widow

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “widow” in English is translated in West Kewa as ona wasa or “woman shadow.” (Source: Karl J. Franklin in Notes on Translation 70/1978, pp. 13ff.)

The etymological meaning of the Hebrew almanah (אַלְמָנָה) is likely “pain, ache,” the Greek chéra (χήρα) is likely “to leave behind,” “abandon,” and the English widow (as well as related terms in languages such as Dutch, German, Sanskrit, Welsh, or Persian) is “to separate,” “divide” (source: Wiktionary).

See also widows.

pray

The Greek that is translated as “pray” in English is often translated as “talking with God” (Central Pame, Tzeltal, Chol, Chimborazo Highland Quichua, Shipibo-Conibo, Kaqchikel, Tepeuxila Cuicatec, Copainalá Zoque, Central Tarahumara).

Other solutions include:

  • “to beg” or “to ask,” (full expression: “to ask with one’s heart coming out,” which leaves out selfish praying, for asking with the heart out leaves no place for self to hide) (Tzotzil)
  • “to cause God to know” (Huichol)
  • “to raise up one’s words to God” (implying an element of worship, as well as communication) (Miskito, Lacandon) (Source of this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Shilluk: “speak to God” (source: Nida 1964, p. 237)
  • Mairasi: “talk together with Great Above One (=God)” (source: Enggavoter, 2004)
  • San Blas Kuna: “call to one’s Father” (source: Claudio and Marvel Iglesias in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 85ff.)
  • Ik: waan: “beg.” Terrill Schrock (in Wycliffe Bible Translators 2016, p. 93) explains (click or tap here to read more):

    What do begging and praying have to do with each other? Do you beg when you pray? Do I?

    “The Ik word for ‘visitor’ is waanam, which means ‘begging person.’ Do you beg when you go visiting? The Ik do. Maybe you don’t beg, but maybe when you visit someone, you are looking for something. Maybe it’s just a listening ear.

    When the Ik hear that [my wife] Amber and I are planning trip to this or that place for a certain amount of time, the letters and lists start coming. As the days dwindle before our departure, the little stack of guests grows. ‘Please, sir, remember me for the allowing: shoes, jacket (rainproof), watch, box, trousers, pens, and money for the children. Thank you, sir, for your assistance.’

    “A few people come by just to greet us or spend bit of time with us. Another precious few will occasionally confide in us about their problems without asking for anything more than a listening ear. I love that.

    “The other day I was in our spare bedroom praying my list of requests to God — a nice list covering most areas of my life, certainly all the points of anxiety. Then it hit me: Does God want my list, or does he want my relationship?

    “I decided to try something. Instead of reading off my list of requests to God, I just talk to him about my issues without any expectation of how he should respond. I make it more about our relationship than my list, because if our personhood is like God’s personhood, then maybe God prefers our confidence and time to our lists, letters, and enumerations.”

In Luang it is translated with different shades of meaning (click or tap here to read more):

  • For Acts 1:14, 20:36, 21:5: kola ttieru-yawur nehla — “hold the waist and hug the neck.” (“This is the more general term for prayer and often refers to worship in prayer as opposed to petition. The Luang people spend the majority of their prayers worshiping rather than petitioning, which explains why this term often is used generically for prayer.”)
  • For Acts 28:9: sumbiani — “pray.” (“This term is also used generically for ‘prayer’. When praying is referred to several times in close proximity, it serves as a variation for kola ttieru-yawur nehla, in keeping with Luang discourse style. It is also used when a prayer is made up of many requests.”)
  • For Acts 8:15, 12:5: polu-waka — “call-ask.” (“This is a term for petition that is used especially when the need is very intense.”)

Source: Kathy Taber in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 9-16.

complete verse (Mark 12:40)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 12:40:

  • Uma: “They deceive widows and they take-away their houses. They hide the evil of their deeds by praying long-long. Their punishment will be very heavy.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But they,’ said Isa, ‘they cause difficulties for the widow women in order to get their houses, and they cause their worship to be long pretending that they are good people. Surely they will receive great/severe judgment in the afterworld.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The teachers of the law cheat widow women so that they might come to own the houses of those women. Their prayers are very long, but are only a coverup for their wicked deeds. God’s punishment on them later will be very great.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “They moreover deceive widowed women in order to get their possessions and even their houses while-at-the-same-time they make-long their prayers in the sight of the many-people. In-the-future indeed (prophetic formula) their punishment will be heavier.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “And they use up the livelihood of widows through what they cause them to give. And for the reason that they want to cover up their evil ways/nature, they pray long prayers. Really extremely hard/heavy is their punishment.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Ibaloi: “They wickedly take the possessions of widowed women, and when they go to their church they make long prayers, so that they will say that they are good people. Big is the punishment of God on them.” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)

Translation commentary on Mark 12:40

Exegesis:

hoi katesthontes ‘the ones devouring’: there is lack of syntactical concordance, inasmuch as the participle here is in the nominative case, in apposition to houtoi ‘these’ of the last clause, and not in the genitive, in agreement with tōn grammateōn ‘the scribes’ to which it refers. The difficulty may be resolved by making this a relative clause, ‘who devour’ (Revised Standard Version), or by starting a new sentence, as Translator’s New Testament, ‘They who devour….’ Revised Standard Version, however, makes for greater clarity and intelligibility.

katesthō or katesthiō (cf. 4.4) ‘devour’: here, figuratively, meaning ‘rob,’ ‘exploit,’ ‘consume,’ ‘destroy.’ Arndt & Gingrich suggest ‘appropriate illegally,’ and give examples. Lagrange suggests that they despoiled the widows by their knowledge of the law.

tas oikias tōn chērōn ‘the houses of widows’: a summary way of saying ‘their belongings,’ ‘their fortunes’ (cf. Lagrange les biens).

chēra (12.42, 43) ‘widow.’

kai prophasei makra proseuchomenoi ‘and for a pretense make long prayers.’ The exact force of prophasis (only here in Mark) is not clear: (1) it may be connected with what precedes, meaning ‘and to cover it up make long prayers’ (Goodspeed; cf. also O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada; cf. Gould); (2) it may modify the subject (‘the scribes’) and mean ‘for a pretense’ (Revised Standard Version), ‘for show’ (Berkeley, Translator’s New Testament), ‘for appearance’ sake’; (3) it may modify the object (‘the long prayers’ implied in the clause makra proseuchomenoi ‘praying long’), ‘offer long, unreal prayers’ (Moffatt), ‘make long but insincere prayers’ (Manson). Grammar alone cannot decide the question: it would appear, however, that the context favors the second possibility.

prophasis ‘pretense,’ ‘pretext,’ ‘ostensible reason.’

makra is adverbial (neuter accusative plural of the adjective makros ‘long’; cf. the adverb makran 12.34) ‘lengthily,’ ‘extensively.’

proseuchomai (cf. 1.35) ‘pray.’

lēmpsontai perissoteron krima ‘they shall receive greater condemnation’: the meaning is eschatological, ‘they shall receive from God on the day of Judgment a more severe sentence.’

perissoteron (cf. 7.36) ‘greater’: here it is an adjective, modifying krima.

krima (only here in Mark) ‘condemnation,’ ‘judgment,’ ‘sentence.’

Translation:

Devour widows’ houses is a metaphor which is quite meaningless in many languages. In some, however, it would convey an entirely wrong idea. For example, in one language scribes, which was rendered by a transcribed borrowing from a trade language (and hence was not fully understood), was thought to be the name of a special kind of animal which could consume the thatch and cornstalk houses so often used as shelters by the poor widows. When, however, ‘devour widows’ houses’ does not convey the proper meaning, one can shift the metaphor to a nonmetaphor in any one of several ways, e.g. ‘cause houses to come to nothing’ (Piro), ‘take away all the widows have’ (Southern Subanen), ‘eat up what widows have’ (Copainalá Zoque), ‘take away what belongs to poor women and use it up,’ in which ‘poor women’ is the usual term for ‘widow’ (Tzeltal), and ‘eat up the money of the houses of widows’ (Tabasco Chontal).

In line with the second possible interpretation of for a pretense (see comments above), one may translate in a number of different ways, e.g. ‘only with their lips they pray very much’ (San Mateo del Mar Huave), ‘so that they may deceive they pray a long time’ (South Bolivian Quechua), ‘they make long prayers but do not mean them’ (Tzeltal), and ‘try to show they are good by making long prayers’ (Guerrero Amuzgo).

Receive the greater condemnation may be translated in terms of the sentence or judgment passed, e.g. ‘receive a bigger judgment’ (Central Tarahumara), or as in some languages by means of a reference to the punishment which results from the condemnation, e.g. ‘they will have greater pain’ (Copainalá Zoque), and ‘they will pay greater hurt’ (Guerrero Amuzgo).

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .