The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated in English as “serve,” “minister,” “walk with,” or “service” is translated in Igede as myị ẹrụ or “agree with message (of the one you’re serving).” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
In Quetzaltepec Mixe, “serve” is translated as “obey.” (Source: Robert Bascom)
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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.
The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “show” or “experience” or similar in English is translated in the Shinkaiyaku Bible as o-mise (お見せ), combining “show” (mise) with the respectful prefix o-. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 13:35:
Uma: “‘That is also the meaning of the words of Daud while he was praying, he said like this: ‘My body you (sing.) will not abandon in the grave until rotten, because I an your (sing.) servant that you (sing.) have chosen.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “In another verse in the holy-book Jabur it is also said, ‘You will not abandon your holy servant to decay.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And there was another prophecy of David which were the words of Jesus. He wrote this in the book of the Psalms, and he said, ‘As for me, your faithful servant, you will not permit that my body rots in the grave.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise of his, because there is also something-written that David said to God, ‘I am the one who is faithful to serve you (sing.). You (sing.) will not allow my body to rot.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “And there is something else written in The Songs which says, ‘You will not leave my body to rot in the grave, I who always obey your will.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
For the Old Testament quotes, see Psalm 16:10 (from the Greek Septuagint).
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 16:10:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“because You will not leave me at the grave,
you will not allow your saint to decompose.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“for You will not abandon my soul among the dead,
and You will not allow those who trust You to rot in the grave.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“for you (sing.) will- not -leave- me -alone to go to the place of the dead.
You (sing.) did not allow that your (sing.) faithful servant rot in the grave.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Eastern Bru:
“because you don’t cast me into the boiling pot (hell). You don’t allow anyone who has no sin to disintegrate.” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
Laarim:
“because not will you leave me in the grave,
or you leave me your person who is holy to decay.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“kwa sababu hutaniacha mimi katika wafu,
hutaruhusu kuwa mwili wa mtakatifu wako uoze.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“because you, Yahweh, will not allow my soul/ spirit to remain in the place where the dead people are;
you will not allow me, your godly one, to stay there.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed.
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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or modern 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.
In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.
Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”
In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.
Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking.” (Source Philip Noss)
In the most recent Manchu translation of 1835 (a revision of an earlier edition from 1822), God is never addressed with a pronoun but with “father” (ama /ᠠᠮᠠ) instead. Chengcheng Liu (in this post on the Cambridge Centre for Chinese Theology blog ) explains: “In Manchu tradition, as in Chinese etiquette, second-person pronouns could be considered disrespectful when speaking to superiors or spiritual beings. Manchu Shamanist prayers avoided si [‘you’] and sini [‘your’] for this very reason. To use them for God would be, in Lipovzoff’s [one of the two translators] words, ‘the most uncouth and indecent way to speak to the Almighty — as if He were a servant or slave.’ There was also a grammatical problem. In Manchu, si and sini could refer to both singular and plural subjects. For a faith that insisted on the singularity of God, this was potentially confusing. By contrast, repeating ama removed any ambiguity.”
Give me up translates “abandon my nefesh” (see comments at 3.2); and for Sheol see comments at 6.5. The psalmist is confident that Yahweh will keep him from dying prematurely.
Sheol may often be rendered “The place where dead people go.” However, the translator must be able to distinguish between this place and the local cemetery which may be in the mind of the reader.
The term godly one refers to the psalmist himself (see comments on “godly” in 4.3). It is also possible to translate “your loyal servant”; Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “your faithful friend.” Good News Translation uses a verbal phrase, “I have served you faithfully.” Some, however, take the term to be generic, a way of speaking of all of Yahweh’s faithful people. It seems best to take it as a reference to the psalmist. (New International Version “your Holy One” takes the Hebrew text to refer to Jesus Christ.)
The verb see means here, as often in the Bible, “to experience.”
The term Pit (see comments at 7.15; 9.15) is used synonymously with Sheol and is elsewhere also used of the world of the dead (see 30.9; 49.9; 103.4). The Septuagint translators mistakenly derived the word for Pit from the Hebrew verb meaning “to corrupt,” and this is why the passage means something quite different in the quotation in Acts 2.27. It should be noticed that both here and in verse 9a (“my tongue rejoices”), New International Version has forced the Hebrew text to conform to the meaning of the Septuagint, as quoted in Acts 2.25-26.
Good News Translation has restructured line b of this verse quite radically, due mainly to “I have served you faithfully” as a meaningful equivalent of what Revised Standard Version represents as thy godly one.
It is disputed whether or not the passage speaks of resurrection (as it is applied to Christ in Acts 2.25-28, 31; 13.35). Some scholars believe that it does; Dahood understands it to mean that the psalmist believes that, like Enoch and Elijah, he will go directly into the presence of God without having died. Others believe the text means that the psalmist has been kept from untimely, unexpected death. H. H. Rowley takes a mediating position, speaking of it as “a glimpse, rather than … a firm faith” (in the resurrection). Briggs believes that it means that the psalmist hopes that in Sheol itself he will still have Yahweh with him. Whatever the interpretation, the translation should be faithful to the text as it is: “You do not abandon me to Sheol, you do not allow your devoted (or, faithful) servant to go down to the grave (or, the world of the dead).”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
John Wu Ching-hsiung (1899-1986) was a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang, a renowned jurist who studied in Europe and the United States, and served as a professor of law at Soochow University, as a judge and the Acting President of the Shanghai Provisional Court, and as the Vice President of the Commission for the Drafting of the Constitution of the Republic of China, before becoming the Minister of the Republic of China to the Holy See. Wu has written extensively, not only on law but also on Chinese philosophy, and has also written his autobiography, Beyond East and West, in English. Wu was a devout Catholic and had a personal relationship with Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975). Wu began translating the the Psalms in 1938, and was encouraged by Chiang to translate the entire New Testament, which he corrected in his own handwriting. (…) John Wu Ching-hsiung’s translation of the Psalms (first draft in 1946, revised in 1975) was translated into Literary Chinese in the form of poetic rhyme, with attention paid to the style of writing. According to the content and mood of the different chapters of the original psalm, Wu chose Chinese poetic forms such as tetrameter, pentameter, heptameter [4, 5 or 7 syllables/Chinese characters per stanza], and the [less formal] Sao style, and sometimes more than two poetic forms were used in a single poem. (Source: Simon Wong)
John Wu Ching-hsiung himself talks about his celebrated and much-admired (though difficult-to-understand) translation in his aforementioned autobiography: (Click or tap here to see)
“Nothing could have been farther from my mind than to translate the Bible or any parts of it with a view to publishing it as an authorized version. I had rendered some of the Psalms into Chinese verse, but that was done as a part of my private devotion and as a literary hobby. When I was in Hongkong in 1938, I had come to know Madame H. H. Kung [Soong Ai-ling], and as she was deeply interested in the Bible, I gave her about a dozen pieces of my amateurish work just for her own enjoyment. What was my surprise when, the next time I saw her, she told me, “My sister [Soong Mei-ling] has written to say that the Generalissimo [Chiang Kai-shek] likes your translation of the Psalms very much, especially the first, the fifteenth, and the twenty-third, the Psalm of the Good Shepherd!”
“In the Autumn of 1940, when I was in Chungking, the Generalissimo invited me several times to lunch with him and expressed his appreciation of the few pieces that he had read. So I sent him some more. A few days later I received a letter from Madame Chiang [Soong Mei-ling], dated September 21, 1940, in which she said that they both liked my translation of the few Psalms I had sent them. ‘For many years,’ she wrote, ‘the Generalissimo has been wanting to have a really adequate and readable Wen-li (literary) translation of the Bible. He has never been able to find anyone who could undertake the matter.’ The letter ends up by saying that I should take up the job and that ‘the Generalissimo would gladly finance the undertaking of this work.’
“After some preliminary study of the commentaries, I started my work with the Psalms on January 6, 1943, the Feast of the Epiphany.
“I had three thousand years of Chinese literature to draw upon. The Chinese vocabulary for describing the beauties of nature is so rich that I seldom failed to find a word, a phrase, and sometimes even a whole line to fit the scene. But what makes such Psalms so unique is that they bring an intimate knowledge of the Creator to bear upon a loving observation of things of nature. I think one of the reasons why my translation is so well received by the Chinese scholars is that I have made the Psalms read like native poems written by a Chinese, who happens to be a Christian. Thus to my countrymen they are at once familiar and new — not so familiar as to be jejune, and not so new as to be bizarre. I did not publish it as a literal translation, but only as a paraphrase.
“To my greatest surprise, [my translation of the Psalms] sold like hot dogs. The popularity of that work was beyond my fondest dreams. Numberless papers and periodicals, irrespective of religion, published reviews too good to be true. I was very much tickled when I saw the opening verse of the first Psalm used as a headline on the front page of one of the non-religious dailies.”
A contemporary researcher (Lindblom 2021) mentions this about Wu’s translation: “Wu created a unique and personal work of sacred art that bears the imprint of his own admitted love and devotion, a landmark achievement comparable to Antoni Gaudi’s Basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain. Although its use is still somewhat limited today, it continues to attract readers for the aforementioned qualities, and continues to be used in prayers and music by those who desire beauty and an authentic Chinese-sounding text that draws from China’s ancient traditions.”
The translation of Psalm 10 from the 1946 edition is in pentameter (the 1946 edition did not have verse numbers either):
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