God's covenant with Noah (image)

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covenant

The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin that are translated as “covenant” in English are translated in a variety of ways. Here are some (back-) translations:

  • Mossi: “helping promise”
  • Vai: “a thing-time-bind” (i.e. “an arrangement agreed upon for a period of time”)
  • Loma (Liberia): “agreement”
  • Northwestern Dinka: “agreement which is tied up” (i.e. “secure and binding”)
  • Chol: “a word which is left”
  • Huastec: “a broken-off word” (“based on the concept of ‘breaking off a word’ and leaving it with the person with whom an agreement has been reached”)
  • Tetelcingo Nahuatl: “a death command” (i.e. “a special term for testament”)
  • Piro: “a promised word”
  • Eastern Krahn: “a word between”
  • Yaka: “promise that brings together” (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Nabak: alakŋaŋ or “tying the knot” (source: Fabian 2013, p. 156)
  • Nyamwezi: ilagano: “agreement, contract, covenant, promise” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Q’anjob’al: “put mouths equal” (representing agreement) (source: Newberry and Kittie Cox in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. )
  • Manikion, Indonesian: “God’s promise” (source: Daud Soesilo)
  • Natügu: nzesz’tikr drtwr: “oneness of mind” (source: Brenda Boerger in Beerle-Moor / Voinov, p. 164)
  • Tagalog: tipan: mutual promising on the part of two persons agreeing to do something (also has a romantic touch and denotes something secretive) (source: G. Henry Waterman in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 24ff. )
  • Tagbanwa: “initiated-agreement” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Guhu-Samane: “The concept [in Mark 14:24 and Matthew 16:28] is not easy, but the ritual freeing of a fruit and nut preserve does afford some reference. Thus, ‘As they were drinking he said to them, ‘On behalf of many this poro provision [poro is the traditional religion] of my blood is released.’ (…) God is here seen as the great benefactor and man the grateful recipient.” (Source: Ernest Richert in The Bible Translator, 1965, p. 81ff. )
Law (2013, p. 95) writes about how the Ancient Greek Septuagint‘s translation of the Hebrew berith was used by the New Testament writers as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments (click or tap here to read more):

“Right from the start we witness the influence of the Septuagint on the earliest expressions of the Christian faith. In the New Testament, Jesus speaks of his blood being a kaine diatheke, a ‘new covenant.’ The covenant is elucidated in Hebrews 8:8-12 and other texts, but it was preserved in the words of Jesus with this language in Luke 22:20 when at the Last Supper Jesus said, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. Jesus’s blood was to provide the grounds for the ‘new covenant,’ in contrast to the old one his disciples knew from the Jewish scriptures (e.g., Jeremiah 31:31-34). Thus, the earliest Christians accepted the Jewish Scriptures as prophecies about Jesus and in time began to call the collection the ‘Old Testament’ and the writings about Jesus and early Christianity the ‘New Testament,’ since ‘testament’ was another word for ‘covenant.’ The covenant promises of God (berith in Hebrew) were translated in the Septuagint with the word diatheke. In classical Greek diatheke had meant ‘last will, testament,’ but in the Septuagint it is the chosen equivalent for God’s covenant with his people. The author of Hebrews plays on the double meaning, and when Luke records Jesus’ announcement at the Last Supper that his blood was instituting a ‘new covenant,’ or a ‘new testament,’ he is using the language in an explicit contrast with the old covenant, found in the Jewish scriptures. Soon, the writings that would eventually be chosen to make up the texts about the life and teachings of Jesus and the earliest expression of the Christian faith would be called the New Testament. This very distinction between the Old and New Testaments is based on the Septuagint’s language.”

See also establish (covenant) and covenant (book).

complete verse (Genesis 9:15)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 9:15:

  • Kankanaey: “I will-see-it-also and I will remember what I promised you and everything also that lives that there-will-not-be a flood again that is the cause-of-death of all that lives. That indeed is the sign of what I have promised to you and to all the creatures also.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Newari: “At that time I will remember the promise I made with you and all living beings. Never again will all living beings die by the coming of a flood.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “I will-remember right-away my covenant with you and with all the kinds of animals, that there will- never again (a) -flood to destroy all that lives.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “it will remind me about the promise that I have made to you and all living creatures, my promise that there will never again be a flood that will destroy all living creatures.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Genesis 9:15

I will remember my covenant which is between me and you: remember does not suggest that God has forgotten. “I will think of,” or “it will remind me,” or “it will cause me to think of” may be more suitable. For covenant see Gen 9.9. You is still plural.

Every living creature is as in verse 12. Of all flesh is as in 6.19 and refers to “every kind of living being.”

And the waters: and appears to add another statement; however, it introduces the content of the covenant that is brought to mind by the appearance of the rainbow. Therefore Good News Translation translates “that a flood will never….” Bible en français courant replaces and with a colon followed by “there will never be a great flood….” In some languages a special term is used to introduce the content of a statement such as this, similar to the English “namely.” Other languages make a new sentence without a linking word such as and.

The waters shall never again become a flood means “there will never again be a flood.” To destroy all flesh is “to eliminate all life,” “to take away everything that lives,” “to kill all living beings.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .