Nathalie mi ha scritto: “Dear Pietro, I discovered this week that what is currently translated as ‘patience’ used to be ‘longsuffering’.” Nathalie then asked which translation is better. Here are two initial observations on this general topic.
1. Languages evolve. Thus what was a good translation during a past century may no longer be the best one now. “Longsuffering” is generally associated with older English, for example that found in the King James Version (KJV). The KJV was translated in 1611. The English language has changed in many ways since that time. Note 1.
2. Some translations are more “literal” than others. Be aware that, in this case, “literal” doesn’t necessarily mean better (though it may). Note 2.
With this in mind let’s look at one example of where the KJV uses the word “longsuffering”. 2 Peter 3:9 says: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”.
The Greek word translated here “longsuffering” (a compound word) is the verb makrothumo (also a compound word). An older Greek Dictionary (Thayer, accessed on my version of Accordance) says the following about this verb: “from makrothumos, and this from makros and thumos; to be of a long spirit, not to lose heart”. Joseph Henry Thayer lived from 1828 to 1901. Thus his comments also may reflect a stage of English that dates back to more than a century ago. At any rate, Thayer brings out that makro-thumo is composed of two words: makro and thumo, and from this draws conclusions as to its meaning. These conclusions may or may not be accurate, because compound words are not necessarily the product of the meaning of each single part. Take pineapple as an example, or perhaps better still butterfly. Those cute flying insects are certainly not butter that is flying! That said, perhaps the English translators felt the Greek compound word was best translated by an English compound.
If we don’t know Greek, a useful approach (though not perfect) to finding an adequate definition of makrothumo, in today’s English, would be to see how it’s translated in a few good English translations. I prefer the New International Version (NIV), but there are many other good ones. Let’s do the comparison together.
I’ll list the places that makrothumo (verb) is found in the New Testament, as well as it’s noun form makrothumia. Makrothumo (verb 10 times): Matthew 18:26; 29; Luke 18:7; 1 Corinthians 13:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:14; Hebrews 6:15; James 5:7 (twice), 8; 2 Peter 3:9. Click here and you’ll see how the KJV translates these verses. Now click here and compare how the NIV translates them. In some verses are the words translated in the same way? In others are there differences? Make your own observations.
Now here are the places where makrothumia (noun, 14 times) is found: Romans 2:4; 9:22; 2 Corinthians 6:6; Galatians 5:22; Ephesians 4:2; Colossians 1:11; 3:12; 1 Timothy 1:16; 2 Timothy 3:10; 4:2; Hebrews 6:12; James 5:10; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 3:15. Click here to see how the KVJ translates these verses; now here for the NIV. Once again, compare and observe differences and similarities.
To complete the “lexical” (regarding words) picture, we need to mention that the adverb (makrothumos) of the same root is found once in the New Testament: Acts 26:3. Here’s that verse in the KJV (“Especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews: wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently”) and in the NIV (“because you are especially familiar with all the customs and controversial issues of the Jews. Therefore I ask you to listen to me patiently”).
Now you have in English all the verses where the Greek root makrothum- is found. This allows you to compare English translations and draw your own conclusions as to the general meaning communicated by this word group. We can do this because the translations we are dealing with are high quality. What we’d just done is a sort of beginning “word study”. It neither complete nor perfect, but it can yield acceptable results.
As to our translation question. It’s curious that Baker’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary (edited by Tremper Longman) has no entry for “longsuffering”. Where that word would be it reads: “See Patience“. Then at “patience” we find the following interesting remark (p. 1276): “One who has patience allows time to pass while maintaining a positive disposition, often in the face of suffering (Hab. 3:16; 2 Tim. 3:10-11; James 5:10), as the KJV translation ‘longsuffering’ imples (cfr. Prov. 14:29 NASB [New American Standard Version]: ‘slow to answer’). What should we make of this? English has changed (yes), but perhaps a useful nuance was found in the compound “longsuffering”. That doesn’t mean, of course, that we should necessarily expect to find longsuffering in a modern translation. It is no longer a word commonly used in the present “evolution” of the English language.
In this post we’ve only mentioned a Greek word that was translated “longsuffering”, having made no mention of the Hebrew Old Testament. If you want an excellent resource in English to understand the meaning of words in both the Old and New Testaments, I recommend Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. You can use it profitably without any knowledge of Greek or Hebrew. (I talk about it here in English.)
Here are a two free web sites where you can find various English translations (as well as those of other languages): Bible Gateway and Bible Hub. Here’s where you can do your translations comparisons.
Accordance is an excellent resource that I’ve been using for about two decades. You can find out more about it here and purchase it if you like.
In italiano è ottimo il sito di Richard Wilson, www.laparola.net
Note 1. D.A. Carson address this issue in the brief video: Why is Bible Translation so Difficult?
Note 2. The bestseller by Fee and Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth is excellent in many ways. In chapter two the authors talk about the different approaches taken by various translations of the Bible.
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