The name that is transliterated as “Judah” or “Judea” in English (referring to the son of Jacob, the tribe, and the territory) is translated in Spanish Sign Language as “lion” (referring to Genesis 49:9 and Revelation 5:5). This sign for lion is reserved for regions and kingdoms. (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. and Steve Parkhurst)
Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed. The first example is from a language where God is always addressed distinctly formal whereas the second is one where the opposite choice was made.
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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.
As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.
In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.
Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”
In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.
Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking (source Philip Noss).
In Dutch and Western Frisian translations, however, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.
Taking them all, he departed to his own land: Good News Bible is good here, and so is Contemporary English Version with “Then he returned to his own country with the things he had stolen.” Another possibility is to connect this sentence closely with verses 21-23 as Revised English Bible does with “and carried them all away when he left for his own country.”
In the middle of this verse Revised Standard Version shifts to poetry, marking the beginning of one of the poems that are found in 1Maccabees. Everyone agrees that such a poem is here, but there is disagreement concerning where it begins. Revised Standard Version and the New Revised Standard Version (New Revised Standard Version) begin the poem here, within verse 24. Contemporary English Version, New English Bible, Revised English Bible, New American Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Abel, and Goldstein complete verse 24 in prose, and begin the poem with verse 25. Good News Bible and New Jerusalem Bible begin the poem with verse 26. An American Translation translates verses 24b-28 as prose, which is an option translators should consider. Our own preference is to follow Good News Bible in translating verses 24-25 as prose, and verses 26-28 as poetry, where imagery is first clearly used. Our discussion of the remainder of the subsection will follow this scheme, although translators should feel free to translate all the poems as prose, or in this case, to begin the poem earlier.
He committed deeds of murder, and spoke with great arrogance: Good News Bible interprets Antiochus’ speaking as boasting about his murderous deeds. This is valid, but as another possibility, translators may wish to consider reversing these two clauses to build up to the statement in verse 25; for example, “He spoke very arrogantly [or, boastfully], and murdered many people.”
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.
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