peace (inner peace)

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The Hebrew and Greek that is translated into English as “peace” (or “at ease”) is (back-) translated with a variety of idioms and phrases:

In American Sign Language it is signed with a compound sign consisting of “become” and “silent.” (Source: Yates 2011, p. 52)


“Peace” in American Sign Language (source )

See also peace (absence of strife) and this devotion on YouVersion .

pregnant

The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that are translated as “(become) pregnant” in English is rendered as “got belly” (Sranan Tongo and Kituba) as “having two bodies” (Indonesian), as “be-of-womb” (Sinhala), as “heavy” (Balinese), and as “in-a-fortunate-state” (Batak Toba). (Source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)

In Kafa it is translated as “having two lives” (source: Loren Bliese), in Southern Birifor as tara pʊɔ or “to have stomach,” in Kamba as “be-heavy” (source for this and above: Andy Warren-Rothlin), and in the Swabian 2007 translation by Rudolf Paul as kommt en andere Omständ, lit. “be in different circumstances.”

In Mairasi it is translated as “have a soul [ghost].” (Source: Enggavoter, 2004)

peace and security

The Greek that is translated as “peace and security” in English is translated in Enlhet as “no news.” “For when all is well there is ‘no news.’ Even when one sends a message to his family about one’s being well, it will be: ‘Tell them that coming from me there is no news,’ i.e. ‘everything is fine and I am well and safe.'” (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )

complete verse (1 Thessalonians 5:3)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Thessalonians 5:3:

  • Uma: “The time will come when people will say: "Our(incl.) life is good, there is nothing we (incl.) fear." But in fact, that is the very time when calamity will strike them! That will happen suddenly, like the suffering of a woman about to give birth. There is no way for them to dodge/avoid their punishment.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “When the people say, ‘Na, all is well (peaceful). There is no danger,’ then suddenly calamity will come and they will perish. Calamity will suddenly arrive like a woman has sudden pain when she is about to give birth, and the people won’t succeed in fleeing.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “It will happen at a time when people will think mistakenly that everything is peaceful and that they are safe. And then they will quickly be destroyed. It will be very quick; just like the beginning of labor pains on a woman giving birth. And not even one of them will escape.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “On that day, there will be those who say that their life is peaceful and that moreover there is nothing for them to worry-about, whereupon suddenly/unexpectedly their punishment will arrive like the sudden undergoing-pain/hardship of a woman when she-will-give-birth. And they absolutely won’t be able-to-escape-from that punishment.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For on that day, everyone will be saying, ‘Expl., it sure is peaceful today! There’s nothing to frighten us away.’ But what will surprise them is that they will be reached by far-from-ordinary hardship. Really no matter what they will do, there really will be nowhere they can run away to, for they will be reached like a pregnant woman who suddenly feels labor-pains.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “It is at the time which a person thinks he is well off, there isn’t anything. And that is the time when there will be destruction. Suddenly it will come, like when the time comes when a woman gives birth. Then there will be no escape from it.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on 1 Thessalonians 5:3

The word translated when usually, but not always, means “whenever”; but “whenever” clearly will not do here, since the Day of the Lord does not come every time people talk of peace and security (virtually two synonyms). But the idea of repeated action need not be excluded in translation, and various English versions may suggest this by the use of the so-called progressive form. Barclay has “when people are talking of how peaceful and secure life is”; Knox “It is just when men are saying, All quiet, all safe, that…”; Phillips “When men are saying ‘peace and security’ ”; Translator’s New Testament “Just when people are saying how peaceful and secure everything is…”; cf. Moffatt “when ‘all’s well’ and ‘all is safe’, are on the lips of men”; cf. Jeremiah 6.14; Ezekiel 13.10; Matthew 24.37-39. But the emphasis here is not on the repeated action of thinking that all is well, but on the factor of indefinite time.

Some languages need to make it clear that say refers to a future activity, that is, “when people will be saying.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates: “when people begin to say.”

People translate an impersonal “they say,” but the latter part of the verse suggests that Paul is thinking specially of non-Christians, and he states this more explicitly in verse 4 by the emphatic but you, and in verse 6 by the others.

In some languages it is necessary to make quiet and safe more clearly related to those who talk about such a condition, for example, “when people will say, No one is rioting and we are safe,” or “… Everyone is peaceful, and we need not have any fear.”

Destruction translates a word which in the New Testament (1) always refers to destruction by some supernatural power, and (2) never implies complete annihilation. The meaning is close to “punishment” or even “God’s judgment.” Those who refuse to believe are punished, but (or therefore) do not cease to exist. It is difficult to combine both these elements in translation, and the impersonal use of destruction (avoiding the direct statement “God will destroy them”) makes things even more difficult. Moffatt‘s “Destruction” (with a capital D) shows that he was conscious of the problem, but using a capital letter does not solve it. Jerusalem Bible has “the worst suddenly happens,” and some French translations have “ruin,” both of which avoid the suggestion of annihilation.

In some languages one cannot say “destruction will hit them,” because destruction is itself an event. One can be hit by objects but not by an event such as destruction. The closest equivalent may be “then suddenly they will suffer terribly,” or “they will be in great trouble.”

The latter part of the verse introduces successively a new comparison and a new idea: the pains that come upon a woman in labor. Good News Translation (cf. Phillips) brings out clearly a reference to the final stages of pregnancy which is required by the context. A woman who is about to give birth is in Greek simply “a pregnant woman.” The major point of the comparison is the suddenness both of the birth pangs and of the Day of the Lord. Good News Translation emphasizes this by suddenly at the beginning of the clause (then suddenly), as the Greek, and also by repeating it in the next sentence (as suddenly as), where it is not found in the Greek. A slight overemphasis of this element is perhaps needed, since Paul probably returns in verse 4 (see the notes on that verse) to the unexpectedness of the Day of the Lord. In people will not escape, the word not is emphasized. One may also translate “then destruction will hit them as suddenly as the pains that come upon a woman who is about to give birth, and they will not escape.”

It is always possible to talk about “escaping” from prison or from confinement, but it may be difficult to speak of “escaping” from destruction. If in the previous clause destruction will hit them is rendered something like “suddenly they will suffer terribly,” then people will not escape may be rendered as “people will most certainly suffer,” or “it is not possible that people will not suffer.”

Since Paul is not referring to the intensity of pain in childbirth but to the fact that such pain is unexpected, it may be possible to translate “the suffering will surely come, and when one is not expecting it, just like the suffering that comes to a woman who is about to give birth.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .