elder (of the community)

The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated as “elders” in English is translated in the Danish Bibelen 2020 as folkets ledere or “leaders of the people.”

Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators, explains: “The term ‘elder’ turned out to pose a particularly thorny problem. In traditional bibles, you can find elders all of over the place and they never pose a problem for a translator, they are just always elders. But how to find a contemporary term for this semi-official, complex position? This may have been our longest-standing problem. A couple of times we thought we had the solution, and then implemented it throughout the texts, only to find out that it didn’t work. Like when we used city council or village council, depending on the context. In the end we felt that the texts didn’t work with such official terms, and throughout the years in the desert, these terms didn’t make much sense. Other suggestions were ‘the eldest and wisest’, ‘the respected citizens’, ‘the Israelites with a certain position in society’, ‘the elder council’ –- and let me point out that these terms sound better in Danish than in English (‘de fremtrædende borgere,’ ‘de mest fremtrædende israelitter,’ ‘alle israelitter med en vis position,’ ‘de ældste og de klogeste,’ ‘ældsterådet’). In the end we just said ‘leaders of the people.’ After a lot of hand-wringing, it turned out that we actually found a term that worked well. So, we had to give up conveying the fact that they were old, but the most important point is that they were community leaders.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )

The German das Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022) translates likewise as “leader of the people” (Anführer des Volkes).

babble, talkative

The Greek that is translated in English as “babble” and “talkative” or similar is translated in the German Luther Bible 2017 with the colloquial expressiuon schwatzhaft or “likely to talk a lot superficially” (note that the first syllable “schwatz” is, like the English “babble,” onomatopoetic). (Source: Jost Zetzsche)

Translation commentary on Sirach 7:14

Do not prattle in the assembly of the elders: Prattle means to “talk nonsense,” but it can also mean to “talk on and on” or “talk too much” (Contemporary English Version), and that is almost surely the meaning here, as the next line shows. Elders refers not to old people, but to people in authority. Since the next line speaks of prayer, it is reasonable to suppose that ben Sira is thinking here of the synagogue in the phrase in the assembly of the elders. See the comments on 6.34, where the same phrase in Greek is used. Good News Translation‘s translation of this verse is more adequate than its translation of 6.34, but it could be reworded to accord with our suggestion at that place: “When you are among the community leaders, don’t talk on and on.” “Get up” is added in Good News Translation only for effect in English.

Nor repeat yourself in your prayer: See Matt 6.7. The ancient rabbis had much to say about being brief in prayer. According to Jewish tradition, God reprimanded Moses for making a long prayer while the Israelites were suffering (see Lachs, pages 116-117.)

An alternative model for this verse is:

• When you are in a town meeting, don’t talk too much. And when you pray, don’t keep repeating the same things over and over again.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Sirach. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.