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).

Translation commentary on Susanna 1:15 – 1:17

If integrated into the book of Daniel: 13.15-17.

Good News Translation numbers verses 15-17 together, but in fact only verses 15 and 16 have been restructured in such a way as to call for combined verse numbers. Verse 17 begins with “So she said….”

Once, while they were watching for an opportune day: Good News Translation has placed a section break after this clause. This explains why Good News Translation moves “One day” (once) to the beginning of the next clause. This Handbook suggests the section break be earlier at verse 13. Therefore, the introductory “One day” is more appropriate at the beginning of verse 15; for example, “One day, as they were waiting for a good opportunity, Susanna….”

She went in as before: The phrase she went in means that “she went into the garden.” For as before, Good News Translation has “as usual.” Literally this is “just as yesterday and the third day.” This is an unmistakable Hebrew idiom (for example, in Gen 31.2, 5). This is one of the principal reasons scholars tend to think of the Greek Susanna as a translation rather than the original text.

With only two maids: These were young female attendants, servant girls. Contemporary English Version has “Two of her servant girls were there with her.”

Wished to bathe in the garden: As noted above, it will be best to place the phrase in the garden near the beginning of verse 15, and the first part of the verse may then be expressed as:

• One day, as the two men were waiting for a good chance to seduce Susanna, she went into the garden to take a bath.

It was very hot: This remark establishes an important point for the story. Bathing in the garden was not Susanna’s everyday habit. She does it this time only because of the heat. This means the servants have to leave the scene to get what she needs. This leaves Susanna alone, gives the men the chance to approach her, and also allows them the threat, if she does not yield, of telling the servants they had caught her having sex with a young man. It is possible to place this clause earlier in verse 15 and say “… and one hot day, Susanna went into the garden with two of her servant girls….”

No one was there except the two elders: Good News Translation calls the two men “judges” here and later, but the Greek says elders. However, since the reader already knows whom the writer is talking about, we may simply say “No one else was there in the garden, except the two men.”

Who had hid themselves and were watching her may be expressed as “who were watching her from where they were hiding.”

An alternative translation model for verses 15-16 with some restructuring is:

• The two men waited for a good chance to seduce Susanna, and one hot day, Susanna went into the garden with two of her servant girls to take a bath. No one else was there in the garden, except the two men, who were watching her from where they were hiding.

Oil and ointments: Oil was olive oil. It was not used as “bath oil” (Good News Translation), something placed in the bath water, but used on the body after the bath to moisten and protect the skin. It was used by men and women (see Ruth 3.3; 2 Sam 12.20). What is meant by the Greek word translated ointments is uncertain. Good News Translation says “perfume” while New English Bible, New American Bible, and Contemporary English Version have “soap.” Although there is a Hebrew word twice translated “soap” in Revised Standard Version (Jer 2.22; Mal 3.2), it seems not to have been common—at least not in Palestine. In a wealthy household in Babylon, things may have been different. New Jerusalem Bible “balsam” is too specific. For the two terms here, Moore has “oil and cosmetics,” which is satisfactory, although in English a woman would probably be more apt to say “my cosmetics and some oil.”

Shut the garden doors so that I may bathe; that is, in privacy, which Good News Translation brings out with “so that I won’t be disturbed.” Good News Translation does not have Susanna specifically tell the girls that she wants to take a bath, but in some languages, though, it will not hurt to include that I may bathe. The doors to be closed separate the garden from some public area, probably a street. English would call such an outdoor object a “gate” rather than a “door,” a word normally reserved for things separating rooms indoors. The Greek does not say that the gates should actually be locked, as in Good News Translation, but only shut fast. Locks and keys were known in the ancient world, but it is much more likely that the gates would be barred shut from the inside. In verse 25 one of the elders will open the gates, and he presumably has no key. The point, obviously, is that the gates be fixed shut in such a way as to give privacy.

An alternative translation model for verse 17 is:

• Susanna said to her servant girls, “Bring my oil and cosmetics, then close the gates to the garden so that I can bathe.”

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.