The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as a form of “save” in English is translated in Shipibo-Conibo with a phrase that means literally “make to live,” which combines the meaning of “to rescue” and “to deliver from danger,” but also the concept of “to heal” or “restore to health.”
“Hope is sometimes one of the most difficult terms to translate in the entire Bible. It is not because people do not hope for things, but so often they speak of hoping as simply ‘waiting.’ In fact, even in Spanish, the word esperar means both ‘to wait’ and ‘to hope.’ However, in many instances the purely neutral term meaning ‘to wait’ may be modified in such a way that people will understand something more of its significance. For example, in Tepeuxila Cuicatec hope is called ‘wait-desire.’ Hope is thus a blend of two activities: waiting and desiring. This is substantially the type of expectancy of which hope consists.
In Yucateco the dependence of hope is described by the phrase ‘on what it hangs.’ ‘Our hope in God’ means that ‘we hang onto God.’ The object of hope is the support of one’s expectant waiting. In Ngäbere the phrase “resting the mind” is used. This “implies waiting and confidence, and what is a better definition of hope than ‘confident waiting’.” (Source for this and above: Nida 1952, p. 20, 133)
Enlhet: “waitings of (our) 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. )
Kwang: “one’s future is restored to one’s soul like a fresh, cool breeze on a hot day.” (Source: Mark Vanderkooi right here )
Noongar: koort-kwidiny or “heart waiting” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Anjam: “looking through the horizon” (source: Albert Hoffmann in his memoirs from 1948, quoted in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 7)
Ron: kintiɓwi or “put lip” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
Alekano: “wait not hearing two ears” (meaning to “wait without being double-minded” — source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation June 1986, p. 36ff.)
Marathiaasha (आशा) with a stronger emphasis on desire
In Mwera “hope” and “faith” are translated with the same word: ngulupai. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
C.M. Doke looks at a number of Bantu languages and their respective translations of “hope” with slightly varying connotations (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 9ff. ):
Xhosa and Zulu: themba “hope, expect,” also “have faith in, rely upon”
Tswana: tsholofelo “hope, expect, look for confidently”
Southern Sotho: tshepo “trust, rely on, believe in, have confidence in”
“Unlike English, which uses the word hope broadly, the French language uses two words that derive from the word espérer (to hope): espoir and espérance. Both can first refer to something hoped for. In this sense, the word espoir usually refers to an uncertain object; that is, someone who hopes for something in this way does not have the certainty that it will happen (“I hope the weather will be nice tomorrow”). On the other hand, espérance describes what, rightly or wrongly, is hoped for or expected with certainty. It often refers to a philosophical or eschatological object (‘I hope in the goodness of human beings’; ‘I hope for the return of Jesus Christ’).
“When we speak of espoir or espérance, we then have in mind different types of objects hoped for. This difference matters, because both terms also commonly refer to the state of mind that characterizes the hopeful. And this state of mind will be different precisely according to the object hoped for.
“Having espoir for an uncertain yet better future in these difficult times may be a good thing, but it is not enough. Such hope can be disappointed and easily fade away when our wishes and expectations (our hopes) do not materialize.
“The opposite is true with espérance, which is deeper than our desire and wish for an end to a crisis or a future without pain and suffering. To face the trials of life, we need peace and joy in our hearts that come from expecting certain happiness. This is what espérance is: a profound and stable disposition resulting from faith in the coming of what we expect. In this sense, it is similar in meaning to the English word hopefulness.
“If we have believed in the Son of the living God, we have such a hope. It rests on the infallible promises of our God, who knows the plans he has for us, his children — plans of peace and not misfortune, to give us a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). By using the two meanings of the word, we can say that the espérance that the fulfillment of his promises represents (the object hoped for) fills us with espérance (the state of mind).”
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, translators typically select the exclusive form (only including the ship).
Source: SIL International Translation Department (1999).
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 27:20:
Uma: “For several days we did not see the appearance of the sun or stars, and there was just cessation of the storm striking us, with the result that our hearts sank, we said there was not much chance of us living [an Uma idiom].” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “And for several days we (excl.) did not see the sun nor star. And the strong wind did not decrease/let up. We (excl.) no longer hoped that we (excl.) would yet be saved.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And for many days the sun or stars did not appear to us and the very strong typhoon did not stop blowing. And then we no longer supposed that we could be saved.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “When how-many days had gone-by during which we (excl.) had not seen the sun and stars while at-the-same-time the wind-had persisted-without-let-up -to-blow swiftly, our (excl.) hope that we (excl.) would escape ceased-to-exist.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “And then when a few more days had passed during which we saw neither sun nor stars for the storm kept on going, we were sure that we really would be permanently-lost/killed now.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “survive,” “escape,” “save,” or similar in English is translated in the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) in these verses with pulumuka, describing someone whose life was in danger but who has freed himself or herself. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
For sailors of ancient times. the fact that they could not see the sun or the stars was perhaps of more importance than a storm itself, because the sun and the stars were the points by which they navigated.
The wind kept on blowing very hard (see New English Bible “a great storm was raging”) is literally “no little storm was upon us.”
We finally gave up all hope of being saved (Jerusalem Bible “at last we gave up all hope of surviving”) appears in the New English Bible as “our last hopes of coming through alive began to fade,” of which “began to fade” is an attempt on the part of the New English Bible to bring out the force of the Greek imperfect tense. This final clause may be rendered in some languages as “at last we thought we would not possibly be saved,” “finally we thought, We cannot possibly remain alive,” or even “at last we said to ourselves, We will certainly drown.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
neither sun nor stars appeared: The thick clouds from the storm prevented the people on the ship from seeing the sun or stars. In some languages the correct meaning is better understood by referring to the clouds or the storm. For example:
⌊The storm clouds⌋ hid both sun and stars
27:20b
the great storm continued to batter us: This clause in Greek is literally “the stormy weather was pressing against (us) not a little.” Here “not a little” means “very much.” The full strength of the storm continued to affect the people on the ship very much. Other ways to translate this clause are:
no small tempest lay on us (Revised Standard Version) -or-
no small storm was assailing us (New American Standard Bible) -or-
the storm continued to beat ⌊against our ship⌋ very much
27:20c
abandoned all hope of being saved: The Greek tense probably indicates that their hope began to decrease at this time and continued decreasing as time went on. Other ways to translate this phrase are:
all hope of our being saved was gradually abandoned (New American Standard Bible) -or-
began to lose any hope of coming out of it alive (God’s Word) -or-
our last hopes of coming through alive began to fade (Revised English Bible)
being saved: Here the word saved refers to rescue or reaching a safe place. Other ways to translate this phrase are:
surviving (New Jerusalem Bible) -or-
being rescued ⌊from drowning⌋ -or-
reach a harbor
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®).
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.