3and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the one hundred forty-four thousand who have been redeemed from the earth.
The Greek that is translated as “elder” in most English versions (“presbyter” in The Orthodox New Testament, 2000) is translated as “Old-Man Leader” in Eastern Highland Otomi (source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22) and in Bacama as mi kpan-kpani vɨnə hiutə: “big/old person of house of prayer” (source: David Frank in this blog post ).
Other translations include:
“person who commands among the people of Jesus” in Lalana Chinantec
“supervisor of the creed” in Guhu-Samane (source for this and three above: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.)
“older person” with an implication of that being a leader-like person in Matumbi (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
“person who has taken on responsibilities in the congregation” in German (das Buch translation by Roland Werner, publ. 2009-2022)
The German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) chooses for the occurrences in Revelation the translation of Würdenträger or “dignitary.” Elsewhere (for instance in 1 Peter 5:1) it has “elders, your congregational leadership.”
Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 14:3:
Uma: “They were singing, singing a kind of new song in front of the Seat of God and in front of the four living things and the elders around that Throne. Their song, no other person can/may learn it, just that one hundred forty-four thousand. They are the ones redeemed by the Lamb from among the people of the world.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “The one hundred and fortyfour thousand people stood there facing the throne of God and the four angels of-different-kind and the elders. They sang a new song and nobody could learn that song except they, the one hundred and fortyfour thousand, because they are the ones redeemed from the ruling of the leader of demons while they were still on earth.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And as for these people, they are before the seat of God, and they are also before the four creatures who have breath and before the elders. And then they sang a new song and the only ones who know how to sing the song are the one hundred and forty-four thousand people who were redeemed on the earth by the young sheep.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “The one hundred and forty four thousand people were standing facing the throne and the four living creatures and leaders. They were singing a new song which no one else knew but they alone, because they are the ones who were redeemed from the world.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “As for that crowd, those one hundred and forty four thousand people, they were standing in the presence of God who was sitting on his seat of kingship, and in the presence of those four created living beings and also those twenty four elders. I heard that they were singing a new kind of song. No-one else knows that song, but only those, that crowd, for from all the people here in the world they are the ones who were chosen being like bought by that one referred to as Young Sheep so that they would be his people.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “They sang a new song before where God was seated there where the twenty-four surrounded him, where the four stood at each corner to his chair. This song they sang was one no one knows except only the one hundred and forty-four thousand, those people who had been saved on the earth.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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 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 or み) can be used, as in mi-za (御座), mi-kura (みくら) (Psalm 7:7), or mi-kurai (御位) (Psalm 113:5) in the referenced verses, all relating to the “throne (or: high seat) (of God)”.
They sing: as noticed in 13.12, Revised Standard Version reproduces the present tense of the Greek verb; for purpose of narrative most translators will prefer to continue to use the past tense, as Good News Translation and other modern translations do. Who is the subject? As it stands in Greek, and as translated by Revised Standard Version and others, it can be the harpists of the previous verse. But this seems quite unlikely. Most translations reproduce the Greek form quite mechanically, but this should not be done unless the translator concludes that the harpists are the ones doing the singing. A number of commentators believe the singers are the countless angels surrounding God’s throne (see 5.11-12; 7.11-12). Others, however, believe that the 144,000 are the singers, as made explicit by Good News Translation, and Bible en français courant “these thousands of people were in front of the throne”; also similar is Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje. It is recommended that the singers be identified as the 144,000 redeemed. So Good News Bible‘s rendering provides a good translation model.
A new song: as in 5.9.
Before the throne … the four living creatures and … the elders: see the description of the heavenly throne room in chapter 4.
No one could learn that song: to ask who would be teaching that song to the 144,000 goes beyond the writer’s intention in giving this information. This is a way of saying that only these 144,000 could sing this song—it could be sung by no one else.
Who had been redeemed from the earth: here the earth represents the earth’s inhabitants, the human race (see “redeemed from mankind” in verse 4). Of all people on earth these are the ones who had been redeemed. For redeemed see “ransom” in 5.9. If it is necessary to use the active voice of the verb, the translation can say “whom God has redeemed,” “whom God has saved.” This sentence may also be expressed as “They are the people whom God has saved.”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
they sang a new song:
The pronoun they probably refers to the 144,000 men/believers (14:1b).
sang: The Greek grammar probably indicates that they sang for some time. For example:
were singing (New Jerusalem Bible)
before the throne: This phrase refers to God’s throne in heaven. In some languages a literal translation would wrongly refer to a different throne. If that is true in your language, you may want to include the implied information. For example:
before the throne ⌊in heaven⌋ -or-
before ⌊God’s⌋ throne
14:3b
living creatures: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as living creatures is literally “living (ones).” The word refers to beings that are like angels. The living creatures speak and praise God (4:8). Other ways to translate this phrase are:
living beings (New Living Translation (2004)) -or-
living things/ones
See how you translated this phrase in 4:6.
elders: Here the word elders refers to those who have authority. These people (or angels) were leaders who had God as their leader. For example:
leaders (God’s Word)
These verses do not say whether the elders were people or angels. So you should use a word like “elder” or “leader” that can refer to either people or angels.
There were twenty-four elders. They are not included in the count of “four.”
See how you translated this word in 4:4.
14:3c
And no one could learn the song except the 144,000: This clause indicates that only the 144,000 men/believers could learn this song. Another way to translate this clause is:
Only the 144,000 ⌊men/believers⌋ could learn this song
14:3d
who had been redeemed from the earth: This clause tells the reader more about the 144,000 men/believers. In some languages a literal translation would wrongly indicate that there are other groups of 144,000 and only this group could learn this song. If that is true in your language, translate this clause so that it tells more about the 144,000. One way to do that is to start a new sentence here. For example:
They had been redeemed from the earth.
who had been redeemed: This clause is passive. Some languages must use an active clause. For example:
whom ⌊God⌋ has redeemed from the earth
redeemed: God paid a price to receive the 144,000. That price was the death of his Son. Other ways to translate this word are:
purchased from the earth (New American Standard Bible) -or-
ransomed from the earth (Revised English Bible)
from the earth: This phrase probably indicates that God had purchased these men/people from all over the earth. They were purchased from the world and separated from it in some way. It probably does not refer to God removing them from the earth.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
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