complete verse (1 John 2:24)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 John 2:24:

  • Uma: “So, as for you, relatives, the news that you have heard from the first you must take-to-heart always. If that news that you have heard from the first you take-to-heart always, you will remain in harmony with God the Child and God the Father.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Therefore really store up in your livers the preaching about Isa Almasi that you have heard when you first trusted in him. If that what you heard remains in your liver, you are really one with God’s Son and also with his Father.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The doctrine which was taught to you when you first believed must be held tightly by you. For if you hold it tight, it is not possible that you will not always be one with God our (incl.) Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Make-firm then in your minds the true teaching that you have been hearing beginning-from when- you -believed. Because if you do that, you will always be in God and in Jesu Cristo his Child,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well, as for you, take good care that these words which you heard from the past remain with you. Because if you really take to heart (lit. put away in your heads) this which you heard from the past, therein you can be sure that your fellowship with God the Son and his Father won’t change/move.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Therefore in your hearts dwell upon the words which you heard at first. If in your hearts you dwell upon the words which you first heard, then you will walk with the Son of God, and also you will walk with the Father.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “Think about what you have heard since you began to trust in Christ. If you will do that you will constantly be with our father God and with his son.”
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “And we, we must plant on our hearts what we heard at the beginning. Because if we plant in our hearts what we heard at the beginning, then habitually we live with the Father and his Son.”
  • Tzotzil: “Therefore all that you heard when you began to believe God’s word, once and for all, put it in your hearts. If once and for all it has arrived in your hearts all that you heard when you began to believe God’s word, thus once and for all you have entered the presence of the Son of God and also the presence of His Father.” (Source for this and two above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)

Father (address for God)

The Greek that is translated with the capitalized “Father” in English when referring to God is translated in Highland Totonac with the regular word for (biological) father to which a suffix is added to indicate respect. The same also is used for “Lord” when referring to Jesus. (Source: Hermann Aschmann in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 171ff. )

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between. In the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017, God the Father is addressed with mi-chichi (御父). This form has the “divine” honorific prefix mi– preceding the archaic honorific form chichi for “father.”

If, however, Jesus addresses his Father, he is using chichi-o (父を) which is also highly respectful but does not have the “divine” honorific. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also Lord and my / our Father.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on 1 John 2:24

In verses 24-25 John shifts from proposition to exhortation. Addressing his followers directly he entreats them to keep to what they have always been taught, namely, that Jesus is the Christ, and not to believe the false teachings he has denounced in the preceding verses. This shift is clearly marked in the Greek by the use of the second person plural in initial position. Therefore several versions rightly prefer to introduce the first sentence of the verse by something like ‘As for you,’ or ‘You, however.’

Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you: the aorist form of you heard in the Greek indicates that the action has been completed and is regarded as a whole, irrespective of its duration.

For from the beginning see comments on 1 John 2.7; for “to abide in” see comments on verse 14, and compare discussion below.

It is in some cases preferable to shift to a more personal wording such as ‘I beg you to stick to what you heard…’ (compare Phillips) or, with an imperative, “be sure, then, to keep in your hearts the message you heard…” (Good News Translation). But this may spoil the play on words with “abide in you” and “abide in him” (see comments on 24b).

The next sentence refers to a situation in which the demand expressed in the preceding clause has been fulfilled. It repeats that clause, but now as a condition and, in the Greek, with a change in word order. This gives the verse a solemn ring and serves to emphasize the statement.

This stylistic feature should be preserved in translation. Preferably verse 24b should repeat, completely or with only slight variations, the wording of verse 24a; for example, ‘Let what you heard … be and remain in you. If what you heard … is and remains in you,’ or ‘Have in your heart what you heard…. If you have completely put in your heart what you heard….’

Complete or slightly varied repetition, however, does not have this function of solemn emphasis in all languages. Where it does not, one may have to use a different wording, at the same time trying to express the function in another way. This may result, for example, in a rendering of verse 24b like ‘if you really have done so and remain doing so.’ To reduce verse 24b to a simple ‘if you do,’ or even ‘then,’ ‘in-that-case,’ is not advisable.

Then you will abide in the Son and in the Father: according to this clause it is only by way of the word of the gospel as it is preached by the eyewitnesses (compare 1.1-3) that one can come to the Son, just as it is only through the Son that one can come to the Father. This is probably the reason why the Son is mentioned before the Father here, not after him as in verse 22.

Then you, or ‘you too,’ ‘you similarly,’ ‘you for your part.’ In the Greek the pronoun is given emphasis by a preceding kai “and.”

The verb “to abide” is used here in the context of other agents and objects than noted before. The construction in this clause belongs to a group (a), as mentioned in verse 6, the construction in the two preceding clauses to (d). The repetition of the verb serves, however, to stress the close connection between the abiding of the gospel in man and man’s abiding in the Son and the Father, or stated otherwise, between man’s keeping to the gospel and his keeping fellowship with God in Christ.

It is again preferable to preserve this stylistic trait completely or at least partly. For the latter compare, for example, ‘if what you heard … remains effective in you, then you will remain one with the Son…,’ ‘keep what you heard, then you will keep living with the Son…’; also New English Bible‘s “you must therefore keep in your hearts that which you heard…; if what you heard then still dwells in you, you will yourselves dwell in the Son….” In some cases, however, receptor language idioms will require renderings of the verb that are wholly different, such as ‘remain in – be together with,’ ‘preserve – remain forever with,’ ‘keep in your hearts – live in union with.’

Quoted with permission from Haas, C., de Jonge, M. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on The First Letter of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator's Notes on 1 John 2:24

2:24a

As for you, let: (Discourse Feature) This instruction (2:24a) is the main thing John is saying in 2:18–25. He has warned his readers about the false teaching of those who have left the church, so he tells them they must therefore be careful not to forget or change the true Christian teaching they have received. The strong imperative is shown in several English versions by the phrases “See that” (New International Version (2011 Revision)), “Be sure” (Good News Translation), “You must” (New English Bible).

from the beginning: (Meaning) As in 2:7b, this refers to the time when they first became Christians. This meaning of from the beginning is different from the meaning of the same phrase in 1:1 and 2:13c.

remain in you: (Meaning) In the Greek this phrase has the same meaning as the phrase “abides in you” in 2:14f. See the note on 2:14f.

2:24b

If it does: (Ellipsis) This is a short way in English of referring to what has just been said. See Good News Translation and New English Bible for ways of saying it more fully.

you will also: (Meaning) This means “you for your part will.” John is contrasting his readers (who remain in the Son) with the teaching (which remains in them). It does not mean “you in addition to others will.”

in the Son and in the Father: (Collocation) As in 2:5 this is John’s way of talking about our close personal relationship and union with God. See the note on “in Him” in 2:5c.

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