οὕτως καὶ οὗτοι νῦν ἠπείθησαν τῷ ὑμετέρῳ ἐλέει, ἵνα καὶ αὐτοὶ [νῦν] ἐλεηθῶσιν.
31so also they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy.
The Greek that is translated in English typically as “disobedience” is translated in Tepeuxila Cuicatec as “thing intentionally not understanding” (source: Marjorie Davis in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 34ff. ) and in Kgalagadi as gana go uzwa or “those who don’t listen” (source: Carl and Kelsey Grulke in this newsletter ).
See also obedience.
The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin terms that are typically translated as “mercy” (or “compassion” or “kindness”) in English are translated in various ways. Bratcher / Nida classify them in (1) those based on the quality of heart, or other psychological center, (2) those which introduce the concept of weeping or extreme sorrow, (3) those which involve willingness to look upon and recognize the condition of others, or (4) those which involve a variety of intense feelings.
While the English mercy originates from the Latin merces, originally “price paid,” Romance languages (Italian, Spanish, Corsican, Catalan) and other Germanic languages (German, Swedish, Danish — Barmherzigkeit, barmhärtighet and barmhjertighed, respectively) tend to follow the Latin misericordia, lit. “misery-heart.”
Here are some other (back-) translations:
See also steadfast love.
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 11:31:
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 formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
In Greek this verse is a continuation of the sentence begun in the previous verse, and from the standpoint of translation it is similar to the preceding verse. A literal translation might read: “In the same way these ones are now disobedient because of your mercy in order that they themselves now may be mercied.” The Good News Translation reorders two of the major parts of this verse, and makes the participants explicit. The first part of this verse actually appears as the second element in the Good News Bible: “these ones” are identified as the Jews and the object of their disobedience is made explicit, disobey God. The second part of the Greek sentence appears first in the English sentence structure, and the ambiguous phrase “your mercy” is clarified to mean mercy that you have received. Finally, in the last part of the verse, God is identified as the one who gives the mercy: that they also may now receive God’s mercy.
The word now (in its second occurrence in this verse) does not appear in some manuscripts; it is omitted by the Revised Standard Version, the New English Bible, and Moffatt. The UBS text committee believes that the evidence supports the inclusion of this word and classifies the choice with a “B” rating.
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 .
No comments yet.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.