addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed. The first example is from a language where God is always addressed distinctly formal whereas the second is one where the opposite choice was made.

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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.

Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”

In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.

Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking (source Philip Noss).

In Dutch and Western Frisian translations, however, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

Translation commentary on Wisdom 11:6 – 11:8

Instead of the fountain of an ever-flowing river, stirred up and defiled with blood: Good News Translation takes fountain to refer to the sources of the Nile River, but it probably refers to the Nile as the water supply for the Egyptians. Stirred up depicts the bloody scene as somehow active and moving, seething with horror. Defiled translates an adjective that means “gory,” which amplifies the horror of the noun blood, so Good News Translation has “foul with blood.”

In rebuke for the decree to slay the infants may be rendered “for ordering the babies of your people to be killed” or even “for ordering their servants to kill the babies of your people.” This refers to Pharaoh’s command that the Israelite midwives should kill baby boys born to Israelite women. See Exo 1.16.

Thou gavest them abundant water unexpectedly: Compare Num 20.11.

Showing by their thirst at that time how thou didst punish their enemies: When the Israelites suffered from thirst in the wilderness, it served as a reminder of how thirsty God had made the Egyptians by depriving them of their source of water.

Good News Translation reorders the lines of these verses in such a way that the combination of verses numbers becomes necessary. The example of Good News Translation is a good one, but we recommend a slightly different approach. These verses could be translated as follows:

• Your enemies commanded that babies born to your people should be killed. So you made that ever-flowing river of theirs, where they got their water, become murky and horrible [or, gory] with blood. Then, when your people were in the desert, you made them thirsty. This showed them how you had punished their enemies. But then, when they did not expect it, you gave them plenty of water.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Wisdom of Solomon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2004. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.