The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin that is translated as “justice” in English is translated in American Sign Language with a sign that describes the quality or principle of fairness, righteousness, and impartiality in treating other people. A literal back-translation of the signs are “FOLLOW(God is implied) ACTIONS, DECISIONS JUST-RIGHT”. A more idiomatic back-translation would be: “actions and decisions are right/fitting/just in accordance to God’s will.” The movement in the signs itself helps to indicate that this is a noun, not a verb. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Justice” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
“Guarding the paths of justice”: “Guarding” or watching over continues the thought of protection in verse 7. “Paths” translates a different word than that used in 1.15. However, the sense is the same as in 1.15. See also “path of life” in Psa 16.11 and “paths of righteousness” in Psa 23.3. “Justice” renders the same word as in 1.3. The full poetic expression is equivalent to “He stands guard over the course of justice,” which must often be rendered in less formal language, as in Good News Translation, for example, or “He makes certain that people act fairly.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “He guards those who deal fairly with others.”
“Preserving the way of his saints”: “Preserving” translates a different verb than the one rendered “guarding” in the first line, but the two words have essentially the same meaning in these contexts. “The way” matches “the paths” in the first line and refers to the lives of his saints. “Saints” renders a noun meaning people who are faithful or loyal. The word is related to the noun usually translated as “steadfast love.” These people are called by this term because of their loyal or faithful relationship with God. In many languages the term “saints” or “holy people” as used in everyday speech often has meanings that are not biblical. Note that New Revised Standard Version has changed “saints” to “his faithful ones.” Good News Translation says “guards those who are devoted to him,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “and he himself [the Lord] watches over the faithful.”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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 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. ).
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
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 Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, mamo-rare-ru (守られる) or “protect” is used.
Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:
8a to guardthe paths ofjustice
8b and protectthe way ofHis saints.
2:8a
to guard the paths of justice: In Hebrew, this verse begins with an infinitive verb which means to watch over or protect. This verse may express the purpose of 2:7.
But probably it simply restates or explains the meaning of 2:7. Most English versions do not make the relationship between these verses explicit. For example:
guarding the course of justice (Revised English Bible)
-or-
He guards the paths of the just (New Living Translation (2004))
guard the paths of justice: There are two ways to interpret this clause here:
(1) The LORD guards the lives of people who treat others fairly/justly. For example:
He protects those who treat others fairly (Good News Translation)
(2) The LORD guards the course of justice. He ensures that justice is done. For example:
guarding the paths of justice (English Standard Version)
-or-
He makes sure that justice is done (New Century Version)
Both interpretations are well supported and fit the parallelism. Interpretation (1) will be followed in the Display, but you may follow either one in your translation.
justice: For the word translated as justice, see the note on mišpat in 1:3b.
2:8b
His saints: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as His saints is related to the noun meaning “steadfast/loyal love.” It refers to those who show their loyalty to the LORD by faithfully loving him and his people.
General Comment on 2:8a–b
In this context, the parallel phrases “guard the paths of” and “protect the way of” have essentially the same meaning. The “paths” and the “way” both refer to the lives of people who act justly and are loyal to the LORD. The life of a person often represents the person himself. In some languages, it may be more natural to combine and/or reorder the parallel parts. For example:
protects those who are faithful to him (New Living Translation (2004))
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.