11my persecutions, and my sufferings, the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.
Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Timothy 3:11:
Uma: “You have seen that/how I endured persecution and difficulties that struck me in the village of Antiokhia, in Ikonium and in Listra. No kidding those persecutions! But the Lord released me from all of that.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “You know the persecution and troubles/sorrows which arrived at/came to me. You know what happened there in the town of Antiyok and there in Ikoni and there in Listara. Yes, you know all the persecution I endured. But I was freed by our (dual) Leader from all my hardships/difficulties.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “and like me, your enemies have persecuted you. You have also inadvertently imitated everything that I have passed through in the towns of Antioch and Iconium and Lystra, and all of the affliction which I suffered. As for God, He rescued me from all of these.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “You (sing.) also know the excessive hardship I’ve been undergoing such as what happened to me at Antiok, Iconium and at Listra. But (reassurance particle) the Lord saved-me from all this hardship that I have experienced.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “You have really observed the persecution of me my fellowman and all the things I have experienced which are not good. You have known about what happened to me at Antioquia, Iconio and Listra, that I was really caused-hardship/persecuted. But it’s clear that I was saved by God from/through all of this.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “You know about how people hated me, not wanting to set eyes on me, and you know how much suffering I had. Like the suffering I had in the city of Antioch, and that which I had in the city of Iconium, and there in the city of Lystra I suffered from the people who did not want even to look on me. But in connection with all this suffering, God saved me.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The Hebrew adonai in the Old Testament typically refers to God. The shorter adon (and in two cases in the book of Daniel the Aramaic mare [מָרֵא]) is also used to refer to God but more often for concepts like “master,” “owner,” etc. In English Bible translations all of those are translated with “Lord” if they refer to God.
In English Old Testament translations, as in Old Testament translations in many other languages, the use of Lord (or an equivalent term in other languages) is not to be confused with Lord (or the equivalent term with a different typographical display for other languages). While the former translates adonai, adon and mare, the latter is a translation for the tetragrammaton (YHWH) or the Name of God. See tetragrammaton (YHWH) and the article by Andy Warren-Rothlin in Noss / Houser, p. 618ff. for more information.
In the New Testament, the Greek term kurios has at least four different kinds of use:
referring to “God,” especially in Old Testament quotations,
meaning “master” or “owner,” especially in parables, etc.,
as a form of address (see for instance John 4:11: “Sir, you have no bucket”),
or, most often, referring to Jesus
In the first and fourth case, it is also translated as “Lord” in English.
Most languages naturally don’t have one word that covers all these meanings. According to Bratcher / Nida, “the alternatives are usually (1) a term which is an honorific title of respect for a high-ranking person and (2) a word meaning ‘boss’, ‘master’, or ‘chief.’ (…) and on the whole it has generally seemed better to employ a word of the second category, in order to emphasize the immediate personal relationship, and then by context to build into the word the prestigeful character, since its very association with Jesus Christ will tend to accomplish this purpose.”
When looking at the following list of back-translations of the terms that translators in the different languages have used for both kurios and adonai to refer to God and Jesus respectively, it might be helpful for English readers to recall the etymology of the English “Lord.” While this term might have gained an exalted meaning in the understanding of many, it actually comes from hlaford or “loaf-ward,” referring to the lord of the castle who was the keeper of the bread (source: Rosin 1956, p. 121).
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight
Following are some of the solutions that don’t rely on a different typographical display (see above):
Iyansi: Mwol. Mwol is traditionally used for the “chief of a group of communities and villages” with legal, temporal, and spiritual authority (versus the “mfum [the term used in other Bantu languages] which is used for the chief of one community of people in one village”). Mwol is also used for twins who are “treated as special children, highly honored, and taken care of like kings and queens.” (Source: Kividi Kikama in Greed / Kruger, p. 396ff.)
Binumarien: Karaambaia: “fight-leader” (Source: Oates 1995, p. 255)
Warlpiri: Warlaljamarri (owner or possessor of something — for more information tap or click here)
We have come to rely on another term which emphasizes God’s essential nature as YHWH, namely jukurrarnu (see tetragrammaton (YHWH)). This word is built on the same root jukurr– as is jukurrpa, ‘dreaming.’ Its basic meaning is ‘timelessness’ and it is used to describe physical features of the land which are viewed as always being there. Some speakers view jukurrarnu in terms of ‘history.’ In all Genesis references to YHWH we have used Kaatu Jukurrarnu. In all Mark passages where kurios refers to God and not specifically to Christ we have also used Kaatu Jukurrarnu.
New Testament references to Christ as kurios are handled differently. At one stage we experimented with the term Watirirririrri which refers to a ceremonial boss of highest rank who has the authority to instigate ceremonies. While adequately conveying the sense of Christ’s authority, there remained potential negative connotations relating to Warlpiri ceremonial life of which we might be unaware.
Here it is that the Holy Spirit led us to make a chance discovery. Transcribing the personal testimony of the local Warlpiri pastor, I noticed that he described how ‘my Warlaljamarri called and embraced me (to the faith)’. Warlaljamarri is based on the root warlalja which means variously ‘family, possessions, belongingness’. A warlaljamarri is the ‘owner’ or ‘possessor’ of something. While previously being aware of the ‘ownership’ aspect of warlaljamarri, this was the first time I had heard it applied spontaneously and naturally in a fashion which did justice to the entire concept of ‘Lordship’. Thus references to Christ as kurios are now being handled by Warlaljamarri.” (Source: Stephen Swartz, The Bible Translator 1985, p. 415ff. )
Mairasi: Onggoao Nem (“Throated One” — “Leader,” “Elder”) or Enggavot Nan (“Above-One”) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Obolo: Okaan̄-ene (“Owner of person(s)”) (source: Enene Enene)
Lotha Naga: Opvui (“owner of house / field / cattle”) — since both “Lord” and YHWH are translated as Opvui there is an understanding that “Opvui Jesus is the same as the Opvui of the Old Testament”
Seediq: Tholang, loan word from Min Nan Chinese (the majority language in Taiwan) thâu-lâng (頭儂): “Master” (source: Covell 1998, p. 248)
Thai: phra’ phu pen cao (พระผู้เป็นเจ้า) (divine person who is lord) or ong(kh) cao nay (องค์เจ้านาย) (<divine classifier>-lord-boss) (source: Stephen Pattemore)
Arabic often uses different terms for adonai or kurios referring to God (al-rabb الرب) and kurios referring to Jesus (al-sayyid الـسـيـد). Al-rabb is also the term traditionally used in Arabic Christian-idiom translations for YHWH, and al-sayyid is an honorary term, similar to English “lord” or “sir” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin).
Tamil also uses different terms for adonai/kurios when referring to God and kurios when referring to Jesus. The former is Karttar கர்த்தர், a Sanskrit-derived term with the original meaning of “creator,” and the latter in Āṇṭavar ஆண்டவர், a Tamil term originally meaning “govern” or “reign” (source: Natarajan Subramani).
Burunge: Looimoo: “owner who owns everything” (in the Burunge Bible translation, this term is only used as a reference to Jesus and was originally used to refer to the traditional highest deity — source: Michael Endl in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 48)
Aguacateco: Ajcaw ske’j: “the one to whom we belong and who is above us” (source: Rita Peterson in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 49)
Konkomba: Tidindaan: “He who is the owner of the land and reigns over the people” (source: Lidorio 2007, p. 66)
Law (2013, p. 97) writes about how the Ancient GreekSeptuagint‘s translation of the Hebrew adonai was used by the New Testament writers as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments: “Another case is the use of kurios referring to Jesus. For Yahweh (in English Bibles: ‘the Lord‘), the Septuagint uses kurios. Although the term kurios usually has to do with one’s authority over others, when the New Testament authors use this word from the Septuagint to refer to Jesus, they are making an extraordinary claim: Jesus of Nazareth is to be identified with Yahweh.”
Persecutions is derived from a verb that refers to the act of organizing a systematic program of harassment and oppression. My persecutions may also be expressed as “when people persecuted me,” “when people showed their hatred toward me (or, showed how much they hated me),” or “when people caused me to undergo hard times.”
Sufferings denotes hardships in general, but in the present context it refers primarily to afflictions that Paul experienced because of persecution. It is in fact possible to restructure this part of the verse in such a way that the sufferings are identified with those hardships and difficulties that Paul experienced in the three places that he mentions (compare New Revised Standard Version “suffering the things that happened to me in…”). Such a restructuring makes clear that the sufferings are indeed results of persecutions. So one may translate “when people persecuted me, causing me to suffer greatly.”
The three places mentioned are especially significant, for these are familiar to Timothy, growing up as he did in this area. Paul visited these places during his first missionary journey (Acts 13.14–14.26; for persecutions in Antioch, see Acts 13.50; for Iconium, Acts 14.2-6; for Lystra, Acts 14.19-20; and note the route of Paul’s first journey on the map, page 6|fig:Map_Paul-12.jpg). Lystra is especially significant, since it is the home town of Timothy himself (Acts 16.1-5). It seems that Paul is not simply appealing to Timothy’s emotional ties with these places, but to the firsthand knowledge Timothy has about these sufferings of Paul which became examples he followed. It is possible to restructure the first part of this verse as follows: “You know how people caused me all sorts of trouble in the cities of Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, so that I suffered terribly.”
The expression what persecutions I endured can be understood as emphatic, accenting the gravity of the persecution and the ability of Paul to endure. This understanding is reflected in Good News Translation by the use of an exclamation point (compare New Revised Standard Version “What persecutions I endured!”). For endured see verse 10 above; the word used here and in verse 10 are not the same but are closely related in meaning.
Once again Lord is ambiguous, but in the light of the usage of this word in the Pastorals, the antecedent is most probably Christ Jesus. The word for rescued refers to deliverance from severe danger. Paul of course was not rescued from the persecutions, since he went through them all. But he was rescued from the dangers that these persecutions presented, as, for instance, the danger of giving up, and especially the danger of being killed. Another translation model, then, is “But Christ Jesus rescued me from all these dangers.”
Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.