worry

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.'”

See also anxious / worried about many things and worries/cares of the world/this age.

complete verse (Matthew 6:28)

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)

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing his disciples and common people

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, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.

In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Matthew 6:25-34)

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.

Translation commentary on Matthew 6:28

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 .