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.

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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 139:16

Line a goes with the preceding verse; my unformed substance translates a noun found only here in the Old Testament, “embryo” (Good News Translation “before I was born,” New International Version “my unformed body”). New American Bible follows the Syriac “my actions”; it is better to translate the Hebrew text, as understood by most.

The rest of the verse seems to change the subject from the formation and growth of the embryo to the days of the psalmist’s life. But King James Version, New Jerusalem Bible, and New English Bible take the subject of the rest of the verse to be still “my unformed limbs” (as New Jerusalem Bible translates in line a). This is possible but does not seem probable (see Anderson). The thought of verse 16b-d seems to be that before the psalmist’s birth Yahweh had already fixed the number of days he would live; Yahweh had written them down in his book (for which see 69.28). In verse 16d there was none of them translates one form of the Hebrew text (ketiv), “and not one among them”; another form of the text (qere; also the Qumran manuscript) has “and for it (there was) one among them”–a reference to the day of the psalmist’s birth. New Jerusalem Bible translates the qere as follows: “every one that was fixed is there,” taking “one” in the generic sense of “all.” It seems best to stay with ketiv, as Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and others do. Good News Translation‘s “The days allotted to me” may have to be recast to say, for example, “The number of days you gave me to live had all been written down in your book” or, in languages which do not use the passive, “You wrote down in your book the number of days you gave me to live.” Because book may not be familiar in this context, it may be better to say “You decided before I was born how long I would live.”

The translation of verses 14-16 is full of difficulties, and very few commentators or translators are dogmatic about the exact meaning of the Masoretic text. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project says: “The entire V. would be: ‘your eyes saw me an embryon / fetus; and in your book they are all inscribed, the days which were formed and nobody among / in them (or: … were formed before any among them existed)’.” And on the two forms of the Hebrew text, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project comments on how the ketiv may be understood: “… the days which were formed and nobody was among them”, or “… the days which were formed before any among them existed”.

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 .