The Greek and Hebrew that is translated in English as “encourage” or “comfort” is translated in Enlhet as “become calm of the innermost.” “Innermost” or valhoc is a term that is frequently used in Enlhet to describe a large variety of emotions or states of mind (for other examples see here). (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )
In Bacama it is translated as “(to) cool stomach” (source: David Frank in this blog post ), in Yatzachi Zapotec as “cause hearts to mature,” in Isthmus Zapotec “hearts may lie quiet” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.) and in Thai “give heart power to” (source: Bratcher / Hatton 2000).
Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Thessalonians 5:11:
Uma: “So, relatives, fire-up one another and strengthen each other’s hearts, like you are doing now.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Therefore encourage each other and help each other as you already do.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And since you know this, encourage each other and strengthen the faith of each one of you just like you are now doing.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Therefore continue the way you’ve been comforting-each-other and helping-each-other which continually-strengthens your faith.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Therefore continue that which you are doing now, which is making happy the mind/inner-being of one another and mutually-helping by strengthening the believing/obeying of one another also.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Let your hearts be encouraged, and strengthen one another, just like you do now.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
So refers back directly to verses 9-10, but also more generally to all the encouragement Paul has been giving his readers throughout the chapter, just as so then in 4.18 refers back to the entire section 4.13-17.
One another … one another. No doubt for stylistic reasons, Paul uses two different expressions in Greek, but they have the same meaning, and therefore need not be distinguished in translation. Help is a literal equivalent for Paul’s metaphorical “build one another up” (cf. Jerusalem Bible “keep on strengthening one another”). Both verbs, encourage and help, suggest continued action over a period of time, and this is made explicit by the following words, just as you are now doing (cf. 4.10). This clause may be rendered as “that is, of course, just what you are now doing,” or “you are, of course, doing just that.”
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Therefore: This word introduces the conclusion of Paul’s words in 5:1–10.
encourage…one another: This is identical to the phrase in 4:18, which was the concluding sentence of 4:13–18. See the note on 4:18. You should translate it in the same way here.
build one another up: The Greek word oikodomeō means “to build a house.” However, here it is used as a metaphor and it means “strengthen one another,” that is, “help one another to believe more strongly in God.”
5:11b
just as you are already doing: Paul recognized that the Thessalonians were already encouraging one another and building each other up, but he wanted to encourage then to continue doing so.
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
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