bless (food and drink)

The Greek and Hebrew that is translated into English as “bless” or “blessed” in relation to food or drink is translated into San Mateo del Mar Huave as “place holiness on,” into Chol as “give it his good word” in Central Tarahumara, and into Southern Subanen as “pray(ed) about it” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida 1961), and into San Blas Kuna as “put (one’s) mind to (one’s) Father” (source: Claudio and Marvel Iglesias in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 85ff.).

See also bless(ed).

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 (Matthew 5:44)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 5:44:

  • Uma: “But I say: we (incl.) must love our (incl.) enemies, and we pray for those who persecute us (incl.).” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But I, I say: love your enemies and pray to God for those who are bad/do bad to you,” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “But my teaching by contrast is, let’s treat our enemies well, and let us ask a blessing on those who treat us badly.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But I say to you that you should love your enemies and pray for those who hardship you” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But now/today I am the one saying to you (pl.), value even your opponents, and pray that the ones who curse you will be shown mercy/grace.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “But I tell you that you must love your enemies. Ask God that he will bless those who speak bad against you. Concerning those who hate you, do good to them. Pray to God for whoever speaks bad to you. Pray to God for those who do bad to you.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing his disciples and common people

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.

Here, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.

In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.

Translation commentary on Matthew 5:44

But I say to you repeats a formula of emphasis used several times throughout this discourse; it first appears in verse 22.

Love your enemies is the rendering of most all English translations. Following this command, some late manuscripts of the New Testament insert “bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you” (so King James Version; see the footnotes of New English Bible and New International Version). This addition comes from the parallel account in Luke 6.27-28. As TC-GNT indicates, the omission of these exhortations from the earliest representatives of the different text types “would be entirely unaccountable,” had they originally been a part of Matthew’s Gospel. Love your enemies is an exhortation or a command: “You must have love for” or “You are to show love for.” See the comment at verse 34 on “love.” Enemies was discussed in the previous verse.

Both Matthew and Luke (6.27-28) indicate that the disciples are to pray for those who oppose them. The verb translated pray occurs a total of eighty-six times in the New Testament, including sixteen times in this Gospel; it is the most general verb used of prayer, and any specific meaning (whether petition, request, or any other) will depend entirely upon the context in which it is used. Here pray can be translated “ask God to bless” or “pray to God to help.”

The inclusion of persecute in Matthew, as opposed to the more general terms in Luke (“hate … curse … abuse”), intimates to some scholars that Matthew is thinking of a realistic situation in which the disciples are now undergoing persecution. The verb persecute is found also in 5.10, 11, 12; 10.23; 23.34; it generally refers to religious persecution. Persecute was discussed in verse 10. Here it can be “those who cause you to suffer,” “who harm you,” or “who mistreat you.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .