Featured More Words Hard to Translate

Good post. Interesting about the difference between phileo and the others. Hadn't thought of it. I'll have to work thorough that.

"The love of money" in 1 Tim. 6:10 is actually philarguria (φιλαργυρία), a compound word made up of philos (love) and (ἀργύριον), meaning silver, by implication "money." Most linguists would take its meaning as a separate issue from that of philos.

 

The Greek word translated "apostle," apostolos (ἀπόστολος), is not necessarily difficult to translate. I simply disagree with the original transliteration "apostle," and how English translations have ever since simply used the same word, "apostle." So the common perception is that an apostle is some special person that no longer exists. In other words, Christianity as a whole has put the apostles up on a pedestal. But they were normal human beings, with our foibles and mistakes and, yes, sins.

My personal preference is that in English the word "missionary" should be used. In secular usage, the apostolos was someone sent out on a mission with the authority of the sender behind him. Even in the NT, note the first time the 12 were called apostles. It was when they were sent out on an evangelistic mission (Matt. 10:1-2 and the parallels in Mark and Luke).

Also, historically speaking, the twelve (including Matthias) all became cross-cultural missionaries except James, who was inconveniently martyred before he could do so. See William McBirnie, The Search for the Twelve Apostles, or David Criswell, The Apostles After Jesus.

Fortunately, the word used in Japanese translations was not transliterated, but the meaning of "sent one" was translated with: shito (使徒). Here is more of a discussion on both the Japanese and the Greek words: Jisho.org: Japanese Dictionary. The same word (with the two characters) is used in the Chinese Union Version.

 

Today I've been going over corrections sent by one of our proofreaders on the book of Revelation. (This is a humbling process, believe me!) Our proofreader had noticed that we use two different renderings of pantokrator (παντοκράτωρ),which occurs ten different times in the book of Revelation. I imagine there are tribal languages without the concept of an all powerful God that it would be difficult to translate this word into.

 

The Greek word often translated "leprosy" is lepra (λέπρα). The Friberg Analytical Lexicon of the Greek NT defines it: "as a disease, leprosy, probably used in reference to any of a group of infectious and inflammatory skin diseases, such as Hansen's disease (modern leprosy), ringworm, yaws, scabies, lupus, etc." (p. 245).

The problem with translating this word is that if you translate it with "leprosy" or "Hansen's Disease," is that many scholars nowadays question whether or not the modern disease is the same as the one in Bible times. So, should you use the English word (or an equivalent in another language) of "leprosy," or something else? Here is a scholarly article about that: Biblical Leprosy: Shedding Light on the Disease that Shuns.

Another issue with this word is the opprobrium attached to it. In other words, in some cultures "leprosy" has a stigma attached, and unfortunately that stigma can come from the Bible stories and from the fact that leprosy in the Bible can be a metaphor for "sin." In Japanese Bibles the word traditionally used is raibyou (らい病), but in recent years this word has come to be considered an epithet by those with the disease. Therefore, in a revision of the leading conservative version, the Shinkaiyaku, a transliteration of the Hebrew word for the disease was used, tsaraath (צרעת, ツァラアト in Japanese).

However, in our translation we chose to transliterate the Greek word, adding the Chinese character for disease," byou, making our word lepurabyou (レプラ病). I thought we were being pretty clever until I realized that when we translate the word in the OT we have to then use the Greek word there, too. Hmmmmmmm.

 

Interesting post. Glad you enjoyed my story. Interesting situation you have there with the hymns and all.

That rendering of apostolos seems to me to be problematic. The Greek word for angel, aggelos (ἄγγελος; the double gamma produces the "n" sound your transliteration has) doesn't have quite the gravitas that an apostle had. The aggelos was just a messenger, but the apostolos was more a representative with a mission.

 

We printed up a special edition of John (before it was actually revised) which was handed out to Japanese folk in the affected area after the devastating earthquake of 2011. Our final editor took them down with a truckload of food.

We've had 86,000 printed of "John and Romans," and they are almost all distributed. I believe that at least two ministries are going to be passing out copies of Mark and of John and Romans at the Tokyo Olympics this summer.

Sounds similar to the situation in Japanese, where the names were taken right from the original languages. We've pretty much stuck with the ones already in Protestant usage in our translation, though the Catholics have their own set of traditional names.

 

Okay, just one more today. It's a simple word on the surface: doulos (δοῦλος). This is a basic and important word, so the Greek 101 student gets it in a vocabulary assignment very early on in the typical textbook (Lesson 4 in the textbook I use, Learn to Read NT Greek, by David Alan Black). Typically, two glosses (basic meanings) are given for this word: servant, slave. The word occurs in 119 verses of the Textus Receptus Greek text.

Here is where the difficulty comes in. When is a doulos a servant, and when is he a slave? Now, the KJV unfailingly translates this word with "servant," but there was a complicated system of genuine slavery in the Roman Empire. And there were many, many slaves, some say a third of the population of the empire in the major cities. And, "The extent of the lord's or owner's control over the life, the family, the production, and potential freedom of the enslaved person varied greatly" (Servant, Slave," International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, rev., " Vol. 4, p. 420).

Now, there are passages where the doulos is clearly a slave, such as in the little book of Philemon. And there are other places where the doulos is clearly a servant, such as the doulos of the high priest whose ear Peter cut off (Matt. 26:51). How in the world does the translator tell the difference? At this point I would say to my class, "1, 2, 3...." And they would all holler, "Context!"

But to complicate matters, there is another Greek word translated "servant" but not meaning "slave." That is the word pais (παῖς). Not only does it not mean "slave," sometimes it means "child." This word occurs in 24 verses in the NT. Again, only context tells whether or not it should be rendered "servant" or "child."

So, chew on that for a while, and take some time to pray for Bible translators around the world.

 

In Philippians 3:8 is a controversial hapax legomenon (a word used only once in the NT) translated "dung" in the KJV. The word is skubalon (σκύβαλον), and in recent years it has become controversial because some scholars say that it is what linguists call a taboo word. Here is a definition of that: "Taboo word A word known to speakers but avoided in some, most, or all forms or contexts of speech, for reasons of religion, decorum, politeness, etc.” (P. H. Matthews, Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics, p. 400).

Now some scholars think that Paul used a taboo word here equivalent to the "s word" in English. Here is the footnote in the NET Bible: "The word here translated 'dung' was often used in Greek as a vulgar term for fecal matter. As such it would most likely have had a certain shock value for the readers. This may well be Paul’s meaning here, especially since the context is about what the flesh produces" (NET Bible NT, note 15 on p. 635). However, it is significant that the NET Bible rendering is "dung" and not a taboo word!

Here is the view of one Greek scholar that Paul used a taboo word: A Brief Word Study on Σκύβαλον | Bible.org

So, is skubalon a taboo word? I say that it is not. Note the following salient facts:
1. There are not other words considered to be taboo words in the entire NT.
2. Paul uses such words nowhere but possibly here in all of his writings. So he did not have a habit of it.
3. Paul is using the word in reference to his loyalty to Christ. It would be very strange if he were to use a taboo word in that context.
4. In my own research, in other Greek literature, I learned that the word is commonly used in a technical way by physicians. Would a doctor use a taboo word in talking about his craft or in speaking to a patient about his condition? No, of course not. Here is a source that quotes from Greek medical documents: Obscenity in Paul? The Question of σκύβαλον

So, how should the word be translated? I suggest using a common word for garbage or refuse. Using a taboo word for excrement just for shock value might cause the translation to be rejected by the very people group for which it is intended! Such things have actually happened!

 

One would think that the simple word "sword" would be easy to translate. That is true in some languages where there is a generic word for sword, such as, well, "sword"! Japanese fortunately has such a word, tsurugi (剣). But there is in Japanese a temptation to translate with the word for the incredible Japanese samurai long sword, the katana (刀)! But that would be a mistake. There is a shorter sword also carried by samurai warriors, the wakizashi (脇差), and that would be better but not totally equivalent.

As for the Chinese language, that country is just loaded with weapons, including various swords. When we were in Hong Kong on a martial arts ministry trip I bought a miniature display of Chinese weapons. No problem choosing a word for sword there. Those folks can kill you in a bunch of ways!

There are two words for sword in Greek. The most common one is machaira (μάχαιρα). This is what Peter cut off the man's ear with, what was used by Herod's executioner to kill James with (Acts 12:1-2), what the jailer was going to kill himself with (Acts 16:27), etc. I believe this is a generic word for sword, since it was used for various blades quite often in the LXX. However, it may be the Greek equivalent to the gladius (Latin), which was the Roman short sword, usually double-edged. The Greek word does appear in Roman papyri, according to my BAGD lexicon.

The other Greek word for sword is the hromphaia (ῥομφάιρα), which according to my BAGD lexicon (Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich, Danker) was "a large and broad sword, used by barbaric peoples, esp. the Thracians" (p. 737). It was a long, curved, deadly looking single-edged sword. It was deadly! It occurred in only 7 verses, notably in Luke 2:35, where Simeon uses it for the metaphorical sword that would pierce the heart of Mary, the mother of Jesus. All of the other times it occurs are in Revelation, where all the swords are deadly! (Be advised that if the Romanization you find is romphaia, it is mistaken. There is a rough breathing mark on the rho, which adds an "h" sound to the beginning of the word.)

I think most languages with a history of war would have a generic word for sword. However, what word would you use if you were translating into a tribal language? Most jungle tribes have machetes nowadays, and maybe this would have to be the word used. What do you think?

 

Those words were not taboo words in Hebrew or in 1611 English to my knowledge, whatever they are in modern English. (A perfectly innocent word can change into a taboo word over time, you know.) But if you think they were taboo words, go ahead and give us your research.

 

With non-taboo words.