Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 1:10:
Uma: “On the Day of the Lord, the Holy Spirit controlled me, and I heard behind me the voice of a person talking. The sound of his voice was big, like the sound of trumpets.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then, one day, the day for praising the Lord, I was ruled by God’s Spirit. I heard a strong voice like the sound of a tabuli’ from behind my back. (tabuli’ is a seashell blown to tell people to gather)” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And on Sunday very strong was my being controlled by the Holy Spirit, and there was that which He showed me. Behind me I heard someone speaking and it was like a trumpet because it was very loud,” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “On a Sunday which is the Lord’s day, God’s Spirit caused-me -to-dream, and I heard a loud (lit. strong) voice behind me like the loud-sound of a horn (made from an animal horn).” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Once, when it was a day when we worship God, through the determined-plan of the Espiritu Santo, suddenly/unexpectedly the world disappeared. Suddenly/unexpectedly I heard something behind me which was a loud voice like a horn being blown.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “One day on which people worship the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit changed me seeing. I heard someone behind me speaking to me loudly. What I heard sounded like when a trumpet is blown.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The Hebrew adonai in the Old Testament typically refers to God. The shorter adon (and in two cases in the book of Daniel the Aramaic mare [מָרֵא]) is also used to refer to God but more often for concepts like “master,” “owner,” etc. In English Bible translations all of those are translated with “Lord” if they refer to God.
In English Old Testament translations, as in Old Testament translations in many other languages, the use of Lord (or an equivalent term in other languages) is not to be confused with Lord (or the equivalent term with a different typographical display for other languages). While the former translates adonai, adon and mare, the latter is a translation for the tetragrammaton (YHWH) or the Name of God. See tetragrammaton (YHWH) and the article by Andy Warren-Rothlin in Noss / Houser, p. 618ff. for more information.
In the New Testament, the Greek term kurios has at least four different kinds of use:
referring to “God,” especially in Old Testament quotations,
meaning “master” or “owner,” especially in parables, etc.,
as a form of address (see for instance John 4:11: “Sir, you have no bucket”),
or, most often, referring to Jesus
In the first and fourth case, it is also translated as “Lord” in English.
Most languages naturally don’t have one word that covers all these meanings. According to Bratcher / Nida, “the alternatives are usually (1) a term which is an honorific title of respect for a high-ranking person and (2) a word meaning ‘boss’, ‘master’, or ‘chief.’ (…) and on the whole it has generally seemed better to employ a word of the second category, in order to emphasize the immediate personal relationship, and then by context to build into the word the prestigeful character, since its very association with Jesus Christ will tend to accomplish this purpose.”
When looking at the following list of back-translations of the terms that translators in the different languages have used for both kurios and adonai to refer to God and Jesus respectively, it might be helpful for English readers to recall the etymology of the English “Lord.” While this term might have gained an exalted meaning in the understanding of many, it actually comes from hlaford or “loaf-ward,” referring to the lord of the castle who was the keeper of the bread (source: Rosin 1956, p. 121).
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Following are some of the solutions that don’t rely on a different typographical display (see above):
Iyansi: Mwol. Mwol is traditionally used for the “chief of a group of communities and villages” with legal, temporal, and spiritual authority (versus the “mfum [the term used in other Bantu languages] which is used for the chief of one community of people in one village”). Mwol is also used for twins who are “treated as special children, highly honored, and taken care of like kings and queens.” (Source: Kividi Kikama in Greed / Kruger, p. 396ff.)
Binumarien: Karaambaia: “fight-leader” (Source: Oates 1995, p. 255)
Warlpiri: Warlaljamarri (owner or possessor of something — for more information tap or click here)
We have come to rely on another term which emphasizes God’s essential nature as YHWH, namely jukurrarnu (see tetragrammaton (YHWH)). This word is built on the same root jukurr– as is jukurrpa, ‘dreaming.’ Its basic meaning is ‘timelessness’ and it is used to describe physical features of the land which are viewed as always being there. Some speakers view jukurrarnu in terms of ‘history.’ In all Genesis references to YHWH we have used Kaatu Jukurrarnu. In all Mark passages where kurios refers to God and not specifically to Christ we have also used Kaatu Jukurrarnu.
New Testament references to Christ as kurios are handled differently. At one stage we experimented with the term Watirirririrri which refers to a ceremonial boss of highest rank who has the authority to instigate ceremonies. While adequately conveying the sense of Christ’s authority, there remained potential negative connotations relating to Warlpiri ceremonial life of which we might be unaware.
Here it is that the Holy Spirit led us to make a chance discovery. Transcribing the personal testimony of the local Warlpiri pastor, I noticed that he described how ‘my Warlaljamarri called and embraced me (to the faith)’. Warlaljamarri is based on the root warlalja which means variously ‘family, possessions, belongingness’. A warlaljamarri is the ‘owner’ or ‘possessor’ of something. While previously being aware of the ‘ownership’ aspect of warlaljamarri, this was the first time I had heard it applied spontaneously and naturally in a fashion which did justice to the entire concept of ‘Lordship’. Thus references to Christ as kurios are now being handled by Warlaljamarri.” (Source: Stephen Swartz, The Bible Translator 1985, p. 415ff. )
Mairasi: Onggoao Nem (“Throated One” — “Leader,” “Elder”) or Enggavot Nan (“Above-One”) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Obolo: Okaan̄-ene (“Owner of person(s)”) (source: Enene Enene)
Lotha Naga: Opvui (“owner of house / field / cattle”) — since both “Lord” and YHWH are translated as Opvui there is an understanding that “Opvui Jesus is the same as the Opvui of the Old Testament”
Seediq: Tholang, loan word from Min Nan Chinese (the majority language in Taiwan) thâu-lâng (頭儂): “Master” (source: Covell 1998, p. 248)
Thai: phra’ phu pen cao (พระผู้เป็นเจ้า) (divine person who is lord) or ong(kh) cao nay (องค์เจ้านาย) (<divine classifier>-lord-boss) (source: Stephen Pattemore)
Arabic often uses different terms for adonai or kurios referring to God (al-rabb الرب) and kurios referring to Jesus (al-sayyid الـسـيـد). Al-rabb is also the term traditionally used in Arabic Christian-idiom translations for YHWH, and al-sayyid is an honorary term, similar to English “lord” or “sir” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin).
Tamil also uses different terms for adonai/kurios when referring to God and kurios when referring to Jesus. The former is Karttar கர்த்தர், a Sanskrit-derived term with the original meaning of “creator,” and the latter in Āṇṭavar ஆண்டவர், a Tamil term originally meaning “govern” or “reign” (source: Natarajan Subramani).
Burunge: Looimoo: “owner who owns everything” (in the Burunge Bible translation, this term is only used as a reference to Jesus and was originally used to refer to the traditional highest deity — source: Michael Endl in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 48)
Aguacateco: Ajcaw ske’j: “the one to whom we belong and who is above us” (source: Rita Peterson in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 49)
Konkomba: Tidindaan: “He who is the owner of the land and reigns over the people” (source: Lidorio 2007, p. 66)
Law (2013, p. 97) writes about how the Ancient GreekSeptuagint‘s translation of the Hebrew adonai was used by the New Testament writers as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments: “Another case is the use of kurios referring to Jesus. For Yahweh (in English Bibles: ‘the Lord‘), the Septuagint uses kurios. Although the term kurios usually has to do with one’s authority over others, when the New Testament authors use this word from the Septuagint to refer to Jesus, they are making an extraordinary claim: Jesus of Nazareth is to be identified with Yahweh.”
In Greek verses 10-11 are one sentence; but it is easy to make two sentences, as Good News Translation has done, inasmuch as verse 11 begins with the present participle “saying.”
I was in the Spirit: this expression describes being possessed by God’s Spirit (as also in 4.2; 17.3; 21.10). Bible en français courant has “the Holy Spirit took hold of me,” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “I was overcome by the power of the Spirit,” and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “I was seized by the Spirit.” But New Jerusalem Bible has “I was in ecstasy,” and An American Translation and Barclay “I fell into a trance.” This is possible but seems less likely. The idea of “ecstasy” or “trance” is better expressed by the Greek noun ekstasis, which does not occur here (see Acts 10.10; 11.5; 22.17). New American Bible, Revised “I was caught up in spirit” and New Revised Standard Version “I was in the spirit” do not make much sense in English. For many translators it will be essential here to translate Spirit as “God’s Spirit” and say, for example, “God’s Spirit took control…,” “God’s Spirit came upon me,” “God’s Spirit led me,” or “I fell under the power of God’s Spirit,” or even idiomatically, “I was grabbed by the Holy Spirit.” For other comments on the translation of Spirit, see Rev. 1.4.
Lord’s day: this is the Christian day of worship, the first day of the week, the day of Christ’s resurrection (see Acts 20.7; 1 Cor 16.2). Only here in the New Testament is the expression the Lord’s day used, but it is found in early Christian literature: Didache (the end of the first century), and Ignatius (early second century). The same adjective that is translated the Lord’s is used in the phrase “the Lord’s Supper” (1 Cor 11.20).
I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet: as one commentator puts it: “loud and clear.” The comparison may be expressed variously: “as loud as a trumpet” (New American Bible, Revised), or “like a trumpet blast” (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy), or even “as loud as the sound of a trumpet,” or “that sounded like the loud noise that a trumpet makes.” In certain languages that employ ideophones, here is a good place to use one for the sound that a trumpet makes. A trumpet in the Old Testament was a ram’s horn, but in New Testament times it was most likely a metal instrument something like a modern trumpet. In cultures where trumpets don’t exist, one may use a general word for an animal “horn” (not the horn of an automobile), or else any other kind of loud musical instrument. However, it may be necessary in certain cultures that do not use wind instruments at all to transliterate the English word “trumpet” and have a glossary note describing this instrument.
The text here does not say whose voice it is, but the speaker is clearly identified in the following verses. Another translation model for this final sentence is “I heard a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, speaking (or, coming) from behind me….”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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