17And this was how I saw the horses in my vision: the riders wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur; the heads of the horses were like lions’ heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths.
There are no lions in Bawm country, so the Bawm Chin translation uses “a tiger with a mane” where the Greek term for “lion” is used and in Sranan Tongo the “roaring lion” in 1 Peter 5:8 is a krasi tigri, an “aggressive tiger.”
In the Kahua culture, lions are not known either so the Kahua translation used “fierce animal.”
In 1 Peter 5:8, the Uripiv translation uses “a hungry shark” instead of a roaring lion.
Sources: David Clark for Bawm Chin and Kahua, Japini 2015, p. 33, for Sranan Tongo, and Ross McKerras for Uripiv)
Ayutla Mixtec: “see that which will happen” (source for this and seven above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Tagbanwa: “being caused to dream by God” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Chichewa: azidzaona zinthu m’masomphenya: “they will see things as if face-to-face” (interconfessional translation, publ. 1999) (Source: Wendland 1998, p. 69)
The Greek in the books of Revelation and Acts is translated as obq-rmwible: “look-dream” in Natügu. Brenda Boerger (in Beerle-Moor / Voinov, p. 162ff.) tells the story of that translation: “In the book of Revelation, the author, John, talks about having visions. Mr. Simon [the native language translator] and I discussed what this meant and he invented the compound verb obq-rmwible ‘look-dream’ to express it. Interestingly, during village testing no one ever had to ask what this neologism meant.”
Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 9:17:
Uma: “In my vision, I saw the appearance those soldiers and the horses that they rode. Those soldiers all were shirted in iron. Their shirts was red like fire, blackish like smoke, and bright yellow like the rock named sulfur [Indonesian: belerang]. As for their horses, their heads were like the heads of lions, and from their mouths appeared fire, smoke and sulfur rock.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Like this was the appearance of the horses and the riders that appeared to me. There was an iron covering/shield on their chests like the red of fire and dark blue and yellow like sulphur. The heads of the horses were like lion heads. And fire was coming out of the horses mouths and smoke and flaming sulphur.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And in that which I was being shown I saw the soldiers and the horses. The riders were armored in red which was like fire and in blue-green, and in yellow also like sulphur. The heads of their horses were like the heads of lions. And their mouths spurted fire, smoke, and sulphur.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “The appearance of the horses and horseback-riders that were shown to me like a dream was like this. Their chest protectors, they (lit. it) had three colors. There was (one) which was darkish-red like fire, blue (loan asol) like the expensive stone called safiro, and yellow like sulfur. As for the horses, their heads were like lions’ heads, and fire, smoke and sulfur were-coming-out of their mouths.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Like this was the physical-appearance of the horses and those riding them, which were shown to me like I was dreaming it. Those ones riding had coverings around their chests like burning fire, dark-blue/purple like sapiru and yellow like asupri. The heads of those horses were like the head of a leon, and coming out of their mouths was fire, smoke and asupri.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “This is what came to my eyes: I saw the horses, I saw the horsemen. On the chests of the horsemen the covering was all of metal. There were colored red, blue, yellow. Concerning the horses, their heads seemed like heads of lions. From the mouths of the horses came out fire, there came out smoke, smelling of sulphur.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The Greek text says literally “And thus I saw the horses in the vision and the riders on them having fiery breastplates.” The Greek manuscripts have no punctuation marks; all such marks are inserted by editors of the printed Greek text. It is possible therefore that the Greek text means what Revised Standard Version has, that is, only the riders wore the breastplates (also New Revised Standard Version, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Barclay, New Jerusalem Bible, Bible en français courant); but it is also possible that the text means what Good News Translation says, that is, that both riders and horses had breastplates (so Revised English Bible, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje, Translator’s New Testament, New International Version); see Rev. 9.9. On the whole it appears that the form of the Greek text favors Good News Bible, but a translator should feel free to follow the Revised Standard Version rendering. Breastplates in this context may also be expressed as “armor protecting their chests” or “metal plates protecting their chests.”
In my vision: this is the only place in the book where the noun vision is used; the meaning is elsewhere always expressed by the verb “I saw.” Vision in many languages will be translated as “dream.”
The riders: as in the case of the riders of the four horses in 6.2, 4, 5, 8, the text does not say whether they are human or angelic (or demonic) beings; if in translation a specific term must be used, it seems better not to identify them as human beings. If possible the translation should say “those who were riding them.”
The color of fire and of sapphire and of sulphur: that is, red, blue, and yellow (see Good News Translation). The sapphire is a precious stone, usually dark blue. Sulfur is a yellow substance that burns with great heat and produces an unpleasant smell. If specific terms for sapphire and sulfur are not readily available, the translation can say simply “blue and yellow.” But sulfur appears later in this verse and also in the next verse. It will be helpful in the case of sulphur to include an explanatory note in the glossary. See also A Handbook on the Book of Psalms, page 114.
Alternative translation models for this clause are:
• They had armor protecting their chests, which was red like fire, blue like sapphires, and yellow like sulphur.
Or:
• The metal plates protecting their chests were red like the color of fire, blue like a sky-colored precious stone, and yellow like sulphur.
Like lions’ heads: as in 4.7, these horses had heads like those of lions.
Fire and smoke and sulphur issued from their mouths: the picture is something like that of a dragon belching flames.
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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