complete verse (Hebrews 12:18)

Following are a number of back-translations of Hebrews 12:18:

  • Uma: “Long ago God spoke to the Yahudi people from Sinai Mountain. That mountain was an ordinary mountain that we can touch. When they faced it, they saw flaming fire, smoke, dark clouds and a big wind.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “You now when you come-close-to/approach God, you are not like the ancestors of the tribe of Isra’il of old. For they saw what they came-close-to/approached. When they came to the edge of the mountain Turusina in old times they saw the mountain flaming with fire and it was dark in the country/place and the wind was strong.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The way to come near to God, which was taught to us (incl.) is not like the way of the ancestors long ago of Israel. Because the thing they got near to was that which they could see, because it was there to the mountains of Sinai which was burning with flame. It was dark there because of the dark cloud and the wind was blowing very strongly.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Therefore my brothers, let us persevere in believing, because God’s new agreement-that-he -presented to us is far better than the first agreement-that-he -presented our ancestors back then. Because our approaching God, it was not like our ancestors. Because as for them, they approached what they could-see which was the mountain Sinai which was flaming. They experienced the extreme darkness and the swift wind.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Just like I said, put all sin far away from you now because, this way/trail of ours by which we can come into God’s presence, it’s not like the way/trail of the Israelita in the past, in which there was something their eyes could see and their ears could hear. For when they were at the Mountain of Sinai there was a very-fiercely burning fire, extreme darkness, and force of wind which was like a typhoon.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Listen, my brothers, this agreement which God made with us to walk by is new, it isn’t like the old agreement the Jews were given to walk by. These Jews, when they were given the old agreement, went to that mountain here on earth where God spoke from. And there they saw fire flashing. And they saw the deep darkness. And they saw the terrible storm.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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).

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

Translation commentary on Hebrews 12:18

The translator must first decide how to translate the verb rendered come to in verses 18 and 22. The verb consists of the common verb for come and a prefix meaning “toward.” In some contexts, for example, Matthew 5.1, it means “come to,” not merely “come near to” or “approach.” The question here is whether Christians are thought of as already fully part of the city of the living God (verse 22), with its joyful gathering of God’s first-born sons (verse 23), or whether they have only “approached” it. King James Version and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch agree with Good News Translation‘s you have come to; Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente and some other common language translations have “you have approached”; New English Bible “you stand before.” The meaning of such picture language is difficult to define precisely, but the wider context, especially verse 25, suggests that the readers are not yet completely part of the heavenly city and can still turn away. Indeed, turn away from is a natural opposite to “draw near to” or “approach.” The Greek verb is commonly used of approaching God in “worship” (Heb 4.16; 7.25; 10.1, 22; 11.6). In verses 18-21 the Israelites come near to Mount Sinai but are forbidden to set foot on it.

As the people of Israel came is added, as in other common language translations and Translator’s New Testament, because the modern non-Jewish reader might not realize that the writer is referring to such passages as Exodus 10.21-22; 19.12-22; 20.18-21; Deuteronomy 4.11-12; 5.22-27.

The name Sinai is certainly not part of the Greek text; the word translated Mount is not found in some manuscripts either, nor is it in the UBS Greek text. However, it correctly represents the meaning, and it should be made explicit in translation, to make clearer the contrast with Mount Zion in verse 22, where both words are expressed in the Greek. Other possibilities are (a) something other than only the mountain which can be “sensed,” “touched,” or “felt”; not Revised Standard Version‘s “may be touched,” since “may” appears to contradict verse 20, which recalls the command not to approach; or (b) with New English Bible to take “palpable,” that is, “which can be touched,” with “fire.” Choice (a) is attractive; it involves taking “which can be touched” as a general term, “which can be sensed,” referring to all the details mentioned in verses 18-19, details which could be perceived by various senses. In any case, Good News Translation‘s you before can feel has the more general meaning “one can feel”; it does not refer only to the readers, like the You with which the sentence begins. A translation taking these points into account would be “You have not come, as the people of Israel came, to things that can be perceived with the senses: to a blazing fire….”

Verse 18 and what follows through verse 21 pose serious problems for the translator in contrasting the experience of the Christian believers with the experience which the people of Israel had at Mount Sinai. The problem is particularly acute with the first part of verse 18, which combines a negative You have not come with a positive to what you can feel. A more satisfactory way of showing the contrast may be to begin verse 18 as “You are not like the people of Israel who came to what they could feel—to Mount Sinai with its blazing fire….” The contrast may then be introduced at verse 22 by translating “You are not like those people of Israel, for you have come to Mount Zion….”

It may be better to translate to Mount Sinai with its blazing fire … as “to Mount Sinai, where there was the blazing fire, the darkness, and the gloom….”

Deuteronomy 4.11 refers to “darkness and cloud,” and Exodus 19.16 to “thunder and lightning.” The Greek word for storm usually means an intense windstorm. It may be difficult to distinguish between the darkness and the gloom. The two terms in Greek may, in fact, be designed to reinforce the intensity of the darkness, and so one may be able to employ “the intense darkness.” For storm, one may use “windstorm.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .