望みを抱いて喜び nozomi o idaite yorokobi Romans 12-12 Be Joyful in Hope
望みを抱いて喜び (nozomi o idaite yorokobi), rejoicing in hope, is the first clause of Romans 12:12 in eight characters, and of the Japanese Bibles read here the 新改訳 is the one that prints them exactly. The 1955 colloquial Bible has the same words with the verb in kana, and the Meiji Bible of 1880 read the clause 望みて喜び.
Abstract
望みを抱いて喜び, rejoicing in hope, is the first clause of Romans 12:12 in eight characters, and of the Japanese Bibles read here the 新改訳 is the one that prints them exactly, in its 2003 and 2017 texts alike. The 1955 口語訳 has the same words with the verb in kana, 望みをいだいて喜び. The Meiji Bible of 1880 and the revision of 1917 read the clause 望みて喜び, and the Bibles of 1987 and 2018 read 希望をもって喜び.
Overview
The sense. The first of the verse's three clauses: rejoicing in hope, then enduring affliction, then keeping to prayer, 患難に耐え … 祈り in the 口語訳's words. 望みを抱いて喜び is eight characters two Bibles share, the 新改訳 printing them exactly and the 口語訳 differing by one kanji.
The words. 抱く, to hold a thought or feeling in the heart, is cited from about 850 and, closer to the modern hand, from 漱石's 吾輩は猫である of 1905; the 新改訳 writes the verb in kanji, the 口語訳 in kana [1]. 望み carries no dated entry on its dictionary page [2].
The text in English. Romans 12:12: the King James and the American Standard read rejoicing in hope; the New International reads be joyful in hope; the English Standard and the New Revised Standard read rejoice in hope [3].
The historical record
1880 and 1881. The Meiji New Testament. The Meiji committee finished its New Testament in 1880; the 1881 新約全書, the earliest complete printing in the National Diet Library, reads 望(のぞみ)て喜(よろこ)び患難(なやみ)に耐(た)へ祈祷(いのり)を恒(つね)にし for Romans 12:12 [4]. 三浦徹's annotated 新約全書略註 of 1904 prints the verse in plain readings, 望みて喜び患難に耐へ祈禱を恒にせよ [5]. The Meiji Bible has 望 alone for hope where 望みを抱いて喜び has 望みを抱いて.
1910. The Catholic ラゲ訳. Émile Raguet's Catholic translation of 1910 reads Romans 12:12 希望(きぼう)によりて歡(よろこ)び、患難(くわんなん)に忍耐(にんたい)し、絕(た)えず祈祷(きたう)に從事(じうじ)し [6]. Its hope is 希望, read きぼう in its ruby.
1917. The 大正改訳. The Protestant revision of the New Testament, finished 5 October 1917, reads Romans 12:12 望(のぞ)みて喜(よろこ)び、患難(なやみ)にたへ、祈(いのり)を恒(つね)にし in its 1927 printing [7]: the Meiji clause kept.
1955. The colloquial 口語訳. The Japan Bible Society's colloquial translation, the New Testament in 1954 and the whole Bible in 1955, reads 望みをいだいて喜び、患難に耐え、常に祈りなさい at its own verse-search endpoint [8]. The Japan Bible Society's own list of the wordings it revised in 1975, 1984 and 2002 does not touch this verse [9]. 望みを抱いて喜び is this Bible's clause with 抱 written for いだ.
1970, 2003 and 2017. The 新改訳. 新改訳 first appeared in 1970; its third edition (2003 text) and its 2017 revision both print Romans 12:12 as 望みを抱いて喜び — the 2003 text continues 患難に耐え、絶えず祈りに励みなさい [10] and the 2017 text 苦難に耐え、ひたすら祈りなさい [11] — the eight characters exactly. Of the Bibles read here it is the first to print them; its first edition of 1970 was not opened.
1987. The 新共同訳. 新共同訳, published September 1987, reads Romans 12:12 希望をもって喜び、苦難を耐え忍び、たゆまず祈りなさい [12].
2018. The 聖書協会共同訳. 聖書協会共同訳, published December 2018, reads Romans 12:12 希望をもって喜び、苦難に耐え、たゆまず祈り [13].
Across the Bibles. 望みを抱いて喜び is the 新改訳's eight characters, which the 口語訳 also carries with the verb in kana.
A reading
望みを抱いて喜び is eight characters two Bibles share: the 新改訳 prints them exactly, and the 口語訳 has the same words with one kanji in kana instead, so either Bible could be their source. Before 1955 the Protestant Bible read the clause 望みて喜び, hope with no verb of holding it, from the Meiji text of 1880 through the revision of 1917; the 口語訳 added the holding, 望みをいだいて, and the Bibles of 1987 and 2018 moved to 希望をもって.
Sources not seen
The 新改訳's first edition of 1970; its 2003 and 2017 texts were read at the publisher's verse search. A copy of 1970 would show whether the first edition already printed the eight characters.
The 1917 first printing of the 大正改訳, the New Testament's original revision; the National Diet Library's earliest digitized printing is 1919, two years later, and no earlier printing is described here. A copy of 1917 would confirm the revision's wording had already reached its final form by 1919, or show what changed in the two years between.
The Catholic フランシスコ会訳 and バルバロ訳, two twentieth-century Catholic translations still in copyright, with no public verse-search endpoint. Their text of this verse would show whether the Catholic church's modern Bible differs from ラゲ訳's 1910 wording or from the Protestant Bibles it postdates.
A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.
References
- 「抱く」, 精選版日本国語大辞典・デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/抱く
- 「望み」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/望み
- Romans 12:12, Greek text and English versions (KJV, ASV, NIV, ESV, NRSV), at biblehub.com. https://biblehub.com/text/romans/12-12.htm
- 新約全書, 米国聖書会社, 1881, scan 230 (Romans 12:12). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992682/1/230
- 三浦徹, 新約全書略註, 1904, scan 308 (Romans 12:12). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/825539/1/308
- ロマ書 (ラゲ訳), 1910, at ja.wikisource (Romans 12:12). https://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/ロマ書_(ラゲ訳)
- 我らの主なる救主イエス・キリストの新約聖書, 1927, scan 214 (Romans 12:12). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1053815/1/214
- 口語訳, 日本聖書協会, at the publisher's verse search (Romans 12:12). https://www.bible.or.jp/read/vers_search.html
- 聖書語句訂正一覧（口語訳聖書）, 日本聖書協会, the 1975 · 1984 · 2002 revisions. https://www.bible.or.jp/read/si_word_correction/jc_word_correction.html
- 新改訳 第三版, 新日本聖書刊行会, 2003 text, at the publisher's verse search (Romans 12:12). https://www.seisho.or.jp/biblesearch/
- 新改訳2017, 新日本聖書刊行会, 2017 text, at the publisher's verse search (Romans 12:12). https://www.seisho.or.jp/biblesearch/
- 新共同訳, 日本聖書協会, 1987, at the publisher's verse search (Romans 12:12). https://www.bible.or.jp/read/vers_search.html
- 聖書協会共同訳, 日本聖書協会, 2018, at the publisher's verse search (Romans 12:12). https://www.bible.or.jp/read/vers_search.html