complete verse (2 Peter 2:9)

Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Peter 2:9:

  • Uma: “So, from those examples earlier, we clearly see God’s power to help people who worship him, in order that they come to no harm when they encounter temptation/testing. And we also see his power to confine evil people to be tortured on his Deciding Day.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “All these are examples that God knows how/can/is able to help those who trust in him and that he frees them from their troubles. We/one (dual) also understand that God really can/knows-how-to punish the ones doing bad but he waits for the judgment day.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “However, the people, by contrast, who worship the Lord, He knows how to help them so they might not sin when they are tempted. He also knows how to bind the dead wicked people to have them wait until the day when He will punish them.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “All those-things which happened long ago, they are our means-of-knowing that God knows how to save godly people who are being-hardshipped. And he also knows how to imprison bad people so that they will be punished on the day he judges them.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well from those things which happened long ago, isn’t it clear that God really knows how to save the ones who believe/obey him in/from their hardships. And he also really knows how to punish the ones doing evil, while he reserves them for that day of real judging.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “It is God who is able to save the peole who worship him from the suffering they go through. The evil people are reserved to undergo punishment when the day of judgment arrives for them.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back 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.

Japanese honorifics (2 Peter 2:9)

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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 usage of an honorific construction where the morphemes rare (られ) or are (され) are affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, kokoroeteo-rare-ru (心得ておられる) or “understanding/knowing” and s-are-ru (される) or “do/make” are used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on 2 Peter 2:9

The long sentence that began in verse 4 now reaches its conclusion in verses 9-10a. The three examples that are cited from the Old Testament are meant to lead to the conclusion that the Lord rescues the godly but punishes the ungodly. Revised Standard Version‘s pattern of dependent clauses, all prefaced by the English word “if” from verse 4 on, was noted in the introductory comments to verses 4-10a. Translators who have been following this pattern should introduce the main clause in verse 9 with a connecting word such as “therefore”; for example, “Therefore the Lord knows how….” However, it is also possible to show the connection between the dependent clauses and the main clause in verse 9 even more clearly by saying “Since the Lord has done all these things, he knows…” or “Because of these things, the Lord knows….”

The Lord here is not identified, but it seems more likely that God is meant, and not Jesus Christ as in verse 1.

The expression knows how includes the meaning of “understands how,” “can,” “is well able” (New English Bible), “does not find it difficult.”

For rescue see comments on 2 Peter 2.7, where the same word is used to describe Lot’s deliverance from the difficulties he experienced in Sodom. Trial here is taken by some to mean “temptation to sin.” But in fact it seems to be connected with the experiences of Noah and Lot, who were not primarily being tempted to commit sin but who were in fact fighting against sin. There are also some who take the trials here as eschatological, that is, referring to the final testing of Christians as the day of Judgment approaches. This is possible, considering the overall tone of the letter. However, it is more likely that trials here refer to the day-to-day experiences (sufferings, afflictions, persecutions, and so on) of the Christians in the midst of a non-Christian or even anti-Christian environment.

The word for godly is related to the word “godliness” that is used in 1.3. The godly person is the opposite of the “ungodly” in verse 6 and the unrighteous in the next part of this verse.

The clause the Lord knows how … trial may also be rendered as “the Lord understands the way to rescue good people from suffering.”

But if the Lord knows how to protect the godly, he also knows how to punish the unrighteous. There is some disagreement on the expression translated in Revised Standard Version to keep the unrighteous under punishment. The problem can be summarized as a question: “Does this mean that the unrighteous will only be judged and punished in the final day of Judgment, or that the unrighteous are now being punished and will continue to undergo punishment until the final Day of Judgment?” Some translations favor the first of these alternatives, as for example, Phillips “to reserve his punishment for the wicked until his day comes,” or Jerusalem Bible “hold the wicked for their punishment until the day of Judgment.” This is justified on the following grounds:

1. The Greek present participle for “being punished” can be interpreted as having the future sense; there are other examples of this usage in the New Testament (for example, Luke 1.35; John 17.20).

2. In verse 4 the angels are being held awaiting judgment at the last day, and this is perhaps the sense here with regard to the ungodly.

3. The words for “judge” or “punish” in this verse are used elsewhere with reference to the last judgment.

Most translations, however, take the interpretation of Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, and this is the preferred view. The grammatical form is regarded as decisive here: the expression “to keep under punishment” translates a present participle and a present infinitive, with the sense of a punishment that goes on until the day of judgment. That means that the false teachers are already suffering punishment because of their sins, although the full measure of their punishment will be inflicted later at the final day. Therefore we may translate this phrase as “punish wicked people continually until….”

The day of judgment is of course the final day, referred to in the Old Testament as the day of the Lord, during which time God will judge all nations and bring punishment on the wicked. It is likely that to the readers of 2 Peter this is equivalent to the second coming of Jesus Christ, which in Christian circles was understood to bring joy to the godly and suffering to the ungodly. See the discussion on “the judgment” in 2 Peter 2.4.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• Since the Lord has done all these things, this shows that he knows how to rescue good people from their sufferings, and to continually punish evil people until the Day of Judgment.

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Second Letter from Peter. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:9

2:9

This is what Peter used the examples in 2:4–8 to prove. The three examples show that God will punish wicked people and rescue good people.

2:9a

if all this is so: These words are not in the Greek text, but Berean Standard Bible includes them to show that Peter was now stating what all that he had said from verse 4 to 8 proved. The Display line of 2:9a shows a longer way to express this link. Here is a short way to express this link:

therefore

the Lord knows how to: The meaning here is not just that God knows how to rescue godly people, but that he will certainly do it. It could also mean “he is accustomed to do it.”

the Lord: Here the Lord refers to God, not Jesus, and it may be necessary for you to translate it as “Lord God” to make this clear.

the godly: This is the opposite of the word translated “ungodly” in 2:5, 6. Godly people are those who do fear God and, as a result, behave in the way God wants them to. See also the note on “godliness” in 1:3a.

trials: Peter was thinking here about how Christians suffer when they live in a pagan society.

2:9b

to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment: The literal meaning of this part of the verse is “to keep the wicked, being punished, for the day of judgment.” This part of the verse probably means one of two things:

(1) God is guarding wicked people carefully to prevent them from escaping so that he will be able to judge them on the Day of Judgement, when he will judge everyone. At the same time, he is already punishing them. The participle “being punished” is present tense which normally shows that the action is happening at the same time as the main verb (in this verse the main verb is “kept,” which the Berean Standard Bible translates as hold). For example:

how to keep the wicked under punishment for the Day of Judgement (Good News Translation)
-or-
and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgement (Revised Standard Version)

(New International Version (2011 Revision), Good News Translation, Revised Standard Version)

(2) God will finally condemn and punish wicked people on the Day of Judgement. Until then, he will guard them to prevent them from escaping. The present participle can have a future sense, and the words “judge” and “punish” usually refer to the final judgement, so some scholars believe that it is future punishment which Peter has referred to here.

and how to reserve his punishment for the wicked until their day comes (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
-or-
and hold the wicked for their punishment until the day of Judgement (The Jerusalem Bible)

(Berean Standard Bible, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English, The Jerusalem Bible)

It is recommended that you follow the first interpretation (1), which is in the Meaning Line of the Display.

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