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 144:5 - 144:8

These verses, in which the psalmist asks for Yahweh’s help, owe much to the figures used in 18.9-17. For verse 5a see 18.9a, where the same language is used. Here Good News Translation has followed two Hebrew manuscripts (and the Syriac and Targum) “the heavens,” and not the Masoretic text “your heavens” (see Revised Standard Version). For verse 5b see 104.32b.

For verse 6 see 18.14. It should be noticed that here Revised Standard Version them in both lines can only refer to the mountains of verse 5b. Of course the psalmist is talking about Yahweh’s “enemies.”

Verse 7a-b uses the language of 18.16; the verb translated here rescue has this sense only here and in verses 10, 11. It is classified here as an Aramaism; elsewhere in the Old Testament it means “to open (the mouth).” The many waters is here, as often, a figure of the distress and danger the psalmist is threatened with by his enemies, the aliens, that is, hostile forces from other countries. It should be noticed there are two synonymous verbs in verse 7b, rescue and deliver. Good News Translation has restructured the sentence, with one verb for each object. Hand of aliens and Good News Translation‘s “power of foreigners” may have to be recast in some languages to say, for example, “… from foreign tribes that attack me.”

The psalmist calls his enemies liars (verse 8a); whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood in line b means they “lie even under oath.” It was the custom on taking a vow to raise the right hand to heaven, a symbolic gesture calling on God to attest to the truth of the statement to be made (see 106.26). New International Version “whose right hands are deceitful” is less than natural. Good News Translation‘s “under oath,” which suggests a courtroom procedure, may have to be recast in some languages to say, for example, “who lie when they swear they are telling the truth.”

It should be noticed that verses 7c-8 (which appear also as verse 11b-d) are omitted by New English Bible as a later addition to the text; there is, however, no textual support for this omission.

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 .