The Greek, Hebrew and Ge’ez that is typically translated as “eternity,” “forever,” or “forever and ever” in English are translated in Mairasi as “mashed out infinitely.” Lloyd Peckham explains: “Bark cloth required pounding. It got longer and wider as it got pounded. Similarly, life gets pounded or mashed to lengthen it into infinity. Tubers also get mashed into the standard way of serving the staple food, like the fufu of Uganda, or like poi of Hawaii. It spreads out into infinity.” (Source: Lloyd Peckham)
In Lisu the phrase “forever and ever” is translated as ꓕꓲꓽ ꓞꓲꓼ ꓕꓲ ꓑ — thi tsi thi pa, verbatim translated as “one – lifetime – one – world.” This construction follows a traditional four-couplet construct in oral Lisu poetry that is usually in the form ABAC or ABCB. (Source: Arrington 2020, p. 57f.)
In Makonde it is often translated as navyaka or “years and years.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Nida (1947, p. 230) says this about the translation of the concept of “truth”: “The words for ‘truth’ and ‘true’ are not always the most readily discovered in aboriginal languages. In some instances the only expression which corresponds to ‘true’ is something like ‘it happened.’ A falsehood is something that ‘did not happen.’ In a good many languages the meaning of ‘truth’ is expressed by the words signifying ‘straight’ and ‘direct.’ Untruth is accordingly ‘crookedness.’ An abstract noun such as English “truth” is quite difficult to find in some instances. Only an expression such as ‘true statement’ or ‘true word’ will be found to correspond to English ‘truth.’”
The Greek, Latin, Ge’ez, and Hebrew that is usually translated in English as “truth” is translated in Luchazi with vusunga: “the quality of being straight” (source: E. Pearson in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 160ff. ), in Obolo as atikọ or “good/correct talk” (source: Enene Enene), and in Ekari as maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (esp. in John 14:6 and 17; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
Helen Evans (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) tells of the translation into Kui which usually is “true-thing.” In some instances however, such as in the second part of John 17:17 (“your word is truth” in English), the use of “true-thing” indicated that there might be other occasions when it’s not true, so here the translation was a a form of “pure, holy.”
The translation committee of the Malay “Good News Bible” (Alkitab Berita Baik, see here ) wrestled with the translation of “truth” in the Gospel of John:
“Our Malay Committee also concluded that ‘truth’ as used in the Gospel of John was used either of God himself, or of God’s revelation of himself, or in an extended sense as a reference to those who had responded to God’s self-disclosure. In John 8:32 the New Malay translation reads ‘You will know the truth about God, and the truth about God will make you free.’ In John 8:44 this meaning is brought out by translating, ‘He has never been on the side of God, because there is no truth in him.’ Accordingly Jesus ‘tells the truth about God’ in 8:45, 46 (see also 16:7 and 8:37a). Then, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14:6) becomes ‘I am the one who leads men to God, the one who reveals who and what God is, and the one who gives men life.” At 3:21 the translation reads ” … whoever obeys the truth, that is God himself, comes to the light …’; 16:13a appears as ‘he will lead you into the full truth about God’; and in 18:37 Jesus affirms ‘I came into the world to reveal the truth about God, and whoever obeys God listens to me.’ On this basis also 1:14 was translated ‘we saw his glory, the glory which he had as the Father’s only Son. Through him God has completely revealed himself (truth) and his love for us (grace)’; and 1:17 appears as ‘God gave the law through Moses; but through Jesus Christ he has completely revealed himself (truth) and his love for us (grace).'” (Source: Barclay Newman in The Bible Translator 1974, p. 432ff. )
The German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) has followed a somewhat similar path to the Malay committee 50 years earlier in the gospel of John. In John 1 it translates “truth as “God’s nature,” in John 3 as “God’s will,” in John 8 as “God’s reality,” in John 14 as “encountering God,” and in John 16 as “God’s truth.”
The Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Aramaic that is translated into English as “(to) bless” or “blessed” is translated into a wide variety of possibilities.
The Hebrew term barak (and the Aramaic term berak) also (and originally) means “kneel” (a meaning which the word has retained — see Gen. 24:11) and can be used for God blessing people (or things), people blessing each other, or people blessing God. While English Bible translators have not seen a stumbling block in always using the same term (“bless” in its various forms), other languages need to make distinctions (see below).
In Bari, spoken in South Sudan, the connection between blessing and knees/legs is still apparent. For Genesis 30:30 (in English: “the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned”), Bari uses a common expression that says (much like the Hebrew), ‘… blessed you to my feet.'” (Source: P. Guillebaud in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 189ff. .)
Other examples for the translation of “bless” when God is the one who blesses include (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight):
“sprinkle with a propitious (lit. cool) face” (a poetic expression occurring in the priests’ language) (Toraja Sa’dan) (source for this and above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
“give good things” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
“ask good” (Yakan) (source: Yakan Back Translation)
“praise, say good things” (Central Yupik) (source: Robert Bascom)
“showing a good heart” (Kutu) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
“good luck — have — good fortune — have” (verbatim) ꓶꓼ ꓙꓳ ꓫꓱꓹ ꓙꓳ — ɯa dzho shes zho (Lisu). This construction follows a traditional four-couplet construct in oral Lisu poetry that is usually in the form ABAC or ABCB. (Source: Arrington 2020, p. 58)
wodala — denoting a person who is considered fortunate because he/she has something good that the majority of people do not have. It also acknowledges someone as a causative agent behind “being blessed.” (Chichewa) (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
In Tagbanwa a phrase is used for both the blessing done by people and God that back-translates to “caused to be pierced by words causing grace/favor” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation) and in Benabena a term denoted “good spell” or “good magic” (source: Renck 1990, p. 112).
Ixcatlán Mazatec had to select a separate term when relating “to people ‘blessing’ God” (or things of God): “praise(d)” or “give thanks for” (in 1 Cor. 10:16) (“as it is humans doing the ‘blessing’ and people do not bless the things of God or God himself the way God blesses people” — source: Robert Bascom). Eastern Bru and Kui also use “praise” for this a God-directed blessing (source: Bru back translation and Helen Evans in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) and Uma uses “appropriate/worthy to be worshipped” (source: Uma back translation).
When related to someone who is blessing someone else, it is translated into Tsou as “speak good hopes for.” In Waiwai it is translated as “may God be good and kind to you now.” (Sources: Peng Kuo-Wei for Tsou and Robert Hawkins in The Bible Translator 1962, pp. 164ff. for Waiwai.)
Some languages associate an expression that originally means “spitting” or “saliva” with blessing. The Bantu language Koonzime, for instance, uses that expression for “blessing” in their translation coming from either God or man. Traditionally, the term was used in an application of blessing by an aged superior upon a younger inferior, often in relation to a desire for fertility, or in a ritualistic, but not actually performed spitting past the back of the hand. The spitting of saliva has the effect of giving that person “tenderness of face,” which can be translated as “blessedness.” (Source: Keith Beavon)
Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the DanishBibelen 2020, comments on the translation of this term: “As for ‘blessing’, in the end we in most instances actually kept the word, after initially preferring the expression ‘giving life strength’. The backlash against dropping the word blessing was too hard. But we would often add a few words to help the reader understand what the word means in a given context — people often understand it to refer more to a spiritual connection with God, but in the Hebrew texts, it usually has to do with material things or good health or many children. So when e.g. in Isaiah 19:25 the Hebrew text says ‘God bless them’, we say ‘God bless them’ and we add: ‘and give them strength’. ‘And give them strength’ is not found in the overt Hebrew text, but we are again making explicit what we believe is the meaning so as to avoid misunderstanding.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 1:25:
Uma: “The true teaching of God they rejected, it was just lying teaching that they believed. They refused to worship the Creator; living things that God created, those are what they worshipped and what they submitted to. Yet actually the Creator is the one who is appropriate/worthy to be worshipped by us forever. Amin!” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “They do not believe the truth about God but that is what they believe what is not true. God is the one who created everything but they do not honor him and they do not follow/obey him. What they do honor are the things which he has created. But God is the one who ought to be praised forever. Amin.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “They will not believe the truth about God, but rather they believe lies. They worship and they subject themselves to things which are only created, rather than the creator. May He be praised forever by people.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “That’s what they are doing because they have turned-their -backs-on the truth concerning God in order that the lie is what they obey. Because what they have been worshipping and serving, it is what God has created, not God the creator. This God is the one who deserves to be worshipped forever. That’s so.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “These are the people who did not want to believe the true word in order to know about God. Rather it is what is a lie that they believe. But the people do not worship God, he who made all things there are. Rather the things which God made are what the people worship. And these are what they honor. But about him who truly is God, only he is it proper to be worshipped forever. Amen.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The Greek in the referenced verses that is typically translated as “age,” “(for)ever / eternity / eternal / permanent,” “of old / long ago” in English is translated in the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) consistenty as “world (or: “cosmic”) time” (Weltzeit).
Sarah Ruden (2021, p. lxii) explains the complexities of the translation of aiōn: “Trickiest of all [the words relating to time] is aion, most simply an ‘age’ or ‘era’ but sometimes denoting either the whole present world or the whole world to come. The same word can allude to all the limits of material existence (or to dangerous worldly distractions in particular), or to their absence in the eternal age to come. Looking forward, especially to ‘ages of ages’ (in the pattern of ‘King of Kings’), the meaning is ‘eternity.’”
They exchange the truth about God for a lie may involve certain complications because of the semantic difficulty of “exchanging truth for a lie.” It may be necessary to recast this clause as “they refuse to believe the truth about God, and accordingly they believe a lie,” “they give up believing the truth about God, and they accept what is a lie,” or “… what is untrue.”
Worship and serve may be rendered as “worship and obey” or “worship and do reverence to.” Serve translates the most general Greek term for religious activity in honor of a deity.
The contrast between what God has created and the Creator himself may be made explicit in some languages as “they worship and serve what God has made; they do not worship and serve the very one who made everything.”
To be praised translates a Greek passive verbal adjective; it is used in the New Testament always of God, and describes the praise of worship that man should render to God. This may be looked upon as the conclusion of Paul’s argument; he has proved his point, and now he presents a series of illustrations, adding no new information until verse 32.
Who is to be praised forever must be made somewhat more explicit in some languages—for example, “whom people should praise forever” or “who deserves that people should praise him forever.”
In a high percentage of languages the terminal particle amen has been borrowed and therefore can be introduced in this type of expression. However, it is liable to be almost meaningless, since it will probably have been borrowed merely as a traditional device for indicating the end of prayers. A more appropriate equivalent in some languages may have a meaning such as “this is surely so” or “indeed this is true.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
They: The Greek word here is literally “who.” There are two ways to interpret it here:
(1) It introduces something more that is said about these people. Here it introduces a condemnation of ungodly people that is similar to 1:23. For example:
They (Berean Standard Bible)
(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, Good News Translation, King James Version, New American Bible, Revised Edition, New Living Translation (2004), God’s Word, Contemporary English Version, NET Bible, Revised English Bible, New Century Version)
(2) It introduces a reason for what Paul said in 1:24. For example:
because they (Revised Standard Version)
(Revised Standard Version, New Jerusalem Bible, English Standard Version, New American Standard Bible)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), because 1:25a repeats the general sense of 1:23 rather than giving a reason for anything Paul said in 1:24.
exchanged: This word refers to replacing something with something else. See how you translated this word in 1:23.
the truth of God: This phrase refers to things that people can know about God by looking at creation (1:19–21). It does not refer to the gospel of Jesus.
for a lie: The Greek phrase here includes the Greek article, sometimes translated as “the.” It probably refers to the idols made in the images of man and creatures (1:23). But those idols are not explicitly called a lie there, so all the English versions on TW translate it as the Berean Standard Bible does.
1:25b
worshiped: The Greek word here refers to honoring someone as God as well as having awe for that person. The Greek word includes religious acts that in English are called “worship.” Here are other ways to translate this Greek word:
offered reverence (Revised English Bible)
-or-
honored and were in awe of
served: This word refers to doing religious duties. It includes praying, worshiping, and doing what the god required someone to do. Here are other ways to translate this word:
did the work of
-or-
obeyed/followed
creature: This word refers to any created being: people, animals, fish, and so on, as in 1:23. Here are other ways to translate this word:
the beings of ⌊God’s⌋ creation
-or-
the things God created (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
what God has created (Good News Translation)
Creator: This word refers to the one who created all things: God. Paul used this word here to compare against the word “creature.” Here are other ways to translate this word:
the One who created ⌊everything⌋
-or-
God, he who made all things there are
-or-
him who created (them)
1:25c
who is forever worthy of praise: This clause tells the reader more about God. It does not separate God from other gods. For the correct meaning in some languages, translators must avoid the word who. For example:
He is blessed forever.
is forever worthy of praise: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as worthy of praise here means “blessed” or “honored.” People and the angels and other creatures of heaven are praising and will always praise and honor God.
The phrase worthy of praise describes God. Some languages must use a verb instead. For example:
who is praised forever
-or-
whom ⌊his people and angels⌋ praise/bless always
forever: The Greek is literally “into the ages.” It refers to all time in the future.
Amen: The word Amen is a Hebrew word that means “even so” or “it is true.” It is used to agree with what was said. The Greek borrowed the Hebrew word. English borrowed this word as well.
In some languages people are not familiar with this word. If that is true in your language, you may want to:
• Translate the meaning. For example:
It is so.
-or-
True!
• Borrow this word and spell it as people in your language would say it. You may then want to explain its meaning in a footnote. Here is an example footnote:
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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