ὁ ἔχων οὖς ἀκουσάτω τί τὸ πνεῦμα λέγει ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις. ὁ νικῶν οὐ μὴ ἀδικηθῇ ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου τοῦ δευτέρου.
11Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Whoever conquers will not be harmed by the second death.
The Greek in Revelation 2:11 that is translated as “second death” or similar in English is translated in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) as zweiter Tod, die endgültige Verdammnis or “second death, the final damnation.”
See also the second death.
The Greek that is often translated as “church” in English is translated into Avaric as imanl’urazul ahlu: “the community of believers” or “the believing people.”
“The word ‘Church’ presents particular difficulties, as we might expect when we think that even many Christians do not understand it correctly. When people today say ‘church,’ they often mean a particular building, or an organization consisting chiefly of clergy (priests and monks). It is even harder to find a word or combination of words which adequately translates the meaning for people unfamiliar with Christianity. Surprisingly, the Greek word ekklesia, indicating in the classical language ‘an assembly of the people,’ ‘a gathering of citizens,’ has come into Avar and other Dagestani languages in the form kilisa. This, like the word qanch (‘cross’), is an ancient borrowing, presumably from the time before the arrival of Islam, when Dagestan came under the influence of neighboring Christian states. In modern usage, however, this word indicates a place of Christian worship. Thus it is completely inappropriate as a translation of its New Testament ancestor ekklesia.
“We were obliged to look at various words which are closer to the meaning of the Greek. Some of these words are dandel’i (‘meeting’), danderussin (‘assembly’), the Arabic-derived mazhlis (‘meeting, conference’), zhama’at (‘society, community’), ahlu (‘race, people, family, group of people united by a common goal or interest’, as in the Arabic phrase ahlu-l-kitab ‘people of the Book’ or ‘people of the Scriptures’), which describes both Jews and Christians, and ummat (‘people, tribe’). In Islamic theology the phrase ‘Mohammed’s ummat’ means the universal community of Muslims, the Muslim world, in the same way as the Christian world is known as ‘Isa’s ummat.’ None of these descriptions on their own, without explanation, can be used to translate the word ‘Church’ in the New Testament. Thus, after long consideration, we adopted the phrase imanl’urazul ahlu, meaning ‘the community of believers,’ ‘the believing people,’ This translation corresponds closely to New Testament teaching about the Church.
“It is interesting that the same word ahlu with the meaning ‘tribe, community’ has been used by translators for different reasons in the introduction to the Gospel of Luke in order to translate the expression in the original Greek pepleroforemenon en hemin pragmaton (πεπληροφορημένων ἐν ἡμῖν πραγμάτων), which the Russian Synodal translation renders ‘about the events well-known amongst us’ (Luke 1:1). The expression ‘amongst us’ cannot be translated literally into Avar, but has to be rendered ‘among our people’; and here the same term was used as for the word ‘church’, literally ‘among our tribe, community (ahlu).'”
In Kamo “church” is fang-balla (“owners of writing-people”) when referring to the church community and “house of writing-people” when referring to a church building. David Frank explains: “In Kamo culture, Christianity was associated with writing, so Christianity is called balla, which they say means ‘people who write.’ Christianity is balla, and Christians are called fang-balla, which means ‘owners of Christianity.’ That is the term that is used for the church, in the sense of people, rather than a building. In Philemon 1:1b-2a, Paul says he is writing ‘To our friend and fellow worker Philemon, and to the church (fang-balla ‘owners of Christianity) that meet in your house.’ The word fang “owner’ is very productive in the Kamo language. A disciple is an ‘owner of learning,’ an apostle is an ‘owner of sending,’ a believer is an ‘owner of truth,’ a hypocrite is an ‘owner of seeing eyes.’ The expression ‘house of writing-people’ is used in Matthew 16:18, which reads in Kamo, ‘And so I tell you Peter, you are a rock, and on top of this rock foundation I will build my house of writing-people, and never even death will not be able to overcome it.” (See also Peter – rock)
In Bacama there also is a differentiation between the building (vɨnə hiutə: “house of prayer”) and the community (ji-kottə: “followers”) (source: David Frank in this blog post ).
In 16th-century Classical Nahuatl, a transliteration from Spanish (Santa Yglesia or Santa Iglesia) is typically used rather than a translation, making the concept take on a personified meaning. Ottman (p. 169) explains: “The church building, or more precisely the church complex with its associated patio, has a Nahuatl name in common usage — generally teopan, something like ‘god-place,’ in contradistinction to teocalli, ‘god-house,’ applied to a prehispanic temple — but the abstract sense is always Santa Iglesia, a Spanish proper name like ‘Dios’ or ‘Santa María’, and like ‘Santa María’ often called ‘our mother.’ As a personified ‘mother,’ in the European tradition as well as in Nahuatl, She instructs Her children or chastises them; as Bride of Christ, She both longs for Her heavenly rest and bears witness to it, in the ‘always-already’ of eschatological time; as successor to the Synagogue, the blindfolded, broken-sceptred elder sister who accompanies Her in painting and sculpture, She represents the triumphant rule of truth. ‘The Church’ can mean the clerical hierarchy; it can also, or simultaneously, mean the assembly of the faithful. It dispenses grace to its members, living and dead, yet it is also enriched by them, living and dead, existing not only on earth but in purgatory and in heaven.”
In Lisu the building (“church”) is called “house of prayer” (source: Arrington 2020, p. 196) whereas in Highland Totonac the community is referred as “those who gather together” (source: Hermann Aschmann in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 171ff. ), in Huehuetla Tepehua as “those who gather together who have confidence in Christ” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), in Uma as “Christian people” (source: Uma Back Translation), in Kankanaey as “the congregation of God’s people” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation), and in Tagbanwa as “you whom God separated-out as his people because of your being-united/tied-together with Jesus Christ” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).
In American Sign Language, “church” (as in the community of believers) is made up of the combination of the signs for “Jesus-into-heart” (signifying a believer), followed by the sign for “group.” (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Church” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
While British Sign Language also uses a sign that focuses on a group of people believing in Jesus (see here ), another sign that it uses combines the signs for “ringing the (church) bells” and a “group of people.” (Source: Anna Smith)
“Church” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Ekklesia .
Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 2:11:
See Holy Spirit.
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) can be used, as in mi-tama (御霊) or “Spirit (of God)” in the referenced verses.
(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
See also Holy Spirit
For the first sentence, He who … to the churches, see the comments at 2.7.
He who conquers shall not be hurt by the second death: the exclusively masculine “He who” can be made inclusive of men and women by using the plural “They who,” “Those who,” or the indefinite “Whoever” (New Revised Standard Version). For who conquers see the comments at 2.7. If a direct object is needed in translation, something like “the forces of evil” can be said. See Jesus’ statement in John 16.33.
Be hurt: here the meaning “to hurt” in connection with the second death seems rather mild. This verb is used with people as the object in 9.10, 19 (“wound”); 11.5 (“harm”); 22.11 (“do evil”). Here the meaning is almost that of “will not be affected by,” “will be spared the (evil) effects of.” What it means, of course, is that such people will not experience the second death, which is spiritual death, eternal death, in contrast with the natural death that awaits all human beings. It is the destruction of unrepentant sinners in the lake of fire (20.6, 14; 21.8). Those who conquer may be killed physically (the first death), but they will not die eternally (the second death).
If there is some trouble translating meaningfully the second death, an explanatory phrase may be added, “that is, eternal (or, spiritual) death,” or else a footnote may direct the reader to 20.14, 15; 21.8.
Alternative translation models for the second half of this verse are:
• Those who defeat the forces of evil will not suffer the evil effects of the second death.
Or:
• The second death will not hurt those who conquer (or, are victorious over) the powers of evil.
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 .
Paragraph 2:11
2:11a
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches: Translate this saying as you did in 2:7.
2:11b
The one who overcomes will not be harmed by the second death: This clause is passive. Some languages must use an active clause. For example:
the second death will not be able to hurt/harm those who overcome
The one who overcomes: The phrase The one who overcomes is emphasized in the Greek by being first in the clause. If you have a natural way in your language to emphasize this phrase, you may want to do so. For example:
As for he who conquers, he
-or-
Regarding those who win the victory, they
overcomes: The word overcomes means “triumphs” or “obtains/wins victory.” Here the word refers to having success over sin, evil, and pressure to turn away from Jesus. He continues believing and following Jesus even though he might be killed for it. See how you translated a similar phrase (“To the one who overcomes”) in 2:7.
not be harmed by the second death: This is a figure of speech that indicates that believers will not die the second death. In some languages it is not natural to say that death can harm or hurt someone. Instead, it is more natural to:
• Use a different word. For example:
not be touched by the second death
-or-
not be affected by the second death
• Translate the noun death as a verb. For example:
not die the second time
the second death: This phrase refers to God punishing people forever after they have died physically. The first death is physical death. The second death is being thrown into the lake of fire (20:10, 14–15).
In some languages people will not understand the figurative meaning of the phrase the second death. If that is true in your language, you may want to:
• Explain its meaning in your translation. For example:
the second death, ⌊namely, eternal punishment⌋
• Translate literally and explain its meaning in a footnote. An example footnote is:
“The second death” refers to being thrown into the lake of fire (20:10,14–15).
second: The word second refers to an item in a list that is counted as two, which is after the item counted as one. Some languages use a phrase for the meaning of the word second. Other ways to translate this word are:
the one after the first
-or-
the other
-or-
the next one
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