And upon the elephants were wooden towers, strong and covered; they were fastened upon each beast by special harness: The technical term for one of these wooden towers is “howdah.” It is a platform large enough for several people to sit or stand, enclosed with a railing, and fastened to the back of the elephant by straps. Special harness translates a generic Greek word for gear or equipment of some kind. Presumably this involved “straps” (Goldstein) of some kind, but straps placed on a large animal to control it are called a harness. For languages that prefer to render the passive verb were fastened as an active, an alternative model for the first half of this verse is “The Syrians used a special strap [or, harness] to fasten a strong wooden platform with a top [or, covering] on the back of each elephant” or “The Syrians used a special strap [or, harness] to fasten a strong, covered wooden platform on the back of each elephant.”

And upon each were four armed men who fought from there, and also its Indian driver: As the footnotes in Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible indicate, instead of four or “Three” the Greek manuscripts read either “thirty” or “thirty-two,” which is surely and fantastically wrong. Both Rahlfs and Kappler have emended the text to read “four,” Tedesche and Goldstein suggest reading “two,” several adopt the correction “three,” and Fairweather and Black think the original was “two or three.” We believe that the argument for “two” is stronger than the others and suggest that translators read “two.” (A Hebrew word for “warrior in a chariot” could easily have been confused with the Hebrew for “thirty.”) Translators may say “three,” if they like, but “four” is getting a little crowded. Its Indian driver is literally “its Indian” or perhaps “its Hindu.” Possibly the elephant drivers (technically called mahouts in English) were actually from India, since the elephants almost surely were, but the Greek word for Indian driver really describes the man’s function, not his nationality. Consequently, “driver,” “trainer,” or “guide” alone is probably sufficient. The driver was the man who sat in the howdah and controlled, or tried to control, the elephant’s motions. Good News Bible‘s phrase “elephant driver” is actually comical; it suggests driving an elephant as someone drives an automobile, but it is hard to find a better expression, since very few native speakers of English work with elephants for a living or are around people who do. Perhaps a better choice would be “elephant trainer.” So we may translate the last clause of this verse as “Two soldiers rode on each animal, along with the elephant’s trainer [or, the man who guided it].”

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.