priest

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that are typically translated as “priest” in English (itself deriving from Latin “presbyter” — “elder”) is often translated with a consideration of existing religious traditions. (Click or tap for details)

Bratcher / Nida (1961) say this:

“However, rather than borrow local names for priests, some of which have unwanted connotations, a number of translations have employed descriptive phrases based on certain functions: (1) those describing a ceremonial activity: Pamona uses tadu, the priestess who recites the litanies in which she describes her journey to the upper or under-world to fetch life-spirit for sick people, animals or plants; Batak Toba uses the Arabic malim, ‘Muslim religious teacher;’ ‘one who presents man’s sacrifice to God’ (Bambara, Eastern Maninkakan), ‘one who presents sacrifices’ (Baoulé, Navajo (Dinė)), ‘one who takes the name of the sacrifice’ (Kpelle, and ‘to make a sacrifice go out’ (Hausa); (2) those describing an intermediary function: ‘one who speaks to God’ (Shipibo-Conibo) and ‘spokesman of the people before God’ (Tabasco Chontal).”

In Obolo it is translated as ogwu ngwugwa or “the one who offers sacrifice” (source: Enene Enene), in Mairasi as agam aevar nevwerai: “religious leader” (source: Enggavoter 2004), in Ignaciano as “blesser, one who does ritual as a practice” (using a generic term rather than the otherwise common Spanish loan word sacerdote) (source: Willis Ott in Notes on Translation 88/1982, p. 18ff.), and in Noongar as yakin-kooranyi or “holy worker” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

For Guhu-Samane, Ernest Richert (in The Bible Translator, 1965, p. 81ff. ) reports this: “The [local] cult of Poro used to be an all-encompassing religious system that essentially governed all areas of life. (…) For ‘priest’ the term ‘poro father’ would at first seem to be a natural choice. However, several priests of the old cult are still living. Although they no longer function primarily as priests of the old system they still have a substantial influence on the community, and there would be more than a chance that the unqualified term would (in some contexts particularly) be equated with the priest of the poro cult. We learned, then, that the poro fathers would sometimes be called ‘knife men’ in relation to their sacrificial work. The panel was pleased to apply this term to the Jewish priest, and the Christian community has adopted it fully. [Mark 1:44, for instance, now] reads: ‘You must definitely not tell any man of this. But you go show your body to the knife man and do what Moses said about a sacrifice concerning your being healed, and the cause (base of this) will be apparent.'”

For a revision of the 1968 version of the Bible in Khmer Joseph Hong (in: The Bible Translator 1996, 233ff. ) talks about a change in wording for this term:

​​Bau cha r (បូជា‌ចារ្យ) — The use of this new construction meaning “priest” is maintained to translate the Greek word hiereus. The term “mean sang (មាន សង្ឃ)” used in the old version actually means a “Buddhist monk,” and is felt to be theologically misleading. The Khmer considers the Buddhist monk as a “paddy field of merits,” a reserve of merits to be shared with other people. So a Khmer reader would find unthinkable that the mean sang in the Bible killed animals, the gravest sin for a Buddhist; and what a scandal it would be to say that a mean sang was married, had children, and drank wine.

See also idolatrous priests.

Ezra

The Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that is transliterated as “Ezra” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the sign for “scribe” referring to Ezra’s profession. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)


“Ezra” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

In Swiss-German Sign Language it is translated with a sign that depicts the return from Babylon to Jerusalem and toward God.


“Ezra” in Swiss-German Sign Language, source: DSGS-Lexikon biblischer Begriffe , © CGG Schweiz

For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .

More information on Ezra .

complete verse (Ezra 10:16)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezra 10:16:

  • Kupsabiny: “All the people who returned from the slavery did like that as they were told. Ezra chose/selected leaders from the families and wrote down the names of all those people. Those people sat down on the first day in the tenth month to investigate those things.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Nevertheless the captives who had been sent back did like this — Ezra the priest selected the chief people of the various families. He selected one person from each family group. Each person was designated by name. Then from the first day of the 10th month they began the work of trying to care for this matter.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The ones-who-returned from captivity followed that plan. Therefore Ezra the priest chose men who were leaders/[lit. heads] of the families, and listed-down their name. And on the first day of the tenth month, they sat-down and they started the investigation about the marrying of the Israelinhon with the not Israelinhon women. They had-finished the investigating of all the cases on the first day of the first month, of the following year.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “All the others who had returned from Babylonia said that they would do it. So I chose leaders of each of the clans, and I wrote down their names. On December 29, these men came and sat down to investigate the matter.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezra 10:16

Then the returned exiles did so: For the returned exiles, see the comments on Ezra 4.1. In spite of the opposition to the plan, those who had returned from exile did so, that is, they acted on the proposal. “The returned exiles duly put this into effect,” as Revised English Bible renders it. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible says they “did as had been said.”

Ezra the priest selected men, heads of fathers’ houses, according to their fathers’ houses: The Hebrew text is literally “there were selected Ezra the priest, men, heads of the fathers, according to the house of their fathers.” But the lack of a conjunction “and” after “men,” together with the witness of 1 Esdras 9.16, one Septuagint manuscript and the Syriac version, shows that Ezra the priest selected men. This is supported by Hebrew Old Testament Text Project with a C rating and should be followed by translators. Ezra as priest (see verse 10 above) chose lay people to carry out their own decision. These were heads of fathers’ houses, according to their fathers’ houses (see Ezra 1.5). New Revised Standard Version says “heads of families, according to their families”; that is, the men who were selected were leaders among the people and they were chosen according to family or clan (see Revised English Bible). Good News Translation translates that they were chosen “from among the heads of the clans.” In the New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh rendering, they were “chiefs of the ancestral clans.”

Each of them designated by name: Those chosen were designated by name, but their names are not listed here. This may be restated in the active form: “Ezra designated each one by name.”

The work began On the first day of the tenth month, ten days after the assembly. This was the month of Tebeth. Blenkinsopp (1988) identifies this as 29 December 458 B.C.

They sat down to examine the matter: The meaning is not literally that they were seated, but that “they began to hold their deliberations” (compare Good News Translation, New English Bible) or they “began their sittings … to look into the matter” (New Jerusalem Bible).

Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Ezra. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .