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 42:6 - 42:7

As a comparison of Revised Standard Version with Good News Translation shows, there is considerable difference of opinion about the meaning of verses 6-7. In particular it is difficult to decide about (1) the geographical terms and (2) the meaning of God’s cataracts … waves … billows. In verse 6 Revised Standard Version gives the various clauses and phrases in the same order in which they occur in Hebrew; Good News Translation (see also New English Bible) has taken from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar to go with the following cataracts … waves … billows, and not with the preceding I remember thee (Good News Translation “I turn my thoughts to him”). Good News Translation has also shifted to the third person, “him” and “He,” in place of the second person, thee and thy. Good News Translation does this in order to maintain the third person reference to God uniformly throughout the psalm.

The land of Jordan could be Canaan as a whole or else the region where the Jordan River rises. Mount Hermon is some 75 kilometers (45 miles) northeast of Lake Galilee, reaching the height of some 2750 meters (8940 feet); the Masoretic text plural “Hermons” is explained as a reference to the whole mountain range, or else to the three main peaks of the Hermon. Mount Mizar is unknown; the Hebrew mitsʿar means “small” (as the Septuagint translates it here); some take it to be a lesser peak near Mount Hermon (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “the Hermon range with its peaks”); Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends Mizar; others take it to refer to Mount Zion (see New Jerusalem Bible “I think … of you, humble mountain”).

One of the difficulties with taking these three geographical terms as defining the psalmist’s location arises from the fact that the deep (Hebrew tehom) is the primeval abyss, the depths of chaos, out of which the earth was formed (Gen 1.2). The statement Deep calls to deep is taken to be poetic language; like waterfalls which seem to roar at each other, so the forces of chaos summon other forces to overwhelm the psalmist. That this word deep should refer to the torrents of the Jordan River seems unlikely, although some commentators so interpret it. Together with thy cataracts … waves … billows of verse 7, it seems better to take this as figurative language for extreme distress and anxiety. The forces of chaos overwhelm him, and he is near death (see the similar use of these figures in Jonah 2.2). Bible en français courant translates “You make the torrents roar, one flood calls to another, you make them all roll over me, I am completely submerged.”

Dahood takes all terms to be mythological allusions to Sheol, the world of the dead. This is quite possible, but the translation should not indicate that this is what the figures mean.

The Good News Translation expression “sent waves of sorrow over my soul” may be recast in some languages so that the imagery is preserved in a simile; for example, “he has caused me to feel sorrow like one feels the waves of the sea.” In languages where “waves of the sea” are unknown, a different adjustment may be required; for example, it may be necessary to shift to another image: “he has made me feel sorrow like one carried away by a flooding stream.”

In many languages it will not be possible to say as in Good News Translation “chaos roars at me like a flood.” Such an expression will often require major adjustments; for example, “I hear the roar of confusion; it is like the noise of a flood” or “I hear the noise of confusion which is like the noise of a flood. It is like the rumble of waterfalls falling down from Mount Hermon and Mount Mizar to the Jordan River.”

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 .