Õnnistuse märkimisest eestikeelsetes piiblitõlgetes
Blessing in Estonian Biblical Translations

Summary/Abstract: The article provides a brief overview of the cultural background of Biblical translation. It also discusses briefly the source-language equivalents and compares the Estonian translation equivalents to those in the Latin and German traditions of translation. The most important source-language equivalents of the derivatives of õnnis ‘blessed’ are the Hebrew root brk and the corresponding Greek eulog(e)-stem in the New Testament The meaning of brk reveals three most important features: blessing from God , human-to-human blessing, and human-to-God blessing. Also, the main senses of the eulog(e)-stems denote a reciprocal relation between God and a human. Thus, the terminology of the original languages of the Bible uses the same stem irrespective of the direction of blessing, and due to such two-sidedness both aspects have been shown as two sides of the same relation. The German translation of the Bible by Martin Luther divides the meaning of the Hebrew brk-root into two depending on the direction of the action. One sense covers those uses of the brk-root where the action is directed from God to a human or from a human to a human; the other sense covers those uses of the brk-root where the action is directed from a human to God. In the first case the segnen-forms and in the second case the loben-forms are used. It is generally thought that the first complete Estonian-language Bible published in 1739 did not follow Martin Luther’s tradition and that in principle it was translated into Estonian directly from the original languages of the Bible. However, an analysis of the derivatives of õnnis reveals a similarity to Luther, which proves that while translating from the original languages the first translators of the Estonian Bible followed the interpretation found in the German-language translation by Luther. The use of the derivatives of õnnis in the Books of the Old Testament shows that in most cases the brk-root is translated by means of õnnis-derivatives. The stem kiit- ‘praise’ is used for the translation of the brk-root where the action is directed from a human to God. Efforts have been made to improve the correspondence of the õnnis-derivatives of the Estonian-language New Testament to the terms used in the original languages of the Bible. In the 1739 and 1968 Bibles the õnnis-derivatives of the New Testament correspond to the three stems of the original – eulog(e), makar ja soz-. In the 1997 Bible the õnnis-derivatives of the New Testament correspond to two stems – eulog(e) and makar. The translation of the brk-root and eulog(e)-stem into Estonian by means of the õnnis-derivatives has been a matter of dispute throughout the history of biblical translation.

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