worry

The Greek and Hebrew that are translated as “worry” or “anxious” in English are translated in Navajo as “my mind is killing me.” (Source: Nida 1952, p. 24)

Nida (1952, p. 124) also gives other examples:

“The Piro in Peru use almost the same idiom when they say that a worried man is ‘one who is hard chased.’ The worried person is like a pursued animal in the forest trying to elude the hunter. The impenetrable jungle of the future, the failing strength, and the exhaustion of doubt all press hard upon the soul. And one’s heart seems to fail and even disappear. This is the very phrase employed by the Tzeltal Indians in the rugged mountains of southern Mexico. They describe ‘worry’ by the words ‘their hearts are gone.'”

See also anxious / worried about many things and worries/cares of the world/this age.

rhetorical questions (Matt 6:25)

During the translation of the New Testament into Huixtán Tzotzil, translation consultant Marion Cowan found that questions where the answer is obvious, affirmative rhetorical questions, as well questions raising objections tended to cause confusion among the readers. So these are rendered as simple or emphatic statements.

Accordingly, Matthew 6:25b reads “Your food is not important: your life is important. Your clothes are not important: your body is important.”

Source: Marion Cowan in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 123ff.

complete verse (Matthew 6:25)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 6:25:

  • Uma: “‘That is why I say to you: don’t be afraid or say: ‘What are we (incl.) going to eat, and drink?’ Don’t be afraid or say: ‘What shall we (incl.) wear?’ Because your life is more than food and clothes.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “‘Therefore I say to you: do not worry about your livelihood as to what you will eat and as to what you will drink so that you live, or about your body as to what shall be your clothing. Life is more valuable than food and the body is more valuable than clothes.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And because of this I say to you, my disciples, that you should not be concerned about food and drink which is your means of staying alive. Don’t also worry about clothes to put on your body. For God has given you your breath and your body which are very precious. It’s not possible that he won’t also give you food and clothing.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘This is the reason I tell you, don’t be worried about food, drink, and clothes which you need in this life. Because your lives are far-away more valuable than food, and your bodies are emphatically more valuable than clothes.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “That’s why I am saying to you not to cause your mind/thinking to be agitated about where you will be able to get all you need for your body like food, drink and clothes. For isn’t it so that life is more/greater than food and your body is more/greater than clothes? Well since life and body are indeed God’s gift to you, of course he will also give these things which you need, which are food and clothing.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “I tell you that you must not worry about what you will eat and drink or about what you will wear. For the soul of the person is more valuable than what one eats. The person’s body is more valuable than what he wears.” (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 6:25

Matthew 6.25-34 forms a unit in itself and calls for absolute commitment to God and his kingdom (verse 33) rather than to earthly possessions. It continues the main theme of the preceding paragraph, that is, the necessity for complete devotion to the service of God. There is a parallel in Luke, but it appears in a different context (12.22-34).

Therefore (Good News Translation “This is why”) forms only a loose connection in the context. The presence of the complete formula (Therefore I tell you) in both Matthew and Luke (12.22) suggests that the words were taken over from the special source shared by Matthew and Luke, where Therefore may have had a closer connection with the context. In this verse translators most often indicate a rather loose connection, with transitions such as “And so I tell you,” “I tell you, then,” or “So I tell you.”

Anxious about is translated by the equivalent of “worry about” in Good News Translation, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, An American Translation, Barclay, Phillips. Either translation is an accurate rendering of the Greek. One commentator expresses the meaning as “You must not be distracted by cares.” The verb occurs four more times in this passage (verses 27, 28, 31, 34) and in 10.19. There are several ways languages express the meaning of do not be anxious about. Some say “Don’t be overly concerned,” “Don’t let the worries distract you,” or “Don’t allow the cares to bother you too much.”

The Greek word rendered life literally means “soul.” However, it is not here used in contrast to body, but appears as a word that is nearly synonymous, since both terms really refer to one’s own self. The use of the word in this verse, as elsewhere in the Bible, indicates that the “soul” is not to be understood as an eternal part in man, but as his entire being. In the Jewish sense, “soul” is the basic element in a person’s vitality, requiring food for sustenance, and is thereby essentially synonymous with life. Good News Translation interprets with this same meaning but with considerable restructuring: “do not be worried about the food and drink you need in order to stay alive.” A number of other modern translations are also dynamic; for example, “Stop worrying about what you are going to eat and drink to keep you alive” (Barclay), “don’t worry about living—wondering what you are going to eat or drink” (Phillips), and “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink” (New International Version). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch ties this clause with the next: “Do not worry about food and drink and your clothing. Life is more than food and drink, and the body is more than clothing.” The use of “Stop worrying about” (Barclay) is based on the observation that the Greek verb tense is a present imperative, implying a command to stop doing some action already in progress. Barclay also uses this same form in the second half of the command: “Stop worrying about the clothes you are going to wear to keep your body warm.”

Some translations have said “Don’t be overly concerned about the things that relate to your life, such as what you’re going to eat or drink” or “You should not always be preoccupied by (or, worrying yourself about) things to keep alive with, such as food or drink.”

Nor about your body, what you shall put on is rather awkward for English speakers. A number of modern translations have restructured similarly to Good News Translation: “… and clothes to cover your body” (New English Bible), “… or use for clothing” (New American Bible), and “… nor about your body and how you are to clothe it” (Jerusalem Bible). This phrase can also be “nor about what clothes you’ll cover your body with” or “nor about the clothing you need to protect your body.”

Good News Translation prefaces Is not life more than food with “After all.” This phrase does not represent any specific words in the Greek text; it is introduced in English because the need is felt for a transitional.

Is not introduces a rhetorical question in Greek which expects the answer “Yes.” New Jerusalem Bible changes the question form of the Greek text to a statement: “Surely life is more than food, and the body more than clothing!” New English Bible and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, among others, restructure similarly. In some languages a question will be formed at the end of a sentence, as in “Life means more than food and the body means more than clothing, isn’t that so?”

The concepts of life being more than food and the body more than clothing often need to be restructured if readers are to understand what is meant. Some ways will be to say “What is important in life is much more than food,” “There is much more to life than just food,” or “There is much more of importance to life than food.” Similarly the second part may be “There are things more important to our bodies than clothing.”

Of course, any one of these statements can be expressed as a question, as in the text: “Isn’t there more to life than just food?” “Aren’t there things more important to our bodies than clothing?” and so on.

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 .