addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed. The first example is from a language where God is always addressed distinctly formal whereas the second is one where the opposite choice was made.

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight

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.

In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.

Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”

In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.

Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking (source Philip Noss).

In Dutch and Western Frisian translations, however, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

Translation commentary on Psalm 139:14

This verse in Hebrew is hard to understand; after considering three different textual problems in this verse, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project proposes the following translation: “I praise you that I am so dread-fully distinguished, marvelous are your works, and I know that with all my being/I (lit. my soul) know it perfectly well.”

The first line (following the Revised Standard Version division of the verse) seems to mean “I praise you because fearful things (or, fearfully) I am wonderful.” With a great degree of probability Anderson says the Hebrew can be rendered “I thank you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (so New Jerusalem Bible “I praise You, for I am awesomely, wondrously made”). Revised Standard Version has more or less followed the versions.

The second line (see Revised Standard Version) in Hebrew is “your works are wonderful”; there is no difficulty here.

The third line in Hebrew is “my nefesh knows it well.” Revised Standard Version arrives at its translation by changing the vowels in the verb, thus making God the subject: “You know my nefesh well.”

The Good News Translation translation of the first two lines follows the Qumran manuscript: “I thank you because you are fearful (or, awesome); wondrously wonderful are your works.” In the third line Good News Translation follows the Hebrew text (also Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Bible en français courant, New Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). It must be admitted that in this line the assignment of other vowels to the Hebrew (Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible, Dahood) makes for a better statement in the context, since the psalmist is talking about Yahweh’s complete knowledge of him. The following translation of verse 14 may be commended: “I thank you because I am so wonderfully and mysteriously made, and because all your works are so wonderful; you know me completely” or, in languages which will not use the passive, “I thank you because you have so wondrously and mysteriously made me….”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .