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 19:13

The initial plea, Keep back, means “Restrain,” “Do not allow,” “Don’t let.”

Presumptuous sins (in contrast with “hidden faults” in verse 12b) are those that are committed knowingly and deliberately (Good News Translation “willful sins”). The Hebrew says only “from arrogant (ones),” which some take to refer to people (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, New Jerusalem Bible footnote); but it seems more likely that it refers to sins. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “pride.” The idea of “willful sins” may sometimes be rendered as “bad things which I do and know I do” or “evil things I know I do.”

Let them not have dominion over me in line b portrays sins as living beings, or powers, that can rule a person.

The verb be blameless means “faultless, complete, lacking nothing”; in 9.6 it is used in a bad sense, “vanished, finished.” I shall be blameless may be expressed negatively in some languages as “I will not have done anything evil,” or idiomatically, “I will be a person without any bad marks on me.”

Shall be … innocent translates the same verb used in verse 12b, “clear.”

Transgression translates a word meaning “rebellion, disobedience” (see 5.10, where the term occurs also in a context of rebellion). Dahood translates “the great crime,” which he defines as idolatry, and this is quite possible. The difficulty in translating it simply “grave, serious sin” is that this implicitly allows the possibility of the psalmist’s committing little sins; so Good News Translation has “the evil of sin.” “Evil of sin” as two nouns that are rather synonymous in meaning is difficult to express in translation. However, since the component of “sin” is here rebellion against God, it is possible to say, for example, “I will not be guilty of disobeying God” or “I will not be guilty of turning away from God.”

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 .