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.

complete verse (Numbers 19:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 19:4:

  • Kupsabiny: “Eleazar is to immerse his finger in the blood of that cow and sprinkle it seven times towards my Tent.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “After that Eleazar must take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times in the direction of the Tent of Meeting.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Then Eleazar will-dip his finger in its blood and sprinkle (it) seven times in front of the Meeting-Together-Place Tent.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “He must dip one of his fingers in the blood and sprinkle some of it seven times on the ground near the Sacred Tent.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Numbers 19:4

And Eleazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger: Good News Translation renders the conjunction and as “Then” to indicate that this is the next step in a series ritual acts. A particular verb tense/aspect may also be needed to signal this; for example, Good News Translation has “is to take.” Eleazar the priest may be rendered simply “Eleazar” (Good News Translation) since he is already called “the priest” in the previous verse. If possible, a general term for finger should be used here. If a particular finger must be specified, then the index finger is most likely.

And sprinkle some of her blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times: For the verb sprinkle, see 8.7. This sprinkling of blood had to take place outside the camp toward the front of the tent of meeting (see 1.1), a considerable distance from it. The front of the Tent of Meeting was facing the east (which explains the phrase “to the east of the camp” in Good News Translation‘s footnote in verse 3), but this piece of information is not in focus here. What is in focus is that the sprinkling took place in the direction of the entrance of the sanctuary. Languages may have an idiom to express this; for example, Chewa says “toward the eyes of the tent.” The action of killing the cow established a symbolic ritual (sacrificial) connection with the altar in front of the Tent of Meeting where such a procedure was normally done.

Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .