The Greek and Hebrew that are translated as “worry” or “anxious” in English are translated in Navajo (Dinė) as “my mind is killing me.” (Source: Nida 1952, p. 24)
Nida (1952, p. 124) also gives other examples:
“The Piro in Peru use almost the same idiom when they say that a worried man is ‘one who is hard chased.’ The worried person is like a pursued animal in the forest trying to elude the hunter. The impenetrable jungle of the future, the failing strength, and the exhaustion of doubt all press hard upon the soul. And one’s heart seems to fail and even disappear. This is the very phrase employed by the Tzeltal Indians in the rugged mountains of southern Mexico. They describe ‘worry’ by the words ‘their hearts are gone.'”
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 6:28:
Uma: “‘Why are you so busy thinking about your clothes? Think about [how] the flowers in the prairie live. They do not work, they do not make their clothes.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Why do you still worry about your clothes? Look at the flowers as to how they grow. They do not work, they do not weave.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Why are you worried about clothing? Look at the blossoms of the weeds. They don’t work; they also do not weave.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “‘Why are you also worried about what you will wear? Look at the way the flowers get-big in the mountainous-area. They do not work and weave their clothes,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “And, well, why do you agitate yourselves about clothing? Think about how flowers sprout here in the world. Isn’t it so that they don’t do-hard-work or make-cloth?” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Do not be worried about what you will wear. You see that the flowers in the fields do not work and they don’t weave, yet they appear beautiful.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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 Translator2002, 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, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.
In Nepali translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and other people with the medium honorific pronoun timīlē (तिमीले) or timīlēharū (तिमीलेहरू). This disciples respond with a high honorific pronoun. (Source: Chitra Chhetri in The Bible Translator 2009, p. 73ff. )
In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.
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 6:25-34:
I tell you not to worry about food, drink, or clothes!
Life is more than what you eat and wear.
Birds don’t plant or harvest,
yet your Father above takes care of them,
and you are worth much more than a flock of birds.
You may think the more you worry, the longer you live.
That’s simply not so.
Why worry about what you will wear?
Even royalty looks drab beside daffodils and regal lilies,
yet God colors and clothes the wild flowers,
even though they will wither in the summer heat.
Why do you have such little faith? God will take care of you.
Worry — wearisome worry about food, drink, and clothes —
Only a heathen would nurture such worries.
Put God first in everything you do and worry no more,
then all your needs will be met.
Why worry about tomorrow? Today is worrisome enough.
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®).
And why are you anxious about clothing? is a fairly literal rendering of the Greek text. This question may also be phrased as a statement: “There is no need to worry about clothes.” Or a question can be retained, as in “Is there any need to worry about clothing?”
For comments on anxious, see verse 25.
To worry about clothing means “to worry about having enough clothing.”
Consider can be “think about” or “look at,” or, as Good News Translation has it, “Look.”
Lilies of the field (so also New International Version) is rendered “wild flowers” by Good News Translation, New American Bible, An American Translation, and Phillips. New Jerusalem Bible has “flowers growing in the fields,” and Barclay has “wild lilies.” There is some discussion regarding the precise reference intended by the Greek word used here and in Luke 12.27. Most commentators apparently prefer to take it as a reference to the anemone, a beautiful flower of bright colors. It is found on the Galilean hills, and it would undoubtedly have been observed by the people who listened to Jesus.
For this reason, then, most translations will not use lilies but will follow Good News Translation or New Jerusalem Bible, as cited above. They may have “flowers growing in the fields,” “flowers growing wild,” or “flowers growing in the forest.”
Spin is translated “make clothes for themselves” by Good News Translation. The picture is that of spinning fiber to make clothes. Both Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch and Bible en français courant translate in the tradition of Good News Bible. Some translations have had a slight change from this by saying “They don’t work to make clothes” or “They don’t work to make cloth for clothing themselves.”
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 .
And: In this paragraph, Jesus continued to talk about worry. But he changed the topic from worry about life to worry about clothes. Here are some ways to connect this paragraph to the previous paragraph:
And
-or-
Furthermore
-or-
In addition
In some languages, it may not be necessary to have a connecting word or phrase here.
why do you worry about clothes?: This is a rhetorical question. It expresses a rebuke. Jesus was rebuking his followers for worrying about having enough clothes.
Here are some other ways to translate this rebuke:
• As a rhetorical question. For example:
Why are you worrying about ⌊having enough⌋ clothes?
-or-
Why do you worry about what you will wear?
• As a statement. For example:
You should not worry about clothes.
-or-
It is wrong for you to be anxious that you may not have ⌊enough⌋ clothes to wear
Translate this rebuke in a way that is natural in your language.
6:28b
Consider: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Consider also means “observe.”
how the lilies of the field grow: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as lilies could refer to any one of several varieties of wild flowers. The phrase of the field indicates that these flowers were wild. They were not planted and cared for by people.
Here are some other ways to translate this word in its context:
• Use a generic word for flowers. For example:
how the wild flowers grow (Good News Translation)
-or-
the plants that bloom/blossom and the way that they grow
• Use a word for a specific type of flower in your area. For example:
lilies/poppies and the way that they grow
6:28c
Verse 6:28c is what Jesus wanted his disciples to carefully consider.
They do not labor: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as labor means “work hard.”
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
toil (English Standard Version)
-or-
work hard (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
work (NET Bible)
or spin: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as spin refers to twisting fibers together to make thread for weaving cloth. In this context it refers to making one’s own clothes.
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