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 80:12 - 80:13

After expending so much care and attention on his grapevine, why did God abandon it and let it be destroyed? He broke down “the fences” (made of stone, not wood or wire) that protected it, and now any passerby can pluck its fruit, that is, “steal its grapes,” and the wild animals are busy destroying it–a figure of the enemies of Israel invading the land and looting and destroying.

In verse 13a boar (Good News Translation “hogs”) translates the word for swine, pig (see Fauna and Flora of the Bible, pages jmp 80-81|fig:ffb_Swine.htmjmp*); only here are “wild hogs” (boar from the forest) referred to in the Old Testament. The Hebrew singular for boar represents pigs in general. The verb translated ravages occurs only here in the Old Testament; it means “cut in pieces,” either by eating (so most translations) or by trampling on the vine (Briggs, Good News Translation; see Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). If the parallelism with the next line is purely synonymous, the meaning “consume, eat up” seems more likely; New Jerusalem Bible and New English Bible have “gnaws”; another possible version is “tears at.” Something like ravages (Revised Standard Version, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible en français courant, New International Version) expresses well the idea of the destruction caused by a wild animal. But it is more likely that the two verbs describe the devastation caused by wild hogs, or boars, as they trample down and devour the vegetation.

Good News Translation “wild animals” in verse 13b translates “what moves in the field” (see Revised Standard Version), a word that occurs only here and in 50.11b; New English Bible translates here “swarming insects from the fields,” which seems unlikely.

Due to the poetic extension of the vine, it is likely that many readers will have lost or forgotten the original reference to the vine in verse 8, and particularly to the symbolism of the vine as representing Israel. Therefore it may be necessary to repeat the referent; for example, “Why did you break down the fences around your vine which is the people of Israel?” or simply “Why did you break down the fences around your vine?” If the analogy with the vine has to be sacrificed in translation for the clarity of meaning, the translator may say something like:

• 12 Why did you let Israel’s enemies invade her land?
Now foreigners go through the land
looting and destroying it.
13 Like wild pigs they trample it,
and like wild animals they destroy it.

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 .