The Hebrew and Greek that is translated into English as “the wrath of God” or “God’s anger” has to be referred to in Bengali as judgment, punishment or whatever fits the context. In Bengali culture, anger is by definition bad and can never be predicated of God. (Source: David Clark)
Translations in other languages:
Quetzaltepec Mixe: “translated with a term that not only expresses anger, but also punishment” (source: Robert Bascom)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “the coming punishment of God on mankind” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “God’s fearful/terrible future punishing of people” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “the coming anger/hatred of God” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “the punishment which will come” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Bariai: “God’s action of anger comes forth in the open” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
Mairasi: “His anger keeps increasing (until it will definitely arrive)” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
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-ikari (御怒り) or “wrath (of God)” in the referenced verses. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
In the 1852 translation of the Psalms into Javanese by Johann F.C. Gericke, the translator attempted to highlight the different voices and sections of the psalm by using different language styles or sociolects of Javanese. Ngoko , a “top-down” register, was used when senior people communicated to people junior in age or rank, and kromo , a “bottom-up” and more ornate register, was used to address superiors and elders. According to Gericke (quoted in Solleveld, cited below) “If one sought to use one and the same language in the entire Psalm, no Javanese would understand it. The difference between Kromo and Ngoko is often as big as between Dutch and Polish.”
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 2:5:
ChichewaMawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero translation, 2002/2016:
“And he rebukes them in his anger
and threatens them in his wrath, saying that,” (Source: Chichewa Back Translation)
Newari:
“He will terrify them in anger,
In anger He will cause them to tremble.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“In his anger, he warns them and they (are) afraid.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Eastern Bru:
“Then God feels very angry, so he warns them. He makes them very afraid of his anger.” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
Laarim:
“And from there, he shouted to them with anger
to tremble very much, and he said that,” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Basi amechukia, anawakemea,
yuko na hasira anawatisha, anasema,” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“Then, because he is angry with them, he rebukes them.
He causes them to be terrified when they realize that he will furiously punish them.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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. ).
From amusement Yahweh’s emotion turns to anger. It seems better to maintain the descriptive present tense, as Good News Translation does: “he warns … and terrifies” (also Moffatt, Bible en français courant, New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, New American Bible). Verses 5-6 still deal with the Lord’s reaction to the rebels.
The two nouns wrath and fury describe his attitude. Such human traits are ascribed quite naturally by Old Testament writers to God, in their conviction that he “was actively, vigorously, and personally involved in man’s history” (Toombs). The noun translated fury is used in the Old Testament only with God as subject. It means literally “burning,” that is, an anger that consumes and destroys the enemy (see Exo 15.7).
He will speak to them (or “he warns them,” “he rebukes them,” or “he threatens them”) and terrify them: for this last verb see also 83.15. Moffatt translates “he … scares them.” Many languages will follow more closely the Hebrew form of speaking to them in his wrath. However, in many cases “speaking” does not carry the negative injunction implied. Furthermore, anger involves a strong emotional element which is often stated in physiological terms such as “hot heart” or “hot stomach.” It may be best then to render the warning as a negative command in direct address; for instance, “God is angry and says, ‘Do not act this way.’ ” In some languages the full line will be: “With a hot stomach God says, ‘Do not act like this.’ ”
The parallelism of verse 5 is a typical case of line b representing a dramatic intensification of line a, from the ordinary speak to the intense terrify. It may be possible to represent this movement in the parallelism; for example, “He will be angry and speak to them; he will be so angry their strength will fail,” or “He will warn them because he is angry; so angry is he that their hearts run away,” or “Being angry at them he will speak out; he will scare them to death.”
In many languages the idea terrify, used in both Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version, implies some kind of physical loss and is sometimes expressed figuratively as “the breath departed,” “the heart ran away,” “the strength ran out,” or “the strength melted.”
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 .
The following are presentations by the Psalms: Layer by Layer project, run by Scriptura . The first is an overview and the second an introduction into the poetry of Psalm 2.
The following is an English translation of Psalm 2 into song by linguists & professional musicians under the auspices of The Spoken English Bible , an oral Bible translation designed to reach Americans who may not yet engage with Scripture and to serve as a model for Bible translation in minority languages.
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