addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed. The first example is from a language where God is always addressed distinctly formal whereas the second is one where the opposite choice was made.

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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff.), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.

Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”

In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.

Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking (source Philip Noss).

In Dutch and Western Frisian translations, however, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 18:20

Is evil a recompense for good?: Jeremiah had previously prayed for the LORD to be merciful to his enemies (15.11; 17.16). But in spite of that, they still wish to trap and kill him. Jeremiah asks if this is just. If translators think that it will not be clear to readers why Jeremiah asks this question, they can say “Is evil the payment I will receive for doing good?” The answer to this question is clearly “No,” but the people are doing exactly that. Yet, which begins the next line, emphasizes that contrast. There are various ways languages convey the same sense; for example, “Good should not be repaid with evil, but they are digging a pit for me” and “Is good to be repaid with evil, that they have dug a pit for me?” (Revised English Bible).

They have dug a pit for my life is omitted by some on the assumption that it was brought in from verse 22. However, there is no textual basis for its omission, and Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends that it be retained. Pit refers to a pit for trapping animals. Elsewhere the word is used in Psa 57.6; 119.85. Life represents the Hebrew word often translated “soul” (see 17.21). For this line Good News Translation has “they have dug a pit for me to fall in.” New American Bible understands the expression to mean that the people want to kill Jeremiah: “they … dig a pit to take my life.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch does away with the figure: “They wanted me in their power.”

How I stood before thee: See 15.1. This is the posture of prayer (New Jerusalem Bible “how I pleaded before you”). Moffatt translates this and the following line as “men for whom once (remember) I made intercession, pleading in thy presence.”

To speak good for them is generally translated “to speak on their behalf.”

The next line gives the content of Jeremiah’s prayer: to turn away thy wrath from them. Good News Translation expresses this as “so that you would not deal with them in anger.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .