complete verse (1 John 3:11)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 John 3:11:

  • Uma: “This is the news that you heard from the first: we must love one another.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “When you first trusted in Isa Almasi you heard this preaching that we (incl.) should love each other.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “It’s necessary that each one of us love our companions. This is what was taught to us (incl.) when we first believed.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The true teaching that you have been hearing since when- you -believed, it is this: it is necessary that we love-one-another.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “This indeed is what you heard which was taught to you from long ago, that we value one another.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The word which you heard at the first says that each one of us must love all our fellow believers.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “And this word you have heard since you began to trust in Christ, that we must love our fellows each of us the other.”
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “Because this is the command that we were told at the beginning, that we love one another.”
  • Tzotzil: “Thus says God’s word that you heard when you believed: Love one another, it says.” (Source for this and two above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (1John 3:11)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, translators typically select the inclusive form (including the addressee).

Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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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.

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 3:11

For this is the message which you have heard … that …, compare comments on 2.7. This points forward to the that clause, which gives the contents of the message. Some useful restructurings are “the message you heard … is this: we…” (Good News Translation), ‘there is a message…. It is that….’ The Greek verb is not in the perfect tense but in the aorist, which is to show that the reference is to action regarded as a completed whole, irrespective of its duration.

From the beginning refers to the beginning of the preaching of the gospel; compare comments on 2.7. But the wider context reminds the reader of the other meaning the phrase can have in this Letter; see Introduction, page 1.

That we should love one another: the verb is in the present tense, expressing duration.

It is important to note that this commandment to love is given as part of “the message you have heard,” that is, the gospel message. In John’s view gospel and commandment, though different, clearly are aspects of the same thing; both call the believers to a life that is free from sin.

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 3:11

Paragraph 3:11–12

Read 3:11–12 in both Berean Standard Bible and Good News Translation. Compare the two versions.

Paragraph Theme: These verses link what John has just said about living pure lives to what he is going to say in 3:13–18 about the importance of loving one another.

3:11a

(Revised Standard Version) For: (Logical Relationship) Although John is moving on to a new topic, Christian love, this verse is closely tied to the last one. In the Greek, verse 11 starts with “Because/For,” as it gives the reason why we know that anyone who does not love his fellow Christians cannot be a child of God. When translating this verse, it will be necessary to consider whether a linking word is needed in order to make this connection to verse 10 clear (as in New English Bible, Revised Standard Version, King James Version, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English, Living Bible) or whether the new unit (3:11–12) requires that there be no linking word (as in Berean Standard Bible, New International Version (2011 Revision), Good News Translation).

the message…beginning: (Meaning) This means that the command to love one another was a main point in the Christian instruction which they received when they first became believers.

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