3and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the one hundred forty-four thousand who have been redeemed from the earth.
The Greek that is translated as “elder” in most English versions (“presbyter” in The Orthodox New Testament, 2000) is translated as “Old-Man Leader” in Eastern Highland Otomi (source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22) and in Bacama as mi kpan-kpani vɨnə hiutə: “big/old person of house of prayer” (source: David Frank in this blog post ).
Other translations include:
“the people who command among the people of Jesus” in Lalana Chinantec
“the old men who watched over the believers” in Morelos Nahuatl
“the ones guarding the brethren” in Isthmus Mixe (source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 14:3:
Uma: “They were singing, singing a kind of new song in front of the Seat of God and in front of the four living things and the elders around that Throne. Their song, no other person can/may learn it, just that one hundred forty-four thousand. They are the ones redeemed by the Lamb from among the people of the world.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “The one hundred and fortyfour thousand people stood there facing the throne of God and the four angels of-different-kind and the elders. They sang a new song and nobody could learn that song except they, the one hundred and fortyfour thousand, because they are the ones redeemed from the ruling of the leader of demons while they were still on earth.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And as for these people, they are before the seat of God, and they are also before the four creatures who have breath and before the elders. And then they sang a new song and the only ones who know how to sing the song are the one hundred and forty-four thousand people who were redeemed on the earth by the young sheep.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “The one hundred and forty four thousand people were standing facing the throne and the four living creatures and leaders. They were singing a new song which no one else knew but they alone, because they are the ones who were redeemed from the world.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “As for that crowd, those one hundred and forty four thousand people, they were standing in the presence of God who was sitting on his seat of kingship, and in the presence of those four created living beings and also those twenty four elders. I heard that they were singing a new kind of song. No-one else knows that song, but only those, that crowd, for from all the people here in the world they are the ones who were chosen being like bought by that one referred to as Young Sheep so that they would be his people.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “They sang a new song before where God was seated there where the twenty-four surrounded him, where the four stood at each corner to his chair. This song they sang was one no one knows except only the one hundred and forty-four thousand, those people who had been saved on the earth.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
They sing: as noticed in 13.12, Revised Standard Version reproduces the present tense of the Greek verb; for purpose of narrative most translators will prefer to continue to use the past tense, as Good News Translation and other modern translations do. Who is the subject? As it stands in Greek, and as translated by Revised Standard Version and others, it can be the harpists of the previous verse. But this seems quite unlikely. Most translations reproduce the Greek form quite mechanically, but this should not be done unless the translator concludes that the harpists are the ones doing the singing. A number of commentators believe the singers are the countless angels surrounding God’s throne (see 5.11-12; 7.11-12). Others, however, believe that the 144,000 are the singers, as made explicit by Good News Translation, and Bible en français courant “these thousands of people were in front of the throne”; also similar is Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje. It is recommended that the singers be identified as the 144,000 redeemed. So Good News Bible‘s rendering provides a good translation model.
A new song: as in 5.9.
Before the throne … the four living creatures and … the elders: see the description of the heavenly throne room in chapter 4.
No one could learn that song: to ask who would be teaching that song to the 144,000 goes beyond the writer’s intention in giving this information. This is a way of saying that only these 144,000 could sing this song—it could be sung by no one else.
Who had been redeemed from the earth: here the earth represents the earth’s inhabitants, the human race (see “redeemed from mankind” in verse 4). Of all people on earth these are the ones who had been redeemed. For redeemed see “ransom” in 5.9. If it is necessary to use the active voice of the verb, the translation can say “whom God has redeemed,” “whom God has saved.” This sentence may also be expressed as “They are the people whom God has saved.”
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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