gentiles

Click here to view graphically

The Greek that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).

Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).

See also nations.

Translation commentary on 2 Maccabees 8:17

Keeping before their eyes …: Judas urged his men to remember what the Gentiles had done against the Temple, Jerusalem, and Jewish traditions. He was not keeping it before their eyes; he was urging them to keep it before their eyes, so the beginning of this verse may be rendered “Don’t ever forget how…” (Contemporary English Version).

The lawless outrage which the Gentiles had committed against the holy place refers to the desecration the Temple (see 2Macc 6.15).

And the torture of the derided city is a figure of speech in which the city of Jerusalem is considered a person; New Jerusalem Bible avoids the personification with “and the infamous and scornful treatment inflicted on the city.”

And besides, the overthrow of their ancestral way of life refers to King Antiochus’ attempt to convert the Jews to a Greek style of life, which would mean ignoring ancient Jewish law.

Here is a model that uses direct speech for verse 17 to follow the one for the previous verse:

• Don’t ever forget how the Gentiles defiled [or, disgraced] God’s Temple! Remember the scornful and cruel way they treated Jerusalem! Remember how they have tried to abolish our ancient traditions!

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.