The Hebrew, Greek, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated as “soul” in English is translated in Chol with a term that refers to the invisible aspects of human beings (source: Robert Bascom), in Yagaria with oune or “shadow, reflection” (source: Renck, p. 81), and in Elhomwe as “heart” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext).
The Mandarin Chineselínghún (靈魂 / 灵魂), literally “spirit-soul,” is often used for “soul” (along with xīn [心] or “heart”). This is a term that was adopted from Buddhist sources into early Catholic writings and later also by Protestant translators. (Source: Zetzsche 1996, p. 32, see also Clara Ho-yan Chan in this article )
In Chichewa, moyo means both “soul” and “life.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 18:14:
Uma: “That is why those merchants wept over the villagers of Babel, they said: ‘All the things that you desired no longer are. All the sweet-smelling things that you liked, all the things that you used to make your bodies beautiful, they are all lost, they are no longer found.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “The traders said to the city, ‘All the wealth that you desired/craved is no more, all your riches and the things you boasted about have disappeared and you will not find them again.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The wealth seekers will say to the woman which is the city of Babylon, they will say, ‘All the things that you would like to own have been thoroughly destroyed. Your wealth has also been destroyed and that which brought you joy, and it will never again be seen,’ they said.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “All the businessmen, they will-say to her, ‘Absolutely no one will sell you (sing.) the expensive fruits that you (sing.) craved. You (sing.) no-longer-have the foods that are difficult to get and the expensive decorations of the rich, and you (sing.) will not be-able-to-get (them) again.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Those merchants will say, ‘What a real pity, because all the good things which were valued by the people from there are no more. They will really never again find the wealth and splendor of that city.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “The merchants will say to the city: ‘those things which overflowingly were wanted by your hearts to own, now are gone. Forever you have lost your money and all the things which seemed good to you,’ they will say.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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.”
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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 Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.
In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Revised Standard Version places this verse within quotation marks, indicating that this is quoted speech; but Revised Standard Version does not identify the speaker. It is better, with Good News Translation and others, to say that the businessmen of verse 11 are the speakers.
The fruit for which thy soul longed has gone from thee: the Greek word translated fruit appears only here in the New Testament and means “autumn fruit,” that is, ripe fruit (a related word, “late autumn,” is used in Jude 12). Here the word means “all the good things,” “all the pleasures.” Unless fruit in a given language will be understood to indicate “good things,” the translator should abandon the figure and state clearly what is meant by the figure. For which thy soul longed is literally “the desire of thy soul.” The Greek noun meaning “desire” appears only here in this book. “the fruit, the desire of your soul” means “everything you longed for (or, craved).”
All thy dainties and thy splendor: in Greek there is a wordplay: ta lipara and ta lampra, which New English Bible represents quite well: “all the glitter and the glamour.” An American Translation and New American Bible, Revised have “luxury and splendor.” The first Greek word means “the fatty things,” that is, delicacies, luxuries, the good things of life; the second one means “the shining things” (see its use in the phrase “bright linen” in 15.6; 19.8). This probably refers to objects that glitter, such as gold, silver, and precious stones. One possible rendering is “all the things that make you look beautiful.”
Are lost to thee, never to be found again: the second part of this verse may be restructured as follows: “you have lost all your luxuries and riches, and you will never get them back again” or “you have lost all the things that make your life comfortable and all your expensive possessions, and you will never….” The verbal phrase are lost translates the active “have left (you)”; and (never) to be found translates the impersonal third plural active “they will (not) find,” meaning “(not) be found.” In at least one language this is expressed as follows: “you will not meet the day when you will find these things again.”
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 .
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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