In Bauzi “swear” can be translated in various ways. In Hebrews 6:13, for instance, it is translated with “bones break apart and decisively speak.” (“No bones are literally broken but by saying ‘break bones’ it is like people swear by someone else in this case it is in relation to a rotting corpse’ bones falling apart. If you ‘break bones’ so to speak when you make an utterance, it is a true utterance.”) In other passages, such as in Matthew 26:72, it’s translated with an expression that implies taking ashes (“if a person wants everyone to know that he is telling the truth about a matter, he reaches down into the fireplace, scoops up some ashes and throws them while saying ‘I was not the one who did that.'”). So in Matthew 26:72 the Bauzi text is: “. . . Peter took ashes and defended himself saying, ‘I don’t know that Nazareth person.'” (Source: David Briley)
For the phrase “To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear,” see Romans 14:11 et al.
Note that this quote in the New Testament is not taken from the Hebrew Bible but from the Greek Septuagint (LXX) which translates into English as “to me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall acknowledge God.” (Translation by NETS — for the Greek version see the title’s tooltip)
The Greek, Hebrew, and Latin terms that are translated in English mostly as “righteous” as an adjective or personified noun or “righteousness” (also as “upright(ness)” and “just(ice)”) are most commonly expressed with concept of “straightness,” though this may be expressed in a number of ways. (Click or tap here to see the details)
Following is a list of (back-) translations of various languages:
Paasaal: “white heart” (source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
(San Mateo del Mar Huave: “completely good” (the translation does not imply sinless perfection)
Nuer: “way of right” (“there is a complex concept of “right” vs. ‘left’ in Nuer where ‘right’ indicates that which is masculine, strong, good, and moral, and ‘left’ denotes what is feminine, weak, and sinful (a strictly masculine viewpoint!) The ‘way of right’ is therefore righteousness, but of course women may also attain this way, for the opposition is more classificatory than descriptive.”) (This and all above from Bratcher / Nida except for Bilua: Carl Gross; Tiv: Rob Koops; Muna: René van den Berg)
Yatzachi Zapotec: “walk straight” (source for this and four previous: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22)
Makonde: “doing what God wants” (in a context of us doing) and “be good in God’s eyes” (in the context of being made righteous by God) (note that justify / justification is translated as “to be made good in the eyes of God.” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Aari: The Pauline word for “righteous” is generally rendered by “makes one without sin” in the Aari, sometimes “before God” is added for clarity. (Source: Loren Bliese)
Ekari: maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (the same word that is also used for “truth“; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
Guhu-Samane: pobi or “right” (also: “right (side),” “(legal) right,” “straightness,” “correction,” “south,” “possession,” “pertinence,” “kingdom,” “fame,” “information,” or “speech” — “According to [Guhu-Samane] thinking there is a common core of meaning among all these glosses. Even from an English point of view the first five can be seen to be closely related, simply because of their similarity in English. However, from that point the nuances of meaning are not so apparent. They relate in some such a fashion as this: As one faces the morning sun, south lies to the right hand (as north lies to the left); then at one’s right hand are his possessions and whatever pertains to him; thus, a rich man’s many possessions and scope of power and influence is his kingdom; so, the rich and other important people encounter fame; and all of this spreads as information and forms most of the framework of the people’s speech.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in Notes on Translation 1964, p. 11ff.)
German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): Gerechtheit, a neologism to differentiate it from the commonly-used Gerechtigkeit which can mean “righteousness” but is more often used in modern German as “fairness” (Berger / Nord especially use Gerechtheit in Letter to the Romans) or Gerechtestun, also a neologism, meaning “righteous deeds” (especially in Letter to the Ephesians)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Isaiah 45:23:
Kupsabiny: “I swear that the words that I have promised are straight/correct and they will come to pass. Every person shall bow to me and everyone shall decide to honor me.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “I have sworn by my name, Being trustworthy, I have made a proclamation, a word from my mouth, which I will not take back — All people will kneel down before me. And everyone will swear allegiance to me.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “I have-sworn to myself, and what I have-spoken are trustworthy and can- not -be-changed: All people will-kneel-down to me and they will-swear that they will-be-loyal to me.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
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 first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
By myself I have sworn means God has sworn an oath by himself. To swear an oath is to make a serious promise. It involves calling down upon oneself a certain punishment or curse if the promise is not kept. Normally a person makes an oath with God as the witness, but since God has made the oath here, he swears by himself. In Hebrew the word translated By myself occurs before the verb for sworn. This sentence order emphasizes the seriousness of the oath, implying that God stakes his own reputation on keeping the promise he has made, so the whole line may be rendered “I have sworn on my own reputation.” Revised English Bible has “By my life I have sworn,” and Bible en français courant says “As true as I am God, I have sworn.” Another possibility is “On my own head I have sworn.” Some languages may be able to use an ideophone here to express the seriousness of the oath.
From my mouth has gone forth in righteousness is a parallel to the previous line. My mouth is an image for God himself. Some languages may prefer to say simply “I” (Revised English Bible). In righteousness indicates that what God has promised has been done “in all integrity” (New International Version). It is a solemn promise that he will keep. For the whole line Good News Translation has “My promise is true,” but this rendering is not forceful enough. A better model is “I have spoken with complete honesty.”
A word that shall not return describes God’s oath as a promise that he will not withdraw (compare 55.11). New International Version says “a word that will not be revoked” (similarly New Jerusalem Bible), and Bible en français courant has “[a promise] that I will not change.” Another possible model is “a word/promise that I will [definitely] keep.”
To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear is the content of God’s promise. To me every knee shall bow means that all people will kneel before God to show him respect and to worship him. Knee is a figure of speech referring to the whole person. Good News Translation uses a nonfigurative expression, rendering the fourth line as “Everyone will come and kneel before me.” If the gesture of kneeling carries no meaning in the receptor-language culture, other possible models are “Everyone will come and kneel before me in respect/worship” and “All people will come and respect/worship me.”
Every tongue shall swear seems to be an incomplete clause. Most likely it means that everyone will swear an oath of allegiance to Yahweh. They will swear to follow him. Tongue is another figure of speech referring to the whole person. Good News Translation uses nonfigurative language again, rendering this line as “and vow to be loyal to me,” which expresses its meaning well.
For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:
• On my own life I have made a solemn promise,
I have spoken with full integrity
a word that I will not revoke:
‘Everyone will kneel before me
and swear to be loyal to me.’
• On my very life I have made a vow,
with absolute truth I have made this promise that will not fail:
‘Before me every knee will bow,
and every tongue will swear loyalty.’
Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.