salvation

The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated with “salvation” (or “deliverance”) in English is translated in the following ways:

  • San Blas Kuna: “receive help for bad deeds” (“this help is not just any kind of help but help for the soul which has sinned)
  • Northwestern Dinka: “help as to his soul” (“or literally, ‘his breath'”) (source for this and the one above: Nida 1952, p. 140)
  • Central Mazahua: “healing the heart” (source: Nida 1952, p. 40)
  • Tzeltal: col: “get loose,” “go free,” “get well” (source: Marianna C. Slocum in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 49f. )
  • Aari: “the day our Savior comes” (in Rom 13:11) (source: Loren Bliese)

in Mairasi its is translated as “life fruit” or “life fruit all mashed out.” Lloyd Peckham explains: “In secret stories, not knowable to women nor children, there was a magical fruit of life. If referred to vaguely, without specifying the specific ‘fruit,’ it can be an expression for eternity.” And for “all masked out” he explains: “Bark cloth required pounding. It got longer and wider as it got pounded. Similarly, life gets pounded or mashed to lengthen it into infinity. Tubers also get mashed into the standard way of serving the staple food, like the fufu of Uganda, or like poi of Hawaii. It spreads out into infinity.” (See also eternity / forever)

In Lisu a poetic construct is used for this term. Arrington (2020, p. 58f.) explains: “A four-word couplet uses Lisu poetic forms to bridge the abstract concrete divide, an essential divide to cross if Christian theology is to be understood by those with oral thought patterns. Each couplet uses three concrete nouns or verbs to express an abstract term. An example of this is the word for salvation, a quite abstract term essential to understanding Christian theology. To coin this new word, the missionary translators used a four-word couplet: ℲO., CYU. W: CYU (person … save … person … save). In this particular case, the word for person was not the ordinary word (ʁ) but rather the combination of ℲO., and W: used in oral poetry. The word for ‘save’ also had to be coined; in this case, it was borrowed from Chinese [from jiù / 救]. These aspects of Lisu poetry, originally based on animism, likely would have been lost as Lisu society encountered communism and modernization. Yet they are now codified in the Lisu Bible as well as the hymnbook.”

In the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) it is translated with chipulumutso which is used to refer to an act of helping someone who is in problems but cannot help him/herself come out of the problems because of weakness. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also save and save (Japanese honorifics) / salvation (of God) (Japanese honorifics).

complete verse (Psalm 91:16)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 91:16:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “I will give him a long life
    and save him.’” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “I will give them a long life.
    I will save them."” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “I will-give him/her a long life,
    and I will-show him/her my saving of him/her.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “I will give him to live for long,
    and he will see my salvation.’” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Nitampa uhai mrefu,
    nitamwonyesha wokovu wangu.’” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “I will reward them by enabling them to live a long time,
    and I will save them.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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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 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.

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

See also pronoun for “God”.

Translation commentary on Psalm 91:14 - 91:16

In these verses God is the speaker, which Good News Translation has made explicit (see also New International Version, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Bible en français courant). The Hebrew text throughout has the personal object, me, in the singular (see Revised Standard Version), which Good News Translation has taken as generic and so translated by plural forms, “those who”; Dahood interprets the Hebrew singular as reference to the king.

In verse 14a cleaves to me in love is parallel with knows my name in verse 14b; here the verb “know” is used in the sense of “confess, accept.” The two verbs deliver (see 17.13) and protect (see 20.1b) are parallel.

It is possible to reduce verse 14 to say, for example, “I will save and protect those who love me and know me.”

For rescue in verse 15c see “save” and comments in 6.4. Honor means that God will provide blessings, such as victory or success, that will bring honor and fame to the person.

Long life (verse 16a) is an indication of God’s pleasure (see 21.4); Dahood takes it here to refer to immortality, which is possible. The verb satisfy is the one used in 90.14a.

Show … my salvation in verse 16b may mean, as Good News Translation has it, “I will save.” Bible en français courant translates “I will make him see that I am his savior.” However, the verb form translated show is understood by many to mean “drink deeply” in a figurative sense of “enjoy to the fullest” (New English Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Dahood); this provides a better parallel for the verb in line a.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .