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 (Philippians 1:9)

Following are a number of back-translations of Philippians 1:9:

  • Uma: “So, this is my request to God, that your love become stronger and stronger, and your knowledge and clearness of heart knowing what is fitting for you to do will also increase.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “I am asking/praying-to God may your-love-for-each-other really yet increase. May your knowledge about God also increase. And whatever happens to (lit. arrives at) you, may he give you knowledge/wisdom” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And I pray that your treating each other well, your knowledge of God’s customs, your wisdom in thinking, may increase more and more,” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “This is what I am praying to God. I am requesting that your love for him and for your fellows become still stronger while-at-the-same-time what you know concerning God and your ability to distinguish what the correct thing is for you to do will be added-to” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “I continue to pray to God that your holding dear will yet become bigger and bigger, and that you will really become knowledgeable, that your understanding/wisdom will be true/real,” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “When I pray to God, I ask in regards to your loving others that more and more you will love them. And I ask that he will open your minds so that your hearts will understand about the message.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Philippians 1:9

The Greek has the word “this” before the content of Paul’s prayer (“I pray this: that…”), but normally this addition would be superfluous in translation.

Your love should not be restricted to the Philippians’ love for God, for Paul, or even to their love for one another. It is much more likely that Paul has in mind the most comprehensive Christian love. In some languages your love may seem to abstract, and this expression may be better rendered as “your loving heart.”

Furthermore, in some languages it is not possible to speak of “love growing more and more,” although one may say “I pray that you will keep on loving more and more.” Again, it may be necessary to indicate in some languages who is loved, and therefore one may need to translate “that you will love one another more and more.”

True knowledge and perfect judgment are essential elements of love. “Love” should keep on growing (present tense), that is, it should develop into and be accompanied by spiritual and moral insights. The word translated true knowledge is frequently used by Paul to convey the idea of a mental grasp of spiritual truth and especially that practical and experiential knowledge of God which is available to those who have become Christians. Perfect judgment (literally “all insight” or “all perception”) appears only here in the New Testament. It refers to a person’s ability to make moral decisions. The adjective “all” is not intensive, but extensive; that is, it signifies “every form of” perfect judgment (New English Bible “insight of every kind”).

True knowledge and perfect judgment may be viewed as the result of increased love, and so they may be indicated in some languages as result, and in other languages as purpose. On the basis of this type of interpretation, one may translate “that you may love one another more and more, and as a result have true knowledge and perfect judgment.” On the other hand, one may understand true knowledge and perfect judgment as an accompanying feature of love and accordingly translate “that you may love one another more and more, and at the same time have true knowledge and perfect judgment.”

In a number of languages it is necessary to translate knowledge and judgment as verbs, and this requires syntactic restructuring, with resulting expressions such as “that you may know what is true and judge perfectly,” or “… judge in a completely right way.”

Quoted with permission from Luo, I-Jin. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1977. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .