into food.'” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Mairasi: “Then the headman of malevolent spirits came to test/tempt Him, said to Him: “If You truly are Great Above One’s own Child, then command these rocks to become bread tubers [food].” (Source Enggavoter 2004)

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Matthew 4:1-11)

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 Matthew 4:1-11:

The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert,
where he was tested by the devil and ate nothing
       for forty days and forty nights.

When Jesus was about starved, the devil came up and said:
“You claim to be God’s Son,
       so turn these stones into bread!”

“Read the Bible,” said Jesus,
“Nourishment from God’s Word
       is all anyone really needs’.”

Now on the pinnacle of the Jerusalem temple,
       the devil challenged Jesus, “Jump off! —
Like the Bible says, ‘God will send angels
       to protect your feet from the stones’.”

“Read it again,” replied Jesus. “It says,
Don’t ever try to put God to the test!”

Finally, from the top of a high mountain,
the devil pointed out the authority of all earthly kingdoms,
       “They’re yours.’ Just kneel and worship me.”

“Enough of you!” answered Jesus,
       “The Bible teaches us to worship only God.”

So the devil departed,
       and angels descended to wait on Jesus.