fathers or parents in general...?

Just something that came up in the translation work recently. It was a small point, and not a problem for us, but it did make me think about the way different languages work.

In Zechariah 10:7 there is a sentence which is either translated as “their children shall see it and rejoice” or “their sons shall see it and rejoice”. In Hebrew there is no problem with using the masculine plural form to include both male and female. It is true that a little earlier, in Zechariah 8:5, the text does speak of “boys and girls”, therefore not using the masculine plural for both, but on the other hand “sons of Israel” is often used in the Hebrew Bible to speak of the whole people of Israel, not just the men.

When you are translating into another language though, if that language doesn't work the same way as Hebrew, you have to decide whether the Hebrew form meant male-and-female or just male. An interesting example, actually from the Greek this time, came up when we were at Bible College. We were looking at the verse in Ephesians which says, in the NIV, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children: instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” (Eph. 6:4)

The lecturer said, simply as an aside, that of course in the Greek, a masculine plural could include male and female, and so it would probably be better translated as “Parents”. I was taken aback. I had, honestly, always read this verse as applying to male parents, without stopping to ask myself whether that was realistic. (Not that I didn't think it was true for mothers, I just thought in this case Paul was particularly addressing the fathers.) In my defence, in the British English I speak, you would never say “fathers” if you were talking about fathers-and-mothers, you would always say “parents”. So is this a slip-up on the part of the NIV, or are they speaking a different version of English from me, or did they judge that actually these words of Paul were only for male parents?

Another detail. In Zechariah 10:8, God says that He will whistle for His people and will gather them. In Monkolé “whistle” has just been translated by “call” … I guess whistling may not mean the same thing in Monkolé as it does in Hebrew. And actually, even in English it could seem a bit derogatory, like whistling for one's dog. I doubt many English people would come to you if you whistled to them! A good example of a place where a literal translation is not necessarily the most comprehensible nor the most appropriate.

Afterthought: After having written this, I was actually hissed at in the market by a woman I am acquainted with, who wanted to greet me. Interesting...!