Oh be careful little translator what you say...#3

"gnashing of teeth"

Sounds simple, right?  But how would you translate these passages into the Keley-i language of the Philippines:

Matthew 8:12, " the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (ESV)


Acts 7:54, "Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him." (ESV- other versions say gnashed their teeth)

In Matthew 8:12, Jesus is referring to the eternal punishment of the wicked.  In Acts 7:54, the mob is about to stone Stephen.

In Matthew 8:12, the word translated "gnashing" is the Greek noun βρυγμός which means gnashing of teeth, used to denote extreme anguish and utter despair of men consigned to eternal punishment in hell; snarling, growling: in the sense of biting.

In Acts 7:54, the word translated "ground" is the Greek verb βρύχω which means to grind, gnash with the teeth; to bite, to chew.

 In the Keley-i language of the Philippines there are three words which could be translational equivalents:

[ngallidih] - movement of bringing the teeth together repetitively, the reason for the movement is suffering or pain

[keletket] - movement of bringing the teeth together repetitively, the reason for the movement is the person is asleep or drunk

[kalat] - movement of bringing the teeth together; to bite

Which word will you choose for your translation of Matthew 8:12 and Acts 7:54?  The same word for each passage?  Different words?  Why?

For Matthew 8:12 the translators chose [ngallidih] which includes suffering as the reason for the gnashing.  But in Acts 7:54, the speakers of Keley-i rejected any attempt of the translators to extend the meaning of the words [ngallidih] or [keletket] to include the idea of anger.  Therefore, the translators chose the basic word [kalat] 'bite' and inserted the idea of anger as the reason for the biting.

A rough English translation from Keley-i would read, "they were biting their teeth together in anger."  This preserves the meaning of the original language and is acceptable in the target language.

BUT THAT'S JUST ONE WORD!!!!!

Please pray for Bible translators around the world.



{this data was taken from Hale, Austin and Lou Hohulin and Heather Kilgour. 1981. Lexical sets and semantic neighborhoods. Notes on translation. 86.2-14.}