Lloyd Peckham explains the Mairasi translation: “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.”
The Greek that is translated in English as “endurance” (or “patience”or “perseverance”) is translated in Tzotzil as “(good) strength of heart(s).” (Source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.)
In Isthmus Zapotec it is translated as “learning not to lose patience.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 2:7:
Uma: “There are some people who keep behaving good, because they want to get praise, honor and life that has no end from God. To people like that God gives good life forever.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “There are people who persevere in doing good because their aim is (that) God praises them and he honors them. They also aim/aspire that God give them life without end. These people God really will give life in heaven without end.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “But there are some people who hold fast to good behavior because what they’re always thinking about is God’s praising them in the future and making them immortal and His honoring them. And life forever is what He will give to them.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “The people who have persisted in doing good so that God will praise them and they will live where God is forever, God will give them life that has no end.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “God will give the new life to whoever does only what is good, looking for how God will look well upon him and earnestly seeking how to enter where God rules forever.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Yatzachi Zapotec: “God will give us eternal life if we continually do good, because we so very much want to find out how to arrive where he is, and how to cause him to give us honor, and cause us to live forever.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains in the following way: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
In Greek there is a formal contrast between this and the following verse, which the Good News Translation expresses by some men … other men. The Greek phrase (“the endurance of doing good”) is taken by many commentators as the sum total of a man’s actions, and for this reason the Good News Translation renders the phrase keep on doing good (see Jerusalem Bible “always doing good” and An American Translation* “by persistently doing right”).
It is difficult in some languages to speak merely of doing good. One must have some kind of indication of persons or objects who are benefited by such “doing good”—for example, “some men keep on doing good to other people.” More specifically, this may be rendered in some languages as “keep on being kind to people,” since this may be the most general way of characterizing proper behavior toward other people.
Glory and honor are concepts which are united both in Jewish and in Christian thought (see 1 Peter 1.7; Revelation 4.9). Glory is always a difficult term to express, though in the present context it must be taken along with honor and immortal life as qualifying various aspects of the eternal life which God will give at the end of time. To render glory by “renown” (Jerusalem Bible “who sought renown”) would seem to suggest a wrong emphasis, since “renown” is the praise which men give, whereas “glory” is the gift of God.
The Greek word translated immortal life is relatively rare in the New Testament; elsewhere it is also used as a quality of the eternal life that God gives (see 1 Corinthians 15.42, 50, 53, 54; 2 Timothy 1.10).
In order to avoid wrong implications in “seeking” glory, honor, and immortal life, it is necessary in many languages to specify that these are direct gifts from God—for example, “seek for God to give them glory, honor, and immortal life.” In a number of languages one cannot easily distinguish between glory and honor in this type of context, since both would be included in some such expression as “seek to have God give them honor” or even “seek to have God speak well of them.” This is often the most general form of granting honor to a person. Frequently a phrase such as immortal life must be expressed as a verb—for example, “seek to have God … cause them to live forever” or … cause them to have life which never ends.
God will give eternal life may also be rendered as a causative expression: “God will cause them to live endlessly” or “God will cause them never to cease to live.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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®).
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