Featured Words Hard to Translate

Since it is an imperative, he was asking God for forgiveness. This usage is called the imperative of entreaty, or sometimes the imperative of request or of polite command.

 

Then there is ἀνάθημα. Several smaller lexicons simply say, “a votive gift” or “a votive offering.” This is the meaning in Luke 21:5 ("gifts"), but the single gloss is insufficient for the translator. The word is obviously polysemous (having more than one meaning). This is one word that absolutely must be interpreted by context.

In 1 Cor. 16:22 of the KJV, it is inexplicably transliterated along with another word: "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha."

Acts 23:14 uses both the verb and noun for putting one's self under an oath: "And they came to the chief priests and elders, and said, We have bound ourselves under a great curse, that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul."
Other verses also use it for being cursed.

One question to ask is, how far does the curse extend? Some dynamic/functional equivalent translations use the word eternal (NET Bible, NIV, etc.). The translator must consider whether that is valid or not. It is not in the original text of the verses in which it is used.

Other places where the word occurs:

Ro 9:3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: or, separated}
1Co 12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
Ga 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Ga 1:9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

 

I don't plan to get much into honorifics in this thread, but think of the vocative singular of γυνη (gune), "woman," which is γυναι (gunai). Note where it is used:

Now, in English it can be a kind of macho way to address someone, as in "Woman, come here." That is actually rude in most cases. So, one scholar, Bill Mounce, maintains that the vocative γύναι cannot be correctly translated into English.[1] His view should be revised to say that translating this usage politely is difficult in many languages.

There are nine instances of this usage: Matt. 15:28, Luke 13:12, Luke 22:57, John 2:4, John 4:21, John 19:26, John 20:13, John 20:15, 1 Cor. 7:16. The fact that John, the “apostle of love,” uses it five times should tell us that it is not offensive in Greek. I even think of it as an honorific usage in Greek, though Greek has few enough of those. Many Asian languages have many honorific forms, especially Japanese, and even English has a few, too. ("Please...", "Won't you....?" mother and father, etc.)

What are some ways to handle this?

First of all, ascertain whether simply addressing someone with “woman” is rude in the target language. Listen carefully to the native speakers. If it is considered to be rude, look for the alternative polite word.

If there are still not alternatives, consider a phrase like “kind lady.” In Japanese we used an honorific addition to simply "woman," thus: 女の方 (onna no kata).


[1] Bill Mounce, “An Untranslatable Word: γύναι,” “Monday with Bill Mounce,” from April 15, 2013, at
//www.billmounce.com/monday-with-mounce/untranslatable-word-%CE%B3%CF%8D%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%B9. Accessed on 1/4/21.

 

Yes.

 

Yes, it is used for disobedient children, but also for adults, so I think it does operate like you said. One way for an adult to apologize (in somewhat of a casual way) is to say, 悪かった。(Warukatta.) Also when read with the on-yomi, it is aku, or "evil."

Thus, it is a tough one to translate.

 

Sounds like the MIzo translators got it right. Interesting about the phonetic "angel." Maybe we can blame the Internet for that.

That would be interesting to research--if only I knew Spanish! Catholicism in Latin America can be quite syncretistic, so it could have come from a tribal language.

Good point about "cherub." It has become a loan word in English.

 

Japanese also has ways of speaking of an immoral woman. Easy to get into trouble in that language! I once used a particle with no real meaning, only for emphasis. I had seen two little boys use it in a commercial. But no, it was not a good word to use.

I thought I remembered one, and here it is. But it was by Paul, not Jesus: Rom. 9:20--"Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?" Not necessarily honoring the hearer, though.

Maybe we can blame that on American democracy. The honorifics in English can probably be all traced back to Great Britain and its monarchy. Japanese, with its abundant honorifics, is a monarchy. But "we Americans" believe everyone is equal, so no one deserves special treatment. The Japanese like to say, "Our society is vertical, but you Americans have a horizontal society."

My parents did demand honorifics, though: Sir, Ma'am, and the like. I once tried to learn German, and answered "Ja" to my Dad, who thought I was saying "Yeah," and promptly rebuked me.

 

Another tough word is baptism. The noun is baptisma (βάπτισμα), and the verb is baptizo (βαπτίζω). As all good Baptists know, the normal, literal meaning is immersion/immerse. However, it was transliterated into English in the early English versions. (No need to go into all that history.) William Carey was known for translating it into the 46 languages he worked in as "immersion/immerse."

Would you follow suit, translating with a word for immersion, or would you fudge it and transliterate? The first strategy has the advantage of being correct , but the second has the advantage of appealing to a wide range of denominations.

In China, the earliest translations ran into this problems. Presbyterian Robert Morrison (1782-1834) used the character xi (洗), meaning “wash.” This practice has been followed to the present day in the Chinese Union Version (洗) and the Japanese Shinkyoudo Version (洗礼), as well as in other versions. He claimed that his translation was the first Chinese Bible. However, that was disputed.

The other first Chinese Bible was translated by Joshua Marshman (1768-1837), an English Baptist missionary to India who got a burden for China. He worked with Carey, so his translation used used the Chinese words zhan (蘸) and cui (淬), both meaning “to dip,” as well as both these characters in a compound, zhancui (蘸淬).

It must be noted that these men had an incredibly difficult task to do, since Chinese were forbidden on pain of death to teach their language to Gweilo (foreign devils). Their translations did not last, being faulty in various ways, but they got the ball rolling.

In Japan, the first complete Japanese NT was done by Nathan Brown, a former colleague of Carey, and he used a word for "immerse." For our part, in our Japanese NT we eschewed the typical 洗礼 (senrei), or "washing ceremony," and went with the Baptist word, 浸礼 (shinrei), or "immersion ceremony." I did this after asking the denizens of this very forum years ago what we should do. They unanimously advised "immersion" as I recall. Then my son said he would never speak to me again if I didn't use "immerse." Well, not really, but he did stand for "immerse."

 

Correct.