What if they don't have a word for that?

I'm often asked what we do when we need to translate a word in the Bible that doesn't exist in a language. The classic example is the word "snow" - people wonder how a language could have a word for snow if they've never seen it (although actually, this particular word isn't always as much of a problem as you might think - people can know what snow is without seeing it). But of course, it is true that unknown words and concepts do inevitably come up when translating the Bible. Then we face the dilemma of wanting to translate in a way that makes sense, but wanting to remain faithful to the Scriptures. Yet, there are good ways of handling these while still being faithful to the original culture and historical setting of the Bible. I'll list the main ones, with some brief examples, quoted from our Translator Training Manual. Not all of these methods will work for every case, but they are all legitimate options in at least some situations.

1. Use a descriptive phrase.
Sometimes, if there is no single word available in the language, a short phrase can be used. Here is a short example from Togo, West Africa:

In Togo, the Kabiyé translation team was looking for a word for “priest.” A previous translation had used a native Kayibé word that was the common word for the priest of fetish worship, something the Christians naturally rejected. Rather than using that word, the team used the phrase “animal sacrificer.”

This type of solution can work really well in many cases, as it did in Kabiyé, but if used too much or not done carefully, it can make the translation long and clumsy. For example, the book of Ruth frequently uses a Hebrew word, go'el, which has a technical meaning unknown to most cultures today, something like, "a widow's dead husband's male next-of-kin, who is obligated to marry her and raise up an inheritance for her" (see Deut 25:5-10). Imagine how a translation would look if the word was translated that way every time!

2. Use a foreign word with a general word.
Sometimes you can use a foreign word along with a general native word. Here is another West African example.

Consider the following example from a workshop with the Waalii Old Testament translation project in Ghana, West Africa. Psalm 104:18 says: “The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies.” (KJV) The translator, in his rough draft, had used the word “rabbits” for the word “conies.” However, the creature mentioned here, called a shaphan in Hebrew, is not a rabbit, but an animal similar to the badgers that are found in the United States. The problem they encountered is that neither the badger nor the shaphan lived in Ghana. The word “rabbit” was tempting, since the Ghanaians did know about rabbits; they were also familiar with a small animal called the “grass-cutter” that was very common in Ghana. Neither the badger, rabbit, nor grass-cutter lived in rocks, however. The team finally decided to use “shaphan animals,” the foreign word from Hebrew along with the general word “animal.”

By translating with both a foreign word and a general native word, the Waalii readers will be able to at least understand that a shaphan is a type of animal, even if they don't know everything about the animal. This is often a good solution when translating specific names of plants, animals, minerals, and so on, that are unknown in the receptor culture.

3. Use a foreign word alone.
Sometimes it is possible to use a foreign word alone and still make good sense in the translation. Here's an example from the southwestern part of the Sahara Desert in Africa.

The Songhai language, spoken in Mali around the city of Timbuktu, has many words that have been borrowed from Arabic. When the need for a word for “angel” arose, the translation team found that there was an Arabic word malakah that carries that meaning and was already understood by the majority of the Songhai people. Interestingly, the word malakah is related to the Hebrew word for “angel,” which is mal’ak.

Notice that this solution worked well in Songhai because the word, although not a native word, was already familiar to the Songhai speakers.

4. Use a more general word
In some situations, a more general word can be used. Our example for this type of solution comes from English.

In Genesis 43:11, Jacob is counseling his sons about what to take to Egypt to appease the man who has taken Simeon as a prisoner in surety for their honesty. “And their father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this; take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds.” The word “nuts” toward the end of the verse is actually “pistachios,” a type of nut well-known in the Western World now but not known in England in the 17^th century. The KJV translators used the general word “nuts.”

This solution is often especially useful where the specific meaning of the original is unknown.

5. Use a more specific word
It certain cases, a more specific word can be used. Here is an example from Asia.

In translating the phrase, “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted” from Matthew 15:13, the Matu translator from southeast Asia had used the word “tree” in his first draft because his language had no word for the generic word “plant.” It is normally impossible to uproot a tree by hand, however. Matu has many words for different types of plants, but no general word for “plant.” After much thought, the team decided to use the word that meant “sprout,” since even though it is more specific than “plant,” every plant at some time in its life has been a sprout.

This solution can be useful in situations where the original word is very general, but the receptor language has no general word available.

I hope that gives you some idea of the various ways of handling the difficulties of translating unknown concepts. As you can see, it can be complicated, and there is no one solution that will work perfectly in every case. Thank you for your continued prayers for the wisdom of our translation teams!