10and the inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and exchange presents, because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth.
Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 11:10:
Uma: “The evil people who live in the world are glad, rejoicing over the death of those two witnesses. They have feasts and give each other presents, because those two prophets who continually tortured them are dead.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “The people in all the world will be happy; they will make merry and exchange love-gifts because those two prophets have died. Because they had been the ones who brought suffering/persecution to the people of the world.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Their death will be cause for great rejoicing to the people, and they will celebrate it and give each other things. The reason they will celebrate is because those two prophets of God, they caused torments to the people on the earth.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “The unbelievers who live on the earth, they will celebrate-a-fiesta and give-each-other gifts because of their happiness at their death, because these two spokesmen of God exceedingly hardshipped them.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “The people here under the heavens will be happy because those two testifiers have died. They will celebrate and be giving things to one another which are just gifts, because those two have been removed who gave them hardship.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “The people all over the world, upon seeing that they were now dead even made fiestas because they were so happy. They gave presents to each other. Because the word of God which was spoken by these two persons who died had very much disturbed the hearts of the people.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Eugene Nida wrote the following about the translation of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek terms that are typically translated with “prophet” in English:
“The tendency in many translations is to use ‘to foretell the future’ for ‘prophesy,’ and ‘one who foretells the future’ for ‘prophet.’ This is not always a recommended usage, particularly if such expressions denote certain special native practices of spirit contact and control. It is true, of course, that prophets of the Bible did foretell the future, but this was not always their principal function. One essential significance of the Greek word prophētēs is ‘one who speaks forth,’ principally, of course, as a forth-teller of the Divine will. A translation such as ‘spokesman for God’ may often be employed profitably.” (1947, p. 234f.)
Following is a list of (back-) translations from other languages (click or tap for details):
Ayutla Mixtec: “one who talks as God’s representative”
Isthmus Mixe: “speaker for God” (source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Mezquital Otomi / Paasaal: “God’s messenger” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff. and Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Noongar: Warda Marridjiny or “News Traveling” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Kutu: mtula ndagu or “one who gives the prediction of the past and the future” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ebira: ọnịsẹ, a neologism that combines the prefix ọn for “a person” with ịsẹ for “prediction” (source: Scholz /Scholz 2015, p. 49)
French 1985 translation by Chouraqui: inspiré or “inspired one” (“someone in whom God has breathed [Latin: in + spiro]) (source: Watson 2023, p. 45)
In Ixcatlán Mazatec a term is used that specifically includes women. (Source: Robert Bascom)
“In some instances these spiritual terms result from adaptations reflecting the native life and culture. Among the Northern Grebo people of Liberia, a missionary wanted some adequate term for ‘prophet,’ and she was fully aware that the native word for ‘soothsayer’ or ‘diviner’ was no equivalent for the Biblical prophet who spoke forth for God. Of course, much of what the prophets said referred to the future, and though this was an essential part of much of their ministry, it was by no means all. The right word for the Gbeapo people would have to include something which would not only mean the foretelling of important events but the proclamation of truth as God’s representative among the people. At last the right word came; it was ‘God’s town-crier.’ Every morning and evening the official representative of the chief goes through the village crying out the news, delivering the orders of the chief, and announcing important coming events. ‘God’s town-crier’ would be the official representative of God, announcing to the people God’s doings, His commands, and His pronouncements for their salvation and well-being. For the Northern Grebo people the prophet is no weird person from forgotten times; he is as real as the human, moving message of the plowman Amos, who became God’s town-crier to a calloused people.” (source: Nida 1952, p. 20)
In British Sign Language it is is translated with a sign that depicts a message coming from God to a person (the upright finger) and then being passed on to others. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Prophet” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
Those who dwell on the earth: this refers to all the unrepentant sinners in the world (see the use of this expression in 3.10; 6.10; 8.13).
Will rejoice over them and make merry: the Greek text has the present tense, “they rejoice over them and celebrate,” but in this context it is better to maintain the future tense. To rejoice over means to be happy because they have been killed. It is advised that this information be made explicit in the translation, to make it easier to understand. In certain languages one may render the first clause as “will be happy (hearts, or liver, will be cool, or sweet, or bright) because these two have died.” Make merry (Good News Translation “celebrate”): translators should choose an expression for this action that is most natural in the receptor language; for example, “have parties (or, fiestas).”
Exchange presents: a way of showing their happiness. New International Version provides a good model for translators: “… will gloat over them and celebrate by sending each other gifts.”
These two prophets had been a torment: the verbal phrase had been a torment translates the Greek verb “to cause pain,” “to torment” (see 9.5; 12.2 [“anguish”]; 14.10; 20.10). This refers back to verse 6. For prophets see 10.7.
Alternative translation models for this verse are:
• All the people of the world will gloat because these two have died. They will hold parties and send gifts to each other, because these two prophets have caused humans to suffer terribly.
Or:
• … They will celebrate by exchanging gifts, because these two prophets….
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
The events in this verse occur during the three and a half days (11:11a). Some languages are able to indicate that in the grammar of the sentence. For example:
The inhabitants of the earth will be gloating over them…
Or you may want to indicate when these events occur with a time phrase at the beginning of 11:10. For example:
⌊During that time⌋ the inhabitants of the earth… -or-
⌊During those days⌋ the inhabitants of the earth…
11:10a
And those who dwell on the earth: This phrase refers to the people who live on the earth. Other ways to translate this phrase are:
The inhabitants of the earth (New International Version) -or-
the people of the world (New Jerusalem Bible)
will gloat over them: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as gloat means “rejoice” (as in the Revised Standard Version). The people will be happy that the two witnesses are dead.
11:10b
will celebrate and send one another gifts: The Greek words are literally “celebrate and will send gifts to each other.” The people will rejoice in various ways and also give gifts to each other. Other ways to translate the Greek words are:
make merry and exchange presents (English Standard Version) -or-
They will celebrate and send presents to each other (Good News Translation)
11:10c
these two prophets: This phrase refers to the two witnesses. They were prophets as well as witnesses to Jesus.
prophets: A prophet is a person to whom God gives a message. The message (often called a “prophecy”) may include a vision, as in Ezekiel 1 and Daniel 8. The message, called a prophecy, may reveal something about past events, current events, or future events.. The prophet tells God’s message to the people or writes it down for their use. See how you translated this word in 10:7.
tormented: This word means “cause someone to suffer.” Other ways to translate this word are:
brought much suffering (New Century Version) -or-
caused pain
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®).
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.