Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)
En frente del templo de Jerusalén había muchas personas y Jesús predicaba y los enseñaba, diciendo: “Miren, los maestros de la ley siempre hablan del Cristo que es el descendiente de la familia de David, ¿porqué?
Miren, hace mucho David escribió en un rollo lo que el Espíritu Santo le dio; oyó a Dios hablando: ‘Ven, sientate’.
David miró al lado (de Dios): “Ese es mi Señor.” Dios dijo: “Yo he vencido tus enemigos, pon tus pies encima de ellos.” David lo oyó y lo escribió.
Jesús (dijo): “El Cristo es un descendente de la familia de David, pero ¿cómo es que David escribe ‘mi Señor’? Es ambos familia de David y Señor de David, ¿cómo?”
Todas las personas vieron lo que estaba explicando (y pensaron): “¡Huy, nos gusta, qué interesante!”
In front of the temple in Jerusalem there were many people and Jesus was preaching and teaching them, saying: “Look, the teachers of the Law always talk about the Christ, who is a descendant of the family of David, why?
“Look, long ago David wrote down in a scroll what the Holy Spirit gave him; he heard God talking: ‘Come, sit down.’
“David looked next to God: ‘That is my Lord.’ God said: ‘I have conquered your enemies, put your feet on them.’ David heard it and wrote it down.”
Jesus (said): “The Christ is a descendant of the family of David, but how is it that David writes ‘my Lord?’ He is both family of David and Lord of David, how?”
All the people saw what he was explaining (and they thought): “Wow, we like it, how interesting.”
Here is the Temple. There Jesus was teaching people in the courtyard. He asked his listeners this question:
— The scribes teach that Christ is a descendant of King David. I ask you: “How is this so?” Long ago, when the Spirit of God entered into David and filled him, he wrote this:
— God said to my lord:
— Sit next to me, to my right. I will throw all your enemies at your feet, and you will be in charge.
So it is written. And how, Jesus asks, could David call his distant descendant “my lord”? David was ready to submit to this lord. How is that possible?
All the people around agreed and listened with great pleasure.
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
Вот Храм. Там Иисус во дворе учил людей. Он задал слушателям такой вопрос:
— Вот книжники, они учат, что Христос — поток царя Давида. Я вас спрашиваю: «Как же это так?» Давным-давно, когда Дух Божий вошел в Давида и наполнил его, он написал так:
— Бог сказал господину моему:
— Садись рядом со мной, справа от меня. Всех твоих врагов я брошу тебе под ноги, а ты будешь во главе.
Так написано. И как же — спрашивает Иисус — Давид мог назвать «мой господин» своего далекого потомка? Давид был готов подчиниться этому господину. Как же это так?
Все люди вокруг соглашались и слушали с большим удовольствием.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 12:37:
Uma: “Yet Daud himself calls him his Lord. With the leading of the Holy Spirit Daud speaks of the Redeemer King like this: The Lord God said to my Lord: ‘Sit on my right side until I make all your (sing.) enemies submit to You (sing.).’ So, if the Redeemer King is indeed a descendant of Daud, why does Daud call him his Lord?’ A great many people had gathered in the House of God at that time, and they were happy to hear his teaching.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Na, look,’ said Isa, ‘if Da’ud calls Almasi his Lord, surely he is not just/only his descendant but he is still greater than Da’ud.’ The crowds were glad to listen to the teaching/preaching of Isa.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus continued speaking, he said, ‘If David said that the expected king was his Lord, can it be that he was just a descendant of David?’ The many people really liked that teaching of Jesus.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Then Jesus went-on to say, ‘If David said that the Messiah was his Lord, how is it that he is David’s descendant?’ And the large-group of people liked to listen to what he was saying.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “In that, David indeed was the one who called him his Lord. Well, if it’s like that, isn’t it clear that this Cristo isn’t just the descendant of David?’ Everybody listened well, for that teaching of Jesus pleased them.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tlahuitoltepec Mixe: “If he is his boss, how will he only be his grandchild? …” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
The Hebrew adonai in the Old Testament typically refers to God. The shorter adon (and in two cases in the book of Daniel the Aramaic mare [מָרֵא]) is also used to refer to God but more often for concepts like “master,” “owner,” etc. In English Bible translations all of those are translated with “Lord” if they refer to God.
In English Old Testament translations, as in Old Testament translations in many other languages, the use of Lord (or an equivalent term in other languages) is not to be confused with Lord (or the equivalent term with a different typographical display for other languages). While the former translates adonai, adon and mare, the latter is a translation for the tetragrammaton (YHWH) or the Name of God. See tetragrammaton (YHWH) and the article by Andy Warren-Rothlin in Noss / Houser, p. 618ff. for more information.
In the New Testament, the Greek term kurios has at least four different kinds of use:
referring to “God,” especially in Old Testament quotations,
meaning “master” or “owner,” especially in parables, etc.,
as a form of address (see for instance John 4:11: “Sir, you have no bucket”),
or, most often, referring to Jesus
In the first and fourth case, it is also translated as “Lord” in English.
Most languages naturally don’t have one word that covers all these meanings. According to Bratcher / Nida, “the alternatives are usually (1) a term which is an honorific title of respect for a high-ranking person and (2) a word meaning ‘boss’, ‘master’, or ‘chief.’ (…) and on the whole it has generally seemed better to employ a word of the second category, in order to emphasize the immediate personal relationship, and then by context to build into the word the prestigeful character, since its very association with Jesus Christ will tend to accomplish this purpose.”
When looking at the following list of back-translations of the terms that translators in the different languages have used for both kurios and adonai to refer to God and Jesus respectively, it might be helpful for English readers to recall the etymology of the English “Lord.” While this term might have gained an exalted meaning in the understanding of many, it actually comes from hlaford or “loaf-ward,” referring to the lord of the castle who was the keeper of the bread (source: Rosin 1956, p. 121).
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Following are some of the solutions that don’t rely on a different typographical display (see above):
Iyansi: Mwol. Mwol is traditionally used for the “chief of a group of communities and villages” with legal, temporal, and spiritual authority (versus the “mfum [the term used in other Bantu languages] which is used for the chief of one community of people in one village”). Mwol is also used for twins who are “treated as special children, highly honored, and taken care of like kings and queens.” (Source: Kividi Kikama in Greed / Kruger, p. 396ff.)
Binumarien: Karaambaia: “fight-leader” (Source: Oates 1995, p. 255)
Warlpiri: Warlaljamarri (owner or possessor of something — for more information tap or click here)
We have come to rely on another term which emphasizes God’s essential nature as YHWH, namely jukurrarnu (see tetragrammaton (YHWH)). This word is built on the same root jukurr– as is jukurrpa, ‘dreaming.’ Its basic meaning is ‘timelessness’ and it is used to describe physical features of the land which are viewed as always being there. Some speakers view jukurrarnu in terms of ‘history.’ In all Genesis references to YHWH we have used Kaatu Jukurrarnu. In all Mark passages where kurios refers to God and not specifically to Christ we have also used Kaatu Jukurrarnu.
New Testament references to Christ as kurios are handled differently. At one stage we experimented with the term Watirirririrri which refers to a ceremonial boss of highest rank who has the authority to instigate ceremonies. While adequately conveying the sense of Christ’s authority, there remained potential negative connotations relating to Warlpiri ceremonial life of which we might be unaware.
Here it is that the Holy Spirit led us to make a chance discovery. Transcribing the personal testimony of the local Warlpiri pastor, I noticed that he described how ‘my Warlaljamarri called and embraced me (to the faith)’. Warlaljamarri is based on the root warlalja which means variously ‘family, possessions, belongingness’. A warlaljamarri is the ‘owner’ or ‘possessor’ of something. While previously being aware of the ‘ownership’ aspect of warlaljamarri, this was the first time I had heard it applied spontaneously and naturally in a fashion which did justice to the entire concept of ‘Lordship’. Thus references to Christ as kurios are now being handled by Warlaljamarri.” (Source: Stephen Swartz, The Bible Translator 1985, p. 415ff. )
Mairasi: Onggoao Nem (“Throated One” — “Leader,” “Elder”) or Enggavot Nan (“Above-One”) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Obolo: Okaan̄-ene (“Owner of person(s)”) (source: Enene Enene)
Lotha Naga: Opvui (“owner of house / field / cattle”) — since both “Lord” and YHWH are translated as Opvui there is an understanding that “Opvui Jesus is the same as the Opvui of the Old Testament”
Seediq: Tholang, loan word from Min Nan Chinese (the majority language in Taiwan) thâu-lâng (頭儂): “Master” (source: Covell 1998, p. 248)
Thai: phra’ phu pen cao (พระผู้เป็นเจ้า) (divine person who is lord) or ong(kh) cao nay (องค์เจ้านาย) (<divine classifier>-lord-boss) (source: Stephen Pattemore)
Arabic often uses different terms for adonai or kurios referring to God (al-rabb الرب) and kurios referring to Jesus (al-sayyid الـسـيـد). Al-rabb is also the term traditionally used in Arabic Christian-idiom translations for YHWH, and al-sayyid is an honorary term, similar to English “lord” or “sir” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin).
Tamil also uses different terms for adonai/kurios when referring to God and kurios when referring to Jesus. The former is Karttar கர்த்தர், a Sanskrit-derived term with the original meaning of “creator,” and the latter in Āṇṭavar ஆண்டவர், a Tamil term originally meaning “govern” or “reign” (source: Natarajan Subramani).
Burunge: Looimoo: “owner who owns everything” (in the Burunge Bible translation, this term is only used as a reference to Jesus and was originally used to refer to the traditional highest deity — source: Michael Endl in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 48)
Yagaria: Souve, originally “war lord” (source: Renck, p. 94)
Aguacateco: Ajcaw ske’j: “the one to whom we belong and who is above us” (source: Rita Peterson in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 49)
Konkomba: Tidindaan: “He who is the owner of the land and reigns over the people” (source: Lidorio 2007, p. 66)
Chichewa: AmbuyeAmbuye comes from the singular form Mbuye which is used to refer to: (1) someone who is a guardian or protector of someone or group of people — a grandparent who has founded a community or village; (2) someone who is a boss or master over a group of people or servants and has absolute control over them; (3) owner of something, be it a property, animals and people who are bound under his/her rule — for people this was mostly commonly used in the context of slaves and their owner. In short, Mbuye is someone who has some authorities over those who call him/her their “Mbuye.” Now, when the form Ambuye is used it will either be for honorific when used for singular or plural when referring to more than one person. When this term is used in reference to God, it is for respect to God as he is acknowledged as a guardian, protector, and ruler of everything. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation).
Hdi uses rveri (“lion”) as a title of respect and as such it regularly translates adon in the Old Testament. As an address, it’s most often with a possessive pronoun as in rvera ɗa (“my lion” = “my lord” or “sir”). So, for example, Genesis 15:2 (“O Lord God”) is Rvera ɗa Yawe (“My lion Yahweh”) or Ruth to Boaz in Ruth 2:13: “May I find your grace [lit. good-stomach] my lion.” This ties in nicely with the imagery of the Lord roaring like a lion (Hosea 11:10; Amos 3:8; Joel 3:16). Better still, this makes passages like Revelation 5:5 even richer when we read about rveri ma taba məndəra la Yuda, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah”. In Revelation 19:16, Jesus is rveri ta ghəŋa rveriha “the lion above lions” (“lord of lords”). (Source: Drew Maust)
Law (2013, p. 97) writes about how the Ancient GreekSeptuagint‘s translation of the Hebrew adonai was used by the New Testament writers as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments: “Another case is the use of kurios referring to Jesus. For Yahweh (in English Bibles: ‘the Lord‘), the Septuagint uses kurios. Although the term kurios usually has to do with one’s authority over others, when the New Testament authors use this word from the Septuagint to refer to Jesus, they are making an extraordinary claim: Jesus of Nazareth is to be identified with Yahweh.”
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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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.
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®).
kai pothen ‘how, then…?’ For this use of pothen ‘whence’ cf. 8.4. ‘In what way?’
By many editors and translators the second part of this verse is made the initial sentence of the following paragraph, rather than the closing one of this paragraph (cf. Nestle, Westcott & Hort, Lagrange, Taylor, Swete, Goodspeed, Moffatt).
ho polus ochlos ‘the great crowd,’ ‘the crowd of people’: on the basis of classical Greek usage Field defends and supports the King James Version and American Standard Version reading ‘the common people.’ Marcan usage, however (cf. 5.21, 24; 6.34; 9.14), favors the Revised Standard Version.
Translation:
Calls him Lord can be quite easily mistranslated and hence misinterpreted by the reader, if the referent of him is not clear. For example, in some translations the meaning has been ‘David calls God Lord,’ since ‘him’ is understood as referring to God. In such cases one may say ‘calls this person Lord,’ in which case the reference would be to ‘the offspring of David,’ who is also spoken of as ‘my Lord.’
A further ambiguity of reference may occur in he his son. In Tzeltal these problems are resolved as ‘the same David called him his Lord; how then is his Lord his son.’
The great throng is translatable in some languages as ‘the very great crowd’ or ‘the many, many people there.’ If one adopts the interpretation of ‘the common people’ (see above), the equivalent often is ‘the masses’ or ‘the poor people,’ or as in Tzeltal, ‘the people without offices.’
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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