addressing God

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 Translator 2002, 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.

See also female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

Translation commentary on 3 Maccabees 6:3

Look upon the descendants of Abraham, O Father, upon the children of the sainted Jacob, a people of your consecrated portion: Look upon may be rendered “Look at us [or, our situation],” and may be placed near the end of the verse (see our model below). The phrases the descendants of Abraham and the children of the sainted Jacob both refer to the Jews. The sainted Jacob is literally “[the] sanctified Jacob,” that is, “Jacob who was made holy.” The question here is who sanctified Jacob? Did God make Jacob holy, or is Eleazar simply saying that the Jews regard him as holy? Anderson follows the first sense by translating “Jacob, whom you sanctified.” We regard this sense as more likely. It comes close to meaning “Jacob, whom you chose.” We need not ask why the writer speaks of Jacob as sainted or “chosen” rather than Abraham. The same could have been said of Abraham, but the writer has Eleazar say it of Jacob. The address O Father may be translated literally, or reference may be made to the Jews as God’s children, as in Contemporary English Version with “We are your children” (see also our model below). A people of your consecrated portion refers to the election of Israel by God as his chosen people. Contemporary English Version says “you chose us to be your own people.”

Who are perishing as foreigners in a foreign land: Who are perishing may be rendered “who are about to die.” Foreigners in a foreign land refers to these Jews being in a country other than Israel, the land God had promised to their ancestors. These Jews may well have spent all their lives in Egypt, but for them they were still foreigners there.

Here is an alternative model for this verse:

• We are your children, descendants of Abraham, descendants of Jacob, a man whom you chose. Look at our situation [or, at us]. We are about to die here in a foreign land.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 3-4 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2018. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.