bless(ed)

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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):

  • “think well of” (San Blas Kuna)
  • “speak good to” (Amganad Ifugao)
  • “make happy” (Pohnpeian)
  • “cause-to-live-as-a-chief” (Zulu)
  • “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)
  • “greatly love” (Candoshi-Shapra) (source: John C. Tuggy)
  • “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 Danish Bibelen 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. )

See also bless (food and drink), blessed (Christ in Mark 11:9), and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.

See also “Blessed by ‘The Blessing’ in the World’s Indigenous Languages” and Multilingual version of “The Blessing” based on Numbers 6:24-26 .

complete verse (Romans 15:27)

Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 15:27:

  • Uma: “Those plans of their they made from the gladness of their heart. Yet it is very fitting that they help those Jewish companions of theirs. For it is because of the Jews that people who are not Jews have received food for their souls. So, it is very fitting if people who are not Jews share/divide-up food for the physical body with their Jewish companions.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “And they are happy to help. And it is truly fitting/right that they help the need of the Yahudi who trust Isa Almasi as their repayment to them for because-of the Yahudi hep that’s the reason why the people not Yahudi were able to hear the word/speech of God. That’s why they ought also to share with the Yahudi the material-blessings they received.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “They are very happy to give this help and it’s very proper also, because they have a big debt to the Jewish belivers there in Jerusalem, because by means of the Jews the word of God was brought here to to them who are not Jews, and because of this, it is proper also if they can send some financial help to the poverty-striken Jews.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “They moreover (appreciative particle) were the ones who decided to help, and it is appropriate, because it’s as if they have a debt to them. Because due to the believing Jews in Jerusalem, the Gentiles have participated in God’s spiritual blessings to them, so the Gentiles also have an obligation to help with the livelihood of the Jews.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The believers who are not Jews are pleased to give help to their fellow believers. It is right to give help because these people who are not Jews had passed on to them the good news which the Jews had believed. Therefore now with what they possess, this can show their thankfulness to the Jews who told them the word and thus they will help those who are poor.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

gentiles / nations

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė)) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).

Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).

In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also nations.

Translation commentary on Romans 15:27

The verb decided is the same verb rendered have freely decided in the previous verse. In some instances the equivalent of freely decided may be “they decided without being commanded to” or “they themselves decided to do it, even though no one had told them that they should do it.”

But, as a matter of fact, they have an obligation to help those poor is literally “and they are their debtors.” The force of “and” in this context is emphatic (Revised Standard Version, New English Bible “and indeed”), and so is rendered but, as a matter of fact by the Good News Translation. In some languages the equivalent may be “in reality, however,” “but the truth is,” or “but they really (have an obligation).”

“They are their debtors” is transformed by the Good News Translation to read they have an obligation to help (the possessive pronoun “their” refers back to the poor in the previous verse). The expression of obligation may be rendered in some languages as an obligatory mode: “they should help those poor.”

The next clause in this sentence literally reads “for if the Gentiles shared in their spiritual things.” The “if” clause refers to a condition that is true to fact, and so may be rendered as a statement as in the Good News Translation. “Spiritual things” is best taken in the sense of spiritual blessings (so also Revised Standard Version); the possessive pronoun “their” refers to the Jews (Good News Translation).

As can be seen in the literal translation, this clause in Greek involves a pseudo-substitute passive construction. Accordingly, “the Gentiles shared in the spiritual blessings of the Jews” may be transformed into an active expression the Jews shared their spiritual blessings with the Gentiles. Spiritual blessings in this context, as in so many instances, is “blessings for their spirits.” Within the larger context the entire sentence may read: “The Jews shared with the Gentiles the good things from God for their spirits.”

The last clause in this verse contains several problems. First there is the pronominal ambiguity in the Greek text: “they are obligated to serve them.” In this “they” refers to the Gentiles, while “them” is a reference to the Jews. Then there is the problem of the Greek phrase “with (or in) their fleshly things.” Most translations take the Greek preposition (en) to mean “with” and “fleshly things” (King James Version “carnal things”) to mean material blessings (so Revised Standard Version). But the New English Bible understands the preposition to have the meaning of “in” and so takes “fleshly things” as a reference to the material needs of the Jews: “the Gentiles have a clear duty to contribute to their material needs.”

The Gentiles may require further specification, “the Gentile believers”; and their material blessings may be translated as “the things which they have received from God,” “the physical things which they have received from God,” “the everyday things they have received from God,” or “the things necessary for everyday living.” The entire clause may be translated: “the Gentile believers, therefore, ought to help the Jewish believers by giving them those things which are needed for everyday life.”

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 .