The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated in English as “joy” or “happiness” is translated in the HausaCommon Language Bible idiomatically as farin ciki or “white stomach.” In some cases, such as in Genesis 29:11, it is also added for emphatic purposes.
Other languages that use the same expression include Southern Birifor (pʋpɛl), Dera (popolok awo), Reshe (ɾipo ɾipuhã). (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
The Hebrew and Greek that are translated as “fear (of God)” (or: “honor,” “worship,” or “respect”) is translated as “to have respect/reverence for” (Southern Subanen, Western Highland Purepecha, Navajo (Dinė), Javanese, Tboli), “to make great before oneself” (Ngäbere), “fear-devotion” (Kannada — currently used as a description of the life of piety), “those-with-whom he-is-holy” (those who fear God) (Western Apache) (source for this and above: Reiling / Swellengrebel), “revere God” (Lalana Chinantec), “worship God” (Palantla Chinantec) (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), “obey” (Chichewa) (source: Ernst Wendland), “having/showing respect (for God)” (Makonde) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext), or with a term that communicates awe (rather than fear of an evil source) (Chol) (source: Robert Bascom).
Bullard / Hatton (2008, p. 8) say the following about this concept: “As the writer of Proverbs states in 1:7, ‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.’ (…) ‘The fear of the Lord,’ that is, human fear of God, is an exceptionally difficult concept to express, at least in English. Other languages may have more appropriate terms. The idea probably is rooted in the most ancient days when people were indeed afraid of any deity. But in Israel the concept of fearing God was transformed by God’s revelation into a much fuller idea. Basically, as used in the Bible, the fear of God refers to the proper attitude of reverence and awe before the Holy One. To fear God is to recognize one’s own place as a mere mortal before the Creator, one’s place as a sinner before the Judge, one’s place as a child before the Father, one’s place as the recipient of God’s love. It thus involves submission, repentance, trust, and grateful love toward the One who is fearsome in holiness, in justice, in power that both protects and punishes, and in love. Using the word “fear” is sometimes as good as we can do, but often we will alternate that word with terms like ‘reverence’ or ‘awe.’”
Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed.
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.”
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 65:8:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“Those who are staying far fear your wondrous signs;
where the sun comes out and where the sun enters.
You want songs of happiness.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“Having seen Your amazing work,
people living in all corners of the earth stand in awe.
From the place where the sun rises to the place where it sets,
Your works have caused joy to overflow.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“People (are) afraid of you (sing.) even those (who) dwell/live in a far-away place
because of your (sing.) amazing deeds.
Your (sing.) deeds can-cause- the people of the whole earth -to-be-loudly-cheerful because of joy/happiness.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Laarim:
“People who stay far away fear your miracles,
all the people of the earth will sing songs to you,
who live by the side of the east and to the side of the west.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Nchi zote zinashangaa matendo yako makuu,
kunaleta furaha mahali pote,
kutoka mashariki mpaka magharibi.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“People who live in very remote/distant places on the earth
are awed by/revere you because of the miracles that you perform;
because of what you do,
people who live far to the west and far to the east shout joyfully.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The various Greek, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
In this verse the world’s inhabitants are described as those who dwell at earth’s farthest bounds. This phrase is inclusive, not exclusive; that is, it means all people of the world, including those who live in the most distant parts of the earth.
Good News Translation‘s “stands in awe” is often rendered in many languages by idiomatic phrases; for example, “the heart jumps” or “the stomach trembles.”
The signs are the great deeds, or miracles, that God performed (this is parallel to “dread deeds” in verse 5a).
In line c the psalmist uses the phrase the outgoings of the morning and the evening as a way of speaking of the east and the west, the limits of the earth; so Good News Translation “from one end of the earth to the other.” New Jerusalem Bible has “the lands of sunrise and sunset”; New Jerusalem Bible “the gateways of morning and evening”; another possible version is “farthest east and farthest west.” The translation of east and west representing the full extent of the earth is expressed variously in different languages, and the form should be the one most natural in the language. In some languages the extremes of distance are expressed in terms of the prevailing winds, in others according to the flow of the river, and in others by the rising and setting of the sun. For instance, in some languages one must speak of “from the mouth of the river to the source of the river,” “from the east wind to the west wind,” or simply “from upstream to downstream.” In some languages this may be rendered, for example, “Because of the great things you do, all the people who live from upstream to downstream shout for joy.” It is, of course, people who live in those faraway places who shout for joy, not the places themselves.
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 .
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