10I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me but had no opportunity to show it.
The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated in English as “joy” or “happiness” is translated in the HausaCommon Language Ajami Bible idiomatically as farin ciki or “white stomach.” In some cases, such as in Genesis 29:11, it is also added for emphatic purposes.
Other languages that use the same expression include Southern Birifor (pʋpɛl), Dera (popolok awo), Reshe (ɾipo ɾipuhã). (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
Following are a number of back-translations of Philippians 4:10:
Uma: “My heart is very glad, relatives, and I praise the Lord, because although we have been separated for a long time, you again sent your help to me. I’m not saying that you didn’t remembered me any more. You always remembered me, it was just that you did not have an opportunity to help me.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “I am really glad and I give thanks to our (incl.) Leader because you have again helped my need. I know that even though it took a long time for this to arrive here (lit. even long-long recently arrive this come to me), it doesn’t mean that you were not concerned for me but because you were not able to send.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Great is my joy and my thanks to the Lord, for now it has again come about that you have shown your kindness to me by means of what you sent to me. I’m not really saying to you that you had no kindness for me during an earlier time, but rather you at that time had no means so that you could show me your kindness.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Extreme is my happiness in my being joined to the Lord, because now, you have again had opportunity to help-me. For-a-long-time admittedly you have not helped-me, but I know admittedly that the reason is not that you have forgotten me, but rather you have had no opportunity to show your desire to help-me.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Really very big is my happiness, and I am giving thanks to the Lord because of your (financial) help to me which I have received. I realized that apparently, all this time, you have kept on wanting to help me. You just didn’t have an opportunity.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “I rejoice and thank God that you have thought of me again, and you provide for me in what I need. I know that you have not forgotten me, but before you couldn’t provide for me.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The Hebrew adonai in the Old Testament typically refers to God. The shorter adon (and in two cases in the book of Daniel the Aramaic mare [מָרֵא]) is also used to refer to God but more often for concepts like “master,” “owner,” etc. In English Bible translations all of those are translated with “Lord” if they refer to God.
In English Old Testament translations, as in Old Testament translations in many other languages, the use of Lord (or an equivalent term in other languages) is not to be confused with Lord (or the equivalent term with a different typographical display for other languages). While the former translates adonai, adon and mare, the latter is a translation for the tetragrammaton (YHWH) or the Name of God. See tetragrammaton (YHWH) and the article by Andy Warren-Rothlin in Noss / Houser, p. 618ff. for more information.
In the New Testament, the Greek term kurios has at least four different kinds of use:
referring to “God,” especially in Old Testament quotations,
meaning “master” or “owner,” especially in parables, etc.,
as a form of address (see for instance John 4:11: “Sir, you have no bucket”),
or, most often, referring to Jesus
In the first and fourth case, it is also translated as “Lord” in English.
Most languages naturally don’t have one word that covers all these meanings. According to Bratcher / Nida, “the alternatives are usually (1) a term which is an honorific title of respect for a high-ranking person and (2) a word meaning ‘boss’, ‘master’, or ‘chief.’ (…) and on the whole it has generally seemed better to employ a word of the second category, in order to emphasize the immediate personal relationship, and then by context to build into the word the prestigeful character, since its very association with Jesus Christ will tend to accomplish this purpose.”
When looking at the following list of back-translations of the terms that translators in the different languages have used for both kurios and adonai to refer to God and Jesus respectively, it might be helpful for English readers to recall the etymology of the English “Lord.” While this term might have gained an exalted meaning in the understanding of many, it actually comes from hlaford or “loaf-ward,” referring to the lord of the castle who was the keeper of the bread (source: Rosin 1956, p. 121).
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight
Following are some of the solutions that don’t rely on a different typographical display (see above):
Iyansi: Mwol. Mwol is traditionally used for the “chief of a group of communities and villages” with legal, temporal, and spiritual authority (versus the “mfum [the term used in other Bantu languages] which is used for the chief of one community of people in one village”). Mwol is also used for twins who are “treated as special children, highly honored, and taken care of like kings and queens.” (Source: Kividi Kikama in Greed / Kruger, p. 396ff.)
Binumarien: Karaambaia: “fight-leader” (Source: Oates 1995, p. 255)
Warlpiri: Warlaljamarri (owner or possessor of something — for more information tap or click here)
We have come to rely on another term which emphasizes God’s essential nature as YHWH, namely jukurrarnu (see tetragrammaton (YHWH)). This word is built on the same root jukurr– as is jukurrpa, ‘dreaming.’ Its basic meaning is ‘timelessness’ and it is used to describe physical features of the land which are viewed as always being there. Some speakers view jukurrarnu in terms of ‘history.’ In all Genesis references to YHWH we have used Kaatu Jukurrarnu. In all Mark passages where kurios refers to God and not specifically to Christ we have also used Kaatu Jukurrarnu.
New Testament references to Christ as kurios are handled differently. At one stage we experimented with the term Watirirririrri which refers to a ceremonial boss of highest rank who has the authority to instigate ceremonies. While adequately conveying the sense of Christ’s authority, there remained potential negative connotations relating to Warlpiri ceremonial life of which we might be unaware.
Here it is that the Holy Spirit led us to make a chance discovery. Transcribing the personal testimony of the local Warlpiri pastor, I noticed that he described how ‘my Warlaljamarri called and embraced me (to the faith)’. Warlaljamarri is based on the root warlalja which means variously ‘family, possessions, belongingness’. A warlaljamarri is the ‘owner’ or ‘possessor’ of something. While previously being aware of the ‘ownership’ aspect of warlaljamarri, this was the first time I had heard it applied spontaneously and naturally in a fashion which did justice to the entire concept of ‘Lordship’. Thus references to Christ as kurios are now being handled by Warlaljamarri.” (Source: Stephen Swartz, The Bible Translator 1985, p. 415ff. )
Mairasi: Onggoao Nem (“Throated One” — “Leader,” “Elder”) or Enggavot Nan (“Above-One”) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Obolo: Okaan̄-ene (“Owner of person(s)”) (source: Enene Enene)
Lotha Naga: Opvui (“owner of house / field / cattle”) — since both “Lord” and YHWH are translated as Opvui there is an understanding that “Opvui Jesus is the same as the Opvui of the Old Testament”
Seediq: Tholang, loan word from Min Nan Chinese (the majority language in Taiwan) thâu-lâng (頭儂): “Master” (source: Covell 1998, p. 248)
Thai: phra’ phu pen cao (พระผู้เป็นเจ้า) (divine person who is lord) or ong(kh) cao nay (องค์เจ้านาย) (<divine classifier>-lord-boss) (source: Stephen Pattemore)
Arabic often uses different terms for adonai or kurios referring to God (al-rabb الرب) and kurios referring to Jesus (al-sayyid الـسـيـد). Al-rabb is also the term traditionally used in Arabic Christian-idiom translations for YHWH, and al-sayyid is an honorary term, similar to English “lord” or “sir” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin).
Tamil also uses different terms for adonai/kurios when referring to God and kurios when referring to Jesus. The former is Karttar கர்த்தர், a Sanskrit-derived term with the original meaning of “creator,” and the latter in Āṇṭavar ஆண்டவர், a Tamil term originally meaning “govern” or “reign” (source: Natarajan Subramani).
Burunge: Looimoo: “owner who owns everything” (in the Burunge Bible translation, this term is only used as a reference to Jesus and was originally used to refer to the traditional highest deity — source: Michael Endl in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 48)
Aguacateco: Ajcaw ske’j: “the one to whom we belong and who is above us” (source: Rita Peterson in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 49)
Konkomba: Tidindaan: “He who is the owner of the land and reigns over the people” (source: Lidorio 2007, p. 66)
Law (2013, p. 97) writes about how the Ancient GreekSeptuagint‘s translation of the Hebrew adonai was used by the New Testament writers as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments: “Another case is the use of kurios referring to Jesus. For Yahweh (in English Bibles: ‘the Lord‘), the Septuagint uses kurios. Although the term kurios usually has to do with one’s authority over others, when the New Testament authors use this word from the Septuagint to refer to Jesus, they are making an extraordinary claim: Jesus of Nazareth is to be identified with Yahweh.”
In my life in union with the Lord it is a great joy to me is literally “but I rejoiced in the Lord greatly.” Here the function of “but” is nothing more than to indicate a transition to new subject matter, and so it is left untranslated by most modern translators.
The aorist verb “I rejoiced” is sometimes taken to refer to the joy the apostle experienced when Epaphroditus met him with the gifts from his old friends at Philippi (Moffatt “it was a great joy to me”; Goodspeed “I was very glad”; New American Bible “it gave me a great joy”). A great number of translators, however, take the verb as a so-called “epistolary aorist.” The apostle experiences the joy as he writes, but it will be something in the past by the time the letter is read by the believers in Philippi. In English such a verb is rendered in the present tense (New English BibleJerusalem Bible “it is a great joy to me”; Bruce “it gives me great joy”). The verb “I rejoice” and the adverb “greatly” occur in an emphatic position in the Greek text. To bring out the proper force of this clause, it is possible to restructure it as an exclamatory statement, “How great is the joy I have….” Paul’s joy in keeping with or experienced in the light of his relation to his Lord: in my life in union with the Lord.
It is a great joy to me may be rendered simply as “I am very happy indeed.” It may be possible at this point to use some idiomatic expression, for example, “my insides are sweet indeed.”
As in many instances, in my life in union with the Lord may be rendered as “as I live my life joined with the Lord,” or “… as one with the Lord.”
In Greek the next clause is connected by a conjunction (that) which indicates that what follows is the basis for Paul’s joy. Instead of translating it as that (MoffattNew English BibleJerusalem BibleDie Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), it is also possible to bring out the connection by a colon (Bible en français courant). The basis of Paul’s joy is not the gift he received from the Philippians; it is the fact that his readers finally had an opportunity to show their concern for him.
After so long a time (literally, “already at last” or “already once more”) is an expression which appears elsewhere only in Rom 1.10, where Good News Translation has at last. It is an extremely difficult expression to render adequately into English. The basic idea is something like “now, after this waiting at last” (Barclay “after so long an interval”). The expression seems to suggest that Paul is chiding the Philippians for their delay in sending the money to him. But this is not his intention, as can be seen in what he goes on to say next.
You once more had the chance of showing translates a single verb in Greek, rendered in a number of translations as “revived.” This is a rare word, appearing only here in the New Testament. It suggests the picture of a bush or tree putting out fresh shoots or flowers in the springtime. This imagery is kept in some translations (New English Bible “has now blossomed afresh”; Barclay “has flowered again”; New American Bible “bore fruit once more”). You once more had the chance may be appropriately expressed in a number of languages as “it was once more possible for you,” “you once more had the opportunity,” or even “you once more could.”
That you care for me is an infinitive phrase in Greek. It can be taken as an accusative of reference, meaning “you revived regarding the thinking for me,” but it is probably best taken as an accusative governed by the verb “you revived,” meaning “you revived your thinking for me.” The word care (literally, “think”) is again (as in 1.7) to be taken in the positive sense of “concern” or “active interest” (Phillips “interest in my welfare”). The chance of showing that you care for me may be expressed as “the possibility of showing me how much you care for me,” “… how much you are concerned about me,” or even “… how much you want to help me.”
In order to avoid any hint of blame, Paul adds some words of explanation—literally, “on which indeed you were thinking.” It is probably permissible to take “on which” to mean “for” with an explanatory force, but it is perhaps better to take it in the sense of “with regard to which.” The antecedent would be the infinitive phrase immediately preceding, namely, “your thinking for me.” The imperfect tense of the verb suggests that it has the force of “all along” or “all the time.” The clause can be rendered as “you have indeed thought much about me all the time” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Since this is an added explanation to avoid misunderstanding, one can bring the sense out explicitly as “I mean…” or “I know…” (cf. Bruce Barclay) One can also turn the positive statement into a negative one, I don’t mean that you had stopped caring for me (cf. Phillips “I don’t mean that you had forgotten me”). I don’t mean may be appropriately rendered in some languages as “my words do not mean,” or “do not let my words cause you to think.”
That you had stopped caring for me may sometimes be expressed by an aspect of the verb which indicates cessation of an activity or state. In some languages, however, it may be better simply to say “that you no longer wanted to help me,” or “… were caring for me.”
Paul gives the real reason for the delay as you just had no chance to show it. This clause translates a single verb in Greek, which means literally “you were without opportunity,” or “you were lacking opportunity.” The verb refers to the circumstances which prevented the Philippians from sending their gift sooner. You just had no chance to show it may be best expressed in some languages as “it simply was not possible for you to show it,” “… to show me that you cared for me,” or “… wanted to help me.”
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 .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.