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).

See also elders of Israel (Judah).

Translation commentary on Wisdom 8:10

Verses 10-16 present a problem. The narrator of the book is the mature Solomon, yet he speaks here of past events and present conditions as still future. He is taking us back to his youth, when these things were still ahead of him. He is telling us what he, as a young man, thought the rewards of wisdom would be. Good News Translation does well to introduce these verses with a helpful “I thought to myself” and then to place the rest of the material through verse 16 in quotation marks. New English Bible and Revised English Bible use no quotation marks, but do insert “I thought.” The Handbook urges translators to mark this material in a similar way. Otherwise the future tense will confuse many readers.

Because of her I shall have glory among the multitudes may be rendered “If I have Wisdom, I will be admired by all the people” or “… all the people [or, everyone] will honor [or, respect] me.” Multitudes refers to the people governed by King Solomon.

And honor in the presence of the elders, though I am young: Elders can often mean “leaders,” but here the contrast with young makes it advisable to use the literal meaning, “old people.” Good News Translation is a good model for translators: “The old men will respect me, even though I am young.”

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Wisdom of Solomon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2004. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.