kiss

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The Hebrew and the Greek that is usually directly translated as “kiss” in English is translated more indirectly in other languages because kissing is deemed as inappropriate, is not a custom at all, or is not customary in the particular context (see the English translation of J.B. Phillips [publ. 1960] in Romans 16:16: “Give each other a hearty handshake”). Here are some examples:

  • Pökoot: “greet warmly” (“kissing in public, certainly between men, is absolutely unacceptable in Pökoot.”) (Source: Gerrit van Steenbergen)
  • Southern Birifor: puor or “greet” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
  • Chamula Tzotzil, Ixcatlán Mazatec, Tojolabal: “greet each other warmly” or “hug with feeling” (source: Robert Bascom)
  • Afar: gaba tittal ucuya — “give hands to each other” (Afar kiss each other’s hands in greeting) (source: Loren Bliese)
  • Roviana: “welcome one another joyfully”
  • Cheke Holo: “love each other in the way-joined-together that is holy” (esp. in Romans 16:16) or “greet with love” (esp. 1 Thessalonians 5:26 and 1 Peter 5:14)
  • Pitjantjatjara: “when you meet/join up with others of Jesus’ relatives hug and kiss them [footnote], for you are each a relative of the other through Jesus.” Footnote: “This was their custom in that place to hug and kiss one another in happiness. Maybe when we see another relative of Jesus we shake hands and rejoice.” (esp. Rom. 16:16) (source for this and two above: Carl Gross)
  • Kamba: “greet with the greeting of love” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
  • Balanta-Kentohe and Mandinka: “touch cheek” or “cheek-touching” (“sumbu” in Malinka)
  • Mende: “embrace” (“greet one another with the kiss of love”: “greet one another and embrace one another to show that you love one another”) (source for this and two above: Rob Koops)
  • Gen: “embrace affectionately” (source: John Ellington)
  • Kachin: “holy and pure customary greetings” (source: Gam Seng Shae)
  • Kahua: “smell” (source: David Clark) (also in Ekari and Kekchí, source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • San Blas Kuna: “smell the face” (source: Claudio and Marvel Iglesias in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 85ff. )
  • Chichewa: “suck” (“habit and term a novelty amongst the young and more or less westernized people, the traditional term for greeting a friend after a long absence being, ‘clap in the hands and laugh happily'”)
  • Medumba: “suck the cheek” (“a novelty, the traditional term being ‘to embrace.'”)
  • Shona (version of 1966) / Vidunda: “hug”
  • Elhomwe: “show respect by hugging” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Balinese: “caress” (source for this and three above: Reiling / Swellengrebel; Vidunda: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Tsafiki: earlier version: “greet in a friendly way,” later revision: “kiss on the face” (Bruce Moore [in: Notes on Translation 1/1992, p. 1ff.] explains: “Formerly, kissing had presented a problem. Because of the Tsáchilas’ [speakers of Tsafiki] limited exposure to Hispanic culture they understood the kiss only in the eros context. Accordingly, the original translation had rendered ‘kiss’ in a greeting sense as ‘greet in a friendly way’. The actual word ‘kiss’ was not used. Today ‘kiss’ is still an awkward term, but the team’s judgment was that it could be used as long as long as it was qualified. So ‘kiss’ (in greeting) is now ‘kiss on the face’ (that is, not on the lips).)
  • Kwere / Kutu: “show true friendship” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) it is translated as heiliger Kuss or “holy kiss” in the epistles. The translators note (p. 62): “It is possible that this is an early practice in which Christians communicate the Holy Spirit to one another or rekindle it.”

See also The kiss of Christian love (image), Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth and kissed (his feet).

father and mother (order)

“In Papiamentu the most natural order of the collocation ‘father and mother’ is mama i tata (‘mother and father’). This probably reflects the matriarchal or matrilineal nature of the Curaçaon society, and in fact, of the whole region. The mother (grandmother, aunt, great-aunt) plays a pivotal role in the web of family and social relations. Even when both parents are still alive and have a good marriage, the children will usually speak not of ‘my father’s house,’ but always of ‘my mother’s house.’

“When discussing the sensitivities surrounding the translation of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16) and the many references to them in the NT, this difference between the target language and the source language emerged. It had been taken for granted in other texts. The discussion in the Papiamentu translation team, working on the Papiamentu Common Language (PAPCL) translation, that is, the Beibel Papiamentu Koriente (1995), shows the complexity and sensitivity of the issue. Given the liturgical significance of the Ten Commandments for several churches, what seemed to be a trivial matter soon became a rather crucial decision.

“At first, following the aim of producing a natural translation, there was a general consensus to follow the natural mother-father word order. However, when reviewers from outside the translation team were told that the original order in Hebrew or Greek was often different, a heated debate developed. The underlying assumption in this discussion was that the natural order in Papiamentu reflects not only the preeminent role of women, but also — and perhaps more significantly — the lack of responsibility of the males (fathers) in the home. Thus the main question was whether the Bible translation, in following the natural language pattern, would not be endorsing the social reality of dysfunctional families, a reality caused by absentee and/or negligent fathers. In other words, the dilemma for the translation team was: Would not the translation be sanctioning this ‘deficient’ image of manhood and fatherhood by the mother-father sequence? This was accepted as being the case, and consequently the biblical pattern (father-mother) was interpreted as providing a necessary corrective to the social situation. (…)

“In practice the policy just described resulted in the following practical decisions:
“Maintain the original ‘patriarchal’ order:

  • Genesis 2:24 (NRSV): ‘Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother’ [PAPCL: su tata i mama]
  • Deuteronomy 5:16: ‘Honor your father and your mother’ [PAPCL: tata i mama]
  • [and numerous others]

“Alternatively, in some (less well-known) passages ‘father and mother’ has been translated as mayornan (‘parents’). This solution has the benefit of putting the focus on the equal function of the partners towards their offspring, not focusing on either gender.

“Unfortunately, the natural collocation (mother-father) seems to be so natural that, contrary to the established policy to follow the Hebrew father-mother order, the Papiamentu mother-father still appears in, for example, Judges 14:9; Proverbs 23:25; Luke 2:33; 14.26; Matthew 19:5; Mark 10:7, 19. And the last three cases, in the New Testament, are direct quotations from the Old Testament! This might serve as a warning for translators who are following an idiomatic approach, to be careful with constructions that are very much ingrained in the psyche of the translators.” (Source: Marlon Winedt in The Bible Translator 2007, p. 56ff. )

Note that in Deuteronomy 22:21 “father’s house” is translated as “parents’ house” in the PAPCL translation.

Lord

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The Hebrew adonai in the Old Testament typically refers to God. The shorter adon (and in two cases in the book of Daniel the Aramaic mare [מָרֵא]) is also used to refer to God but more often for concepts like “master,” “owner,” etc. In English Bible translations all of those are translated with “Lord” if they refer to God.

In English Old Testament translations, as in Old Testament translations in many other languages, the use of Lord (or an equivalent term in other languages) is not to be confused with Lord (or the equivalent term with a different typographical display for other languages). While the former translates adonai, adon and mare, the latter is a translation for the tetragrammaton (YHWH) or the Name of God. See tetragrammaton (YHWH) and the article by Andy Warren-Rothlin in Noss / Houser, p. 618ff. for more information.

In the New Testament, the Greek term kurios has at least four different kinds of use:

  • referring to “God,” especially in Old Testament quotations,
  • meaning “master” or “owner,” especially in parables, etc.,
  • as a form of address (see for instance John 4:11: “Sir, you have no bucket”),
  • or, most often, referring to Jesus

In the first and fourth case, it is also translated as “Lord” in English.

Most languages naturally don’t have one word that covers all these meanings. According to Bratcher / Nida, “the alternatives are usually (1) a term which is an honorific title of respect for a high-ranking person and (2) a word meaning ‘boss’, ‘master’, or ‘chief.’ (…) and on the whole it has generally seemed better to employ a word of the second category, in order to emphasize the immediate personal relationship, and then by context to build into the word the prestigeful character, since its very association with Jesus Christ will tend to accomplish this purpose.”

When looking at the following list of back-translations of the terms that translators in the different languages have used for both kurios and adonai to refer to God and Jesus respectively, it might be helpful for English readers to recall the etymology of the English “Lord.” While this term might have gained an exalted meaning in the understanding of many, it actually comes from hlaford or “loaf-ward,” referring to the lord of the castle who was the keeper of the bread (source: Rosin 1956, p. 121).

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Following are some of the solutions that don’t rely on a different typographical display (see above):

  • Navajo (Dinė): “the one who has charge”
  • Mossi: “the one who has the head” (the leader)
  • Uduk: “chief”
  • Guerrero Amuzgo: “the one who commands”
  • Kpelle: “person-owner” (a term which may be applied to a chief)
  • Central Pame: “the one who owns us” (or “commands us”)
  • Piro: “the big one” (used commonly of one in authority)
  • San Blas Kuna: “the great one over all” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Guhu-Samane: Soopara (“our Supervisor”) (source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.)
  • Balinese: “Venerated-one” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Yanesha’: “the one who carries us” (source: Nida 1952, p. 159)
  • Northern Emberá: Dadjirã Boro (“our Head”)
  • Rarotongan: Atu (“master or owner of a property”)
  • Gilbertese: Uea (“a person of high status invested with authority to rule the people”)
  • Rotuman: Gagaja (“village chief”)
  • Samoan: Ali’i (“an important word in the native culture, it derives from the Samoan understanding of lordship based on the local traditions”)
  • Tahitian: Fatu (“owner,” “master”)
  • Tuvalu: Te Aliki (“chief”)
  • Fijian: Liuliu (“leader”) (source for this and six above: Joseph Hong in The Bible Translator 1994, p. 329ff. )
  • Bacama: Həmə miye: “owner of people” (source: David Frank in this blog post )
  • Hopi: “Controller” (source: Walls 2000, p. 139)
  • Iyansi: Mwol. Mwol is traditionally used for the “chief of a group of communities and villages” with legal, temporal, and spiritual authority (versus the “mfum [the term used in other Bantu languages] which is used for the chief of one community of people in one village”). Mwol is also used for twins who are “treated as special children, highly honored, and taken care of like kings and queens.” (Source: Kividi Kikama in Greed / Kruger, p. 396ff.)
  • Ghomala’: Cyəpɔ (“he who is above everyone,” consisting of the verb cyə — to surpass or go beyond — and pɔ — referring to people. No human can claim this attribute, no matter what his or her social status or prestige.” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn )
  • Binumarien: Karaambaia: “fight-leader” (Source: Oates 1995, p. 255)
  • Warlpiri: Warlaljamarri (owner or possessor of something — for more information tap or click here)

    We have come to rely on another term which emphasizes God’s essential nature as YHWH, namely jukurrarnu (see tetragrammaton (YHWH)). This word is built on the same root jukurr– as is jukurrpa, ‘dreaming.’ Its basic meaning is ‘timelessness’ and it is used to describe physical features of the land which are viewed as always being there. Some speakers view jukurrarnu in terms of ‘history.’ In all Genesis references to YHWH we have used Kaatu Jukurrarnu. In all Mark passages where kurios refers to God and not specifically to Christ we have also used Kaatu Jukurrarnu.

    New Testament references to Christ as kurios are handled differently. At one stage we experimented with the term Watirirririrri which refers to a ceremonial boss of highest rank who has the authority to instigate ceremonies. While adequately conveying the sense of Christ’s authority, there remained potential negative connotations relating to Warlpiri ceremonial life of which we might be unaware.

    Here it is that the Holy Spirit led us to make a chance discovery. Transcribing the personal testimony of the local Warlpiri pastor, I noticed that he described how ‘my Warlaljamarri called and embraced me (to the faith)’. Warlaljamarri is based on the root warlalja which means variously ‘family, possessions, belongingness’. A warlaljamarri is the ‘owner’ or ‘possessor’ of something. While previously being aware of the ‘ownership’ aspect of warlaljamarri, this was the first time I had heard it applied spontaneously and naturally in a fashion which did justice to the entire concept of ‘Lordship’. Thus references to Christ as kurios are now being handled by Warlaljamarri.” (Source: Stephen Swartz, The Bible Translator 1985, p. 415ff. )

  • Mairasi: Onggoao Nem (“Throated One” — “Leader,” “Elder”) or Enggavot Nan (“Above-One”) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Obolo: Okaan̄-ene (“Owner of person(s)”) (source: Enene Enene)
  • Angami Naga: Niepu (“master,” “owner”)
  • Lotha Naga: Opvui (“owner of house / field / cattle”) — since both “Lord” and YHWH are translated as Opvui there is an understanding that “Opvui Jesus is the same as the Opvui of the Old Testament”
  • Ao Naga: Kibuba (“human master,” “teacher,” “owner of property,” etc.) (source for this and two above: Nitoy Achumi in The Bible Translator 1992 p. 438ff. )
  • Seediq: Tholang, loan word from Min Nan Chinese (the majority language in Taiwan) thâu-lâng (頭儂): “Master” (source: Covell 1998, p. 248)
  • Thai: phra’ phu pen cao (พระผู้เป็นเจ้า) (divine person who is lord) or ong(kh) cao nay (องค์เจ้านาย) (<divine classifier>-lord-boss) (source: Stephen Pattemore)
  • Arabic often uses different terms for adonai or kurios referring to God (al-rabb الرب) and kurios referring to Jesus (al-sayyid الـسـيـد). Al-rabb is also the term traditionally used in Arabic Christian-idiom translations for YHWH, and al-sayyid is an honorary term, similar to English “lord” or “sir” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin).
  • Tamil also uses different terms for adonai/kurios when referring to God and kurios when referring to Jesus. The former is Karttar கர்த்தர், a Sanskrit-derived term with the original meaning of “creator,” and the latter in Āṇṭavar ஆண்டவர், a Tamil term originally meaning “govern” or “reign” (source: Natarajan Subramani).
  • Burunge: Looimoo: “owner who owns everything” (in the Burunge Bible translation, this term is only used as a reference to Jesus and was originally used to refer to the traditional highest deity — source: Michael Endl in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 48)
  • Yagaria: Souve, originally “war lord” (source: Renck, p. 94)
  • Aguacateco: Ajcaw ske’j: “the one to whom we belong and who is above us” (source: Rita Peterson in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 49)
  • Konkomba: Tidindaan: “He who is the owner of the land and reigns over the people” (source: Lidorio 2007, p. 66)
  • Chichewa: Ambuye Ambuye comes from the singular form Mbuye which is used to refer to: (1) someone who is a guardian or protector of someone or group of people — a grandparent who has founded a community or village; (2) someone who is a boss or master over a group of people or servants and has absolute control over them; (3) owner of something, be it a property, animals and people who are bound under his/her rule — for people this was mostly commonly used in the context of slaves and their owner. In short, Mbuye is someone who has some authorities over those who call him/her their “Mbuye.” Now, when the form Ambuye is used it will either be for honorific when used for singular or plural when referring to more than one person. When this term is used in reference to God, it is for respect to God as he is acknowledged as a guardian, protector, and ruler of everything. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation).
  • Hdi uses rveri (“lion”) as a title of respect and as such it regularly translates adon in the Old Testament. As an address, it’s most often with a possessive pronoun as in rvera ɗa (“my lion” = “my lord” or “sir”). So, for example, Genesis 15:2 (“O Lord God”) is Rvera ɗa Yawe (“My lion Yahweh”) or Ruth to Boaz in Ruth 2:13: “May I find your grace [lit. good-stomach] my lion.” This ties in nicely with the imagery of the Lord roaring like a lion (Hosea 11:10; Amos 3:8; Joel 3:16). Better still, this makes passages like Revelation 5:5 even richer when we read about rveri ma taba məndəra la Yuda, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah”. In Revelation 19:16, Jesus is rveri ta ghəŋa rveriha “the lion above lions” (“lord of lords”). (Source: Drew Maust)

Law (2013, p. 97) writes about how the Ancient Greek Septuagint‘s translation of the Hebrew adonai was used by the New Testament writers as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments: “Another case is the use of kurios referring to Jesus. For Yahweh (in English Bibles: ‘the Lord‘), the Septuagint uses kurios. Although the term kurios usually has to do with one’s authority over others, when the New Testament authors use this word from the Septuagint to refer to Jesus, they are making an extraordinary claim: Jesus of Nazareth is to be identified with Yahweh.”

See also Father / Lord.

Translation commentary on Tobit 10:12

The translator should probably not attempt the rest of this chapter without a good night’s sleep!

A massive textual problem accounts for the large differences between New Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation in the first part of this verse. The Greek text we follow is translated by Good News Translation, Jerusalem Bible, and others. New Revised Standard Version, Contemporary English Version, and New American Bible follow another form of the text, one which is supported by the Old Latin and by some Greek manuscripts. The text behind Good News Translation is literally “And he said to his daughter Sarah, ‘Go to your father-in-law, since from now on they….’ ” Note that Good News Translation “with your husband” is not in the Greek. Also, “his parents’ [plural] house” takes a modest liberty; the text speaks only of the father-in-law. Mentioning the house is only an acceptable shift of focus. Good News Translation omits Go in peace, which should be kept. Another way to express this is “Have a safe journey.”

The alternate form of the text speaks of Raguel kissing Sarah before he speaks, and has a longer clause in place of “Go to your father-in-law.” This longer clause says nothing about “going”; it speaks of both the father-in-law and mother-in-law separately, and Sarah is told to honor them.

The kiss is a nice touch, and we might wish to keep it; but the simplest solution, solving more problems while raising fewer, is for translators to follow Good News Translation in rendering the text as it stands. Even Good News Translation‘s change from “father-in-law” to “parents-in-law” should be adopted. There are two reasons to support this. First, the expression that follows, they are as much your parents, clearly shows that the author intended to refer to both. The author’s use of “father-in-law” followed by the plural is not really a conflict; the household would have been identified as his. A second reason for accepting “parents-in-law” is that this word appears in the alternate, shorter Greek text. So Good News Translation provides a reliable model for the first part of this verse.

There is a further textual complication involving this part of the verse, which we will discuss below at verse 13.

Then Edna said to Tobias: A sharp problem in narrative writing shows up here, when Edna speaks to Tobias after Raguel appears to have already sent Tobias and Sarah on their way (verses 11-12a). Here is the sequence the author gives us:

Raguel sends the couple off (verse 11).
Raguel speaks to Tobias.
Raguel speaks to Sarah (verse 12).
Raguel sends the couple off.
Edna speaks to Tobias.
Edna kisses Tobias and Sarah and sends them off.
Tobias blesses Raguel and Edna (but see below on verse 13).

It is well to think of the author painting two panels here—three if you count Tobias’s farewell words. A lot of action is going on at the same time. The author, by having the couple sent off three times, has not solved the narrative challenge well, and there is only so much the translator can do to the text without rewriting the story. The word Then used by New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and New American Bible to introduce Edna’s words only makes the problem worse. In verse 13, “Finally…” (New Revised Standard Version) makes it even worse again. New Jerusalem Bible has a clever and helpful approach: “Edna in her turn said to Tobias….” It is the smallest of liberties, but is helpful indeed in making a potentially confusing situation clearer. Perhaps the confusion itself is intended to express Raguel and Edna’s loving hesitance to let the young couple go.

Dear brother means “kinsman” of course. Good News Translation omits this touch and links the word “dear” to “child.” See 5.10 for a comment on brother.

The Lord of heaven: The words of heaven do not appear in our Greek text, and do not belong here. They are in the other Greek text, translated by Revised Standard Version. The revisers appear to have left the phrase here inadvertently.

Bring you back: You is singular, referring to Tobias. It is not clear whether Edna means “bring you safely home” (Good News Translation), referring to Nineveh, or “bring you safely back here” (that is, to Ecbatana, so Contemporary English Version). If Ecbatana is intended, the Contemporary English Version rendering making may I live long enough to see children a logical result of the first clause, seems a reasonable translation: “Tobias, my son, I pray that the Lord will let you and Sarah return here before I die, so that I may see my grandchildren.” In the context it seems that the Contemporary English Version interpretation is the more likely one, and translators are urged to follow it.

In the sight of the Lord: This is expressed by Good News Translation as “The Lord is my witness,” and by Contemporary English Version as “with God as my witness”; or we may say, “I ask the Lord to witness that I am placing….”

Do nothing to grieve her all the days of your life: The phrase all the days of your life is poorly placed in New Revised Standard Version; it belongs after do nothing. Good News Translation expresses it better with “Never, at any time in your life, do anything that would break her heart.” Contemporary English Version is shorter with “Please don’t ever cause her any sorrow.”

Go in peace, my child: Go in peace becomes in Good News Translation “Have a safe journey.” In Greek it is simply “in peace.” It seems to convey, in its shortened form, a sense of choking back emotion. In Good News Translation the use of Tobias’s name rather than the word child lends an appropriate warmth to the scene; but translators should again use a form that is the most natural in this social context.

For the New Revised Standard Version footnote on wife, see the note at 8.21.

May we all prosper together all the days of our lives: Contemporary English Version has a helpful model, “I pray that God will always bless our family.” We may also translate “I pray that God will always cause all of us to prosper.” For prosper, see the notes on verse 11 and 7.12.

Saw them safely off: See the note on verse 11.

A model for the last part of this long verse could be:

• Edna in her turn said, “Tobias, my dear child, may the Lord take you safely home, and may you and Sarah come back some day with your children, while I am alive to see them. The Lord is my witness; I am placing my daughter in your care. Never, at any time in your life, do anything to cause her sorrow. Goodbye, son. I am your mother from now on, just as Sarah is your wife. I pray that we may all live happily as long as we live.” Edna then kissed them both, and saw them safely off on their way.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Tobit. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.