ἰδοὺ μακαρίζομεν τοὺς ὑπομείναντας· τὴν ὑπομονὴν Ἰὼβ ἠκούσατε καὶ τὸ τέλος κυρίου εἴδετε, ὅτι πολύσπλαγχνός ἐστιν ὁ κύριος καὶ οἰκτίρμων.
11Indeed, we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the outcome that the Lord brought about, for the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
The Greek that is translated in English as “endurance” (or “patience”or “perseverance”) is translated in Tzotzil as “(good) strength of heart(s).” (Source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.)
In Isthmus Zapotec it is translated as “learning not to lose patience.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
The Hebrew and Greek that is transliterated as “Job” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign for “patience,” referring to James 5:11 and many other passages within the book of Job. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
“Job” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España
In Swiss-German Sign Language it is translated with the sign for “suffering.”
“Job” in Swiss-German Sign Language, source: DSGS-Lexikon biblischer Begriffe , © CGG Schweiz
The Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Aramaic that is translated into English as “(to) bless” or “blessed” is translated into a wide variety of possibilities.
The Hebrew term barak (and the Aramaic term berak) also (and originally) means “kneel” (a meaning which the word has retained — see Gen. 24:11) and can be used for God blessing people (or things), people blessing each other, or people blessing God. While English Bible translators have not seen a stumbling block in always using the same term (“bless” in its various forms), other languages need to make distinctions (see below).
In Bari, spoken in South Sudan, the connection between blessing and knees/legs is still apparent. For Genesis 30:30 (in English: “the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned”), Bari uses a common expression that says (much like the Hebrew), ‘… blessed you to my feet.'” (Source: P. Guillebaud in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 189ff. .)
In Tagbanwa a phrase is used for both the blessing done by people and God that back-translates to “caused to be pierced by words causing grace/favor” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).
Ixcatlán Mazatec had to select a separate term when relating “to people ‘blessing’ God” (or things of God): “praise(d)” or “give thanks for” (in 1 Cor. 10:16) (“as it is humans doing the ‘blessing’ and people do not bless the things of God or God himself the way God blesses people” — source: Robert Bascom). Eastern Bru and Kui also use “praise” for this a God-directed blessing (source: Bru back translation and Helen Evans in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) and Uma uses “appropriate/worthy to be worshipped” (source: Uma back translation).
When related to someone who is blessing someone else, it is translated into Tsou as “speak good hopes for.” In Waiwai it is translated as “may God be good and kind to you now.” (Sources: Peng Kuo-Wei for Tsou and Robert Hawkins in The Bible Translator 1962, pp. 164ff. for Waiwai.)
Some languages associate an expression that originally means “spitting” or “saliva” with blessing. The Bantu language Koonzime, for instance, uses that expression for “blessing” in their translation coming from either God or man. Traditionally, the term was used in an application of blessing by an aged superior upon a younger inferior, often in relation to a desire for fertility, or in a ritualistic, but not actually performed spitting past the back of the hand. The spitting of saliva has the effect of giving that person “tenderness of face,” which can be translated as “blessedness.” (Source: Keith Beavon)
Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the Danish Bibelen 2020, comments on the translation of this term: “As for ‘blessing’, in the end we in most instances actually kept the word, after initially preferring the expression ‘giving life strength’. The backlash against dropping the word blessing was too hard. But we would often add a few words to help the reader understand what the word means in a given context — people often understand it to refer more to a spiritual connection with God, but in the Hebrew texts, it usually has to do with material things or good health or many children. So when e.g. in Isaiah 19:25 the Hebrew text says ‘God bless them’, we say ‘God bless them’ and we add: ‘and give them strength’. ‘And give them strength’ is not found in the overt Hebrew text, but we are again making explicit what we believe is the meaning so as to avoid misunderstanding.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )
See also bless (food and drink), blessed (Christ in Mark 11:9), and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.
See also “Blessed by ‘The Blessing’ in the World’s Indigenous Languages” and Multilingual version of “The Blessing” based on Numbers 6:24-26 .
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, translators typically select the inclusive form (“we call blessed” in English) (including the reader).
Source: SIL International Translation Department (1999).
Following are a number of back-translations of James 5:11:
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:
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).
Following are some of the solutions that don’t rely on a different typographical display (see above):
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. )
Law (2013, p. 97) writes about how the Ancient Greek Septuagint‘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.”
See also Father / Lord.
James again uses the demonstrative particle Behold to call attention to an important statement, summarizing the content of the previous two verses. The force of the particle in this instance has been rendered as “Remember” (Phillips, New Jerusalem Bible), “As you know” (New International Version), “Indeed” (New American Bible, New Revised Standard Version), “In fact” (Contemporary English Version).
We call those happy who were steadfast: the verb rendered we call … happy may be rendered “we reckon … truly happy,” or “We consider blessed” (New International Version). The word “happy” is certainly a modern term that can be easily understood. However, some scholars are not satisfied with “happy” as a rendering, feeling that it weakens the force of the original, and have therefore tried to bring the original force out by adding an adverb, such as “how happy” (Living Bible), or a classifier like “ultimate bliss” (Barclay). It is also possible to consider the clause we call those happy to mean “we praise those who” (similarly Contemporary English Version), meaning “we bless them,” or “we say nice things about them,” or even “they deserve much praise.” We here refers to all Christians and therefore should be rendered as inclusive “we.”
The participle rendered as those … who were steadfast is related in meaning to the verb be patient used in 5.7 (see the discussion there). To be steadfast is to have “the power to see things through” (Barclay). The meaning of the participle has been brought out in various ways; for example, “who have persevered” (New International Version, New American Bible), “who showed endurance” (New Revised Standard Version), “because they endured” (Good News Translation), “who endured the most” (Contemporary English Version), “who stood firm” (Revised English Bible). Those can refer back to “the prophets” in the previous verse, as Good News Translation interprets it with “We call them happy because.” However, it is more likely that those simply means “anyone who.” Contemporary English Version seems to follow this interpretation, with “we praise the ones who….” It is thus possible to express this first sentence as:
• In fact [or, Indeed] we consider anyone truly happy who endured.
• In fact we praise [or, bless] any of those people who….
You have heard of the steadfastness of Job: as a concrete example of someone who showed steadfastness, James cites Job. He uses the noun steadfastness in order to make a connection with the related verb used in the previous sentence for emphasis. The phrase the steadfastness of Job is rendered as “the patience of Job” by King James Version, and obviously it is this translation that gives rise to the proverbial phrase “the patience of Job” in English. In Job’s case “steadfastness” meant that, even though he did complain about God’s treatment of him, he never lost his faith. He believed in God even though he could not understand his sufferings; he continued to have hope in him (Job 1.21; 2.10). The phrase has been rendered variously; for example, “the endurance of Job” (New Revised Standard Version), “the perseverance of Job” (New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible), “Job’s patient endurance” (Phillips).
You have seen the purpose of the Lord: this statement is still related to the example of Job. The verb have seen can also be understood as “have understood” (New Jerusalem Bible) or as “know” (so Barclay, Good News Translation). Here again the Lord refers to God. There are two possible meanings of the phrase the purpose of the Lord, depending on how we interpret the meaning of purpose.
(1) It is possible to take it to mean purpose as in the Revised Standard Version translation (so also New Jerusalem Bible, New Revised Standard Version), referring to the ultimate purpose of God behind Job’s sufferings. In other words, God designed Job’s experience with a purpose.
(2) The second possibility, favored by more commentators, is to take it in the sense of “end” (so King James Version), “outcome,” or “result,” that is, to take the phrase as an objective genitive, referring the final outcome that God brought about. The outcome of Job’s situation was the restoration of his family and fortune (Job 42.10-17).
The second possibility obviously fits the context better and therefore is the one to be preferred. It is also in accord with the thoughts in verses 7-8 above. This understanding is reflected in renderings like “… how the Lord provided for him in the end” (Good News Translation), “… how the Lord treated him in the end” (Revised English Bible), “how the Lord finally helped him” (Contemporary English Version). Some scholars take the Lord here to be Christ and interpret the “end” to be the death of Christ, or even the second coming of Christ, but these interpretations are not supported by the context.
The outcome of Job’s experience shows how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. This echoes the words of Exo 34.6 and Psa 103.8. The adjective rendered compassionate is used only here in the New Testament. It is literally “[full of] many inward parts [or, entrails].” Among the Hebrew people the inward parts were the seat of the emotions, equivalent to “heart” or “liver” in many cultures. The adjective then means “full of compassion” (so New International Version), or “very kind” (Goodspeed). In some languages it will be possible to use an expression that is both descriptive and close to the original expression; for example, “The Lord possesses a large heart and bowels.” The adjective rendered merciful is used elsewhere only in Luke 6.36, where it describes God the Father as “merciful.” It is for all practical purposes the same in meaning as the word compassionate. This is seen in some renderings where the order of the two is reversed; for example, “For the Lord is full of mercy and compassion” (Good News Translation; similarly Revised English Bible) or “he is merciful and kind” (Contemporary English Version).
Quoted with permission from Loh, I-Jin and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Letter from James. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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