image

The Greek that is rendered as “image” in English translations is translated in Pökoot with körkeyïn, a word that is also used to translate words like parable and example.

See also parable.

worship

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The Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek terms that are often translated as “worship” (also, “kneel down” or “bow down”) are likewise translated in other languages in certain categories, including those based on physical activity, those which incorporate some element of “speaking” or “declaring,” and those which specify some type of mental activity.

Following is a list of (back-) translations (click or tap for details):

  • Javanese: “prostrate oneself before”
  • Malay: “kneel and bow the head”
  • Kaqchikel: “kneel before”
  • Loma (Liberia): “drop oneself beneath God’s foot”
  • Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “wag the tail before God” (using a verb which with an animal subject means “to wag the tail,” but with a human subject)
  • Tzotzil: “join to”
  • Kpelle: “raise up a blessing to God”
  • Kekchí: “praise as your God”
  • Cashibo-Cacataibo: “say one is important”
  • San Blas Kuna: “think of God with the heart”
  • Rincón Zapotec: “have one’s heart go out to God”
  • Tabasco Chontal: “holy-remember” (source of this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Bariai: “lift up God’s name” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Q’anjob’al: “humble oneself before” (source: Newberry and Kittie Cox in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. )
  • Alur: rwo: “complete submission, adoration, consecration” (source: F. G. Lasse in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 22ff. )
  • Obolo: itọtọbọ ebum: “express reverence and devotion” (source: Enene Enene)
  • Ngäbere: “cut oneself down before” (“This figure of speech comes from the picture of towering mahoganies in the forest which, under the woodman’s ax, quiver, waver, and then in solemn, thunderous crashing bury their lofty heads in the upstretched arms of the surrounding forest. This is the experience of every true worshiper who sees ‘the Lord, high and lifted up.’ Our own unworthiness brings us low. As the Valientes say, ‘we cut ourselves down before’ His presence. Our heads, which have been carried high in self-confidence, sink lower and lower in worship.)
  • Tzeltal: “end oneself before God.” (“Only by coming to the end of oneself can one truly worship. The animist worships his deities in the hope of receiving corresponding benefits, and some pagans in Christendom think that church attendance is a guarantee of success in this life and good luck in the future. But God has never set a price on worship except the price that we must pay, namely, ‘coming to the end of ourselves.'”) (Source of this and the one above: Nida 1952, p. 163)
  • Folopa: “die under God” (“an idiom that roughly back-translates “dying under God” which means lifting up his name and praising him and to acknowledge by everything one does and thanks that God is superior.”) (Source: Anderson / Moore, p. 202)
  • Chokwe: kuivayila — “rub something on” (“When anyone goes into the presence of a king or other superior, according to native law and custom the inferior gets down on the ground, takes a little earth in the fingers of his right hand, rubs it on his own body, and then claps his hands in homage and the greeting of friendship. It is a token of veneration, of homage, of extreme gratitude for some favor received. It is also a recognition of kingship, lordship, and a prostrating of oneself in its presence. Yet it simply is the applicative form of ‘to rub something on oneself’, this form of the verb giving the value of ‘because of.’ Thus in God’s presence as king and Lord we metaphorically rub dirt on ourselves, thus acknowledging Him for what He really is and what He has done for us.”) (Source: D. B. Long in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 87ff. )

In Luang it is translated with different shades of meaning:

Source: Kathy Taber in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 9-16.

angel

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The Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic that is translated as “angel” in English versions is translated in many ways:

  • Pintupi-Luritja: ngaṉka ngurrara: “one who belongs in the sky” (source: Ken Hansen quoted in Steven 1984a, p. 116.)
  • Tetela, Kpelle, Balinese, and Mandarin Chinese: “heavenly messenger”
  • Shilluk / Igede: “spirit messenger”
  • Mashco Piro: “messenger of God”
  • Batak Toba: “envoy, messenger”
  • Navajo (Dinė): “holy servant” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida 1961; Igede: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
  • Central Mazahua: “God’s worker” (source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.)
  • Saramaccan: basia u Masa Gaangadu köndë or “messenger from God’s country” (source: Jabini 2015, p. 86)
  • Mairasi: atatnyev nyaa or “sent-one” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Shipibo-Conibo: “word bringer” (source: James Lauriault in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 32ff. )
  • Apali: “God’s one with talk from the head” (“basically God’s messenger since head refers to any leader’s talk”) (source: Martha Wade)
  • Michoacán Nahuatl: “clean helper of God” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Noongar: Hdjin-djin-kwabba or “spirit good” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Wè Northern (Wɛɛ): Kea ‘a “sooa or “the Lord’s soldier” (also: “God’s soldier” or “his soldier”) (source: Drew Maust)
  • Iwaidja: “a man sent with a message” (Sam Freney explains the genesis of this term [in this article ): “For example, in Darwin last year, as we were working on a new translation of Luke 2:6–12 in Iwaidja, a Northern Territory language, the translators had written ‘angel’ as ‘a man with eagle wings’. Even before getting to the question of whether this was an accurate term (or one that imported some other information in), the word for ‘eagle’ started getting discussed. One of the translators had her teenage granddaughter with her, and this word didn’t mean anything to her at all. She’d never heard of it, as it was an archaic term that younger people didn’t use anymore. They ended up changing the translation of ‘angel’ to something like ‘a man sent with a message’, which is both more accurate and clear.”)

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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) is used as in mi-tsukai (御使い) or “messenger (of God).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also angel (Acts 12:15) and this devotion on YouVersion .

complete verse (Revelation 16:2)

Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 16:2:

  • Uma: “[So] the first angel went, spilling the contents of his bowl on the world. Suddenly there appeared sores that were frightening and disgusting on the people who had the sign of the evil animal and on the people who worshipped his idol.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “So then one of the angels went and poured out the disaster in his bowl onto the earth. When he poured it, immediately boils grew on those people who had the mark of the creature and who had worshiped its statue. Their boils were very bad and very painful.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Then the first angel poured out his bowl on the earth. Then the people who had let themselves be marked by the mark of the beast and had worshipped the image of the beast, stinking and painful ulcers erupted on them.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “So the first angel went to go pour-out the contents of his bowl on the earth. And the people who were marked with the mark of the fearsome animal and who had worshipped the animal-image that was his likeness, they were afflicted-with-boils with fearful and large boils (not redundant in RL).” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Therefore the first angel went, and he poured out here in the world the contents of the bowl he was holding. Well when he had poured it, those people who had caused themselves to be marked with the brand of that monster and had worshipped his image, they were now caused to have throbbing and filthy sores.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The first angel then poured out the bowl he was holding upon the earth. Then all the people who had the mark of the terrible animal or who had worshipped his idol got awful sores which pained very much.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Revelation 16:2

Poured his bowl on the earth: if necessary the translation can say “poured out on the earth what was in his bowl.”

Foul and evil sores: the two adjectives in English, foul and evil, have moral content and hardly apply to sores. (The two Greek adjectives normally mean “bad and evil.”) Something like “terrible and awful” or “awful and painful” applies more naturally to sores. These are like the plague of boils that struck the Egyptians (see Exo 9.9-10). For sores see Luke 16.21. In many languages translators may use terms that refer to open sores such as “ulcers.”

The men who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image: instead of the men the more inclusive “the people” or “those who…” will be better. For the mark of the beast, see 13.16, 17; 14.9; for worshiped its image see 13.15; 14.9, 11. On the translation of worshiped see 4.10. If a translation has preferred “statue” to image, the same must be done here.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• So the first angel (or, heavenly messenger) poured the contents of the bowl (or, what was in his bowl) on the earth. Terrible (or, horrible, dreadful) and painful sores appeared on those on whom the beast had put his mark, and on those people who had worshiped (or, acknowledged the greatness of) its statue.

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Revelation 16:2

16:2a

earth: This is the same Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as “earth” in 16:1b. This word could refer to the whole earth. But this plague affected people who live on land.

The next plague, in contrast, affects the sea (16:3a), so the Berean Standard Bible uses the word earth here. The Greek word can mean either “the whole earth” or earth.

16:2b

loathsome: The Greek word here refers to something bad or harmful. Other ways to translate this word are:

horrible (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
harmful (English Standard Version)

malignant: The Greek word here refers to something evil, painful, or dangerous to others. Other ways to translate this word are:

grievous (King James Version)
-or-
evil (Revised Standard Version)

sores: This word refers to open wounds or ulcers on the skin.

broke out: This phrase indicates that the sores emerged on the people. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

appeared (Good News Translation)
-or-
came upon (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
erupted
-or-
afflicted

16:2c

who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image: This clause refers to one group of people. They both had the mark and worshiped the beast’s image.

mark: This word refers to a sign or symbol that is easily seen. Here the mark indicated that the person followed the beast. These verses do not say how the mark was placed on the hand or forehead. See how you translated mark in 13:16 or 14:11.

worshiped: This word refers to honoring someone or something as sacred/divine. Other ways to translate this word are:

venerated
-or-
revered

See how you translated this word in 13:4.

image: Here this word refers to the statue of the beast. See how you translated image in 13:14 or 15:2.

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