ἐν τούτῳ τετελείωται ἡ ἀγάπη μεθ᾽ ἡμῶν, ἵνα παρρησίαν ἔχωμεν ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῆς κρίσεως, ὅτι καθὼς ἐκεῖνός ἐστιν, καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐσμεν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ τούτῳ.
17Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.
The Greek that is typically translated as “boldness” in English is often translated in the Protestant Mandarin Chinese Union Version with an existing Chinese proverb: tǎnrán wújù (坦然无惧) or “calm and fearless.” (Source: Zetzsche)
In Makonde it is translated as “being strong in heart.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
The concept that is expressed as “mind” in English is translated as “head-heart” in Yatzachi Zapotec. This concept is applied to terms that are translated in English as “fellowship” (“head-hearts are one”), the “inner-self” (“have no evil” is “have no evil in our head-hearts”), “eye” (in the sense of “understanding”), “heart” and “soul.”
Source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22.
See also heart, soul, mind (with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind).
Translator Lee Bramlett submitted this on the translation of the Greek word that is translated into English as “love” (referring to God’s love). This letter was then reposted by Wycliffe Bible Translators (see here ):
“Translator Lee Bramlett was confident that God had left His mark on the Hdi culture somewhere, but though he searched, he could not find it. Where was the footprint of God in the history or daily life of these Cameroonian people? What clue had He planted to let the Hdi know who He was and how He wanted to relate to them?
“Then one night in a dream, God prompted Lee to look again at the Hdi word for ‘love.’ Lee and his wife, Tammi, had learned that verbs in Hdi consistently end in one of three vowels. For almost every verb, they could find forms ending in i, a, and u. But when it came to the word for love, they could only find i and a. Why no u?
“Lee asked the Hdi translation committee, which included the most influential leaders in the community, ‘Could you ‘ɗvi’ your wife?’ ‘Yes,’ they said. That would mean that the wife had been loved but the love was gone.
“‘Could you ‘ɗva’ your wife?’ ‘Yes,’ they said. That kind of love depended on the wife’s actions. She would be loved as long as she remained faithful and cared for her husband well.
“‘Could you ‘ɗvu’ your wife?’ Everyone laughed. ‘Of course not! If you said that, you would have to keep loving your wife no matter what she did, even if she never got you water, never made you meals. Even if she committed adultery, you would be compelled to just keep on loving her. No, we would never say ‘ɗvu.’ It just doesn’t exist.’
“Lee sat quietly for a while, thinking about John 3:16, and then he asked, ‘Could God ‘ɗvu’ people?’
“There was complete silence for three or four minutes; then tears started to trickle down the weathered faces of these elderly men. Finally they responded. ‘Do you know what this would mean? This would mean that God kept loving us over and over, millennia after millennia, while all that time we rejected His great love. He is compelled to love us, even though we have sinned more than any people.’
“One simple vowel and the meaning was changed from ‘I love you based on what you do and who you are,’ to ‘I love you, based on Who I am. I love you because of Me and NOT because of you.’
“God had encoded the story of His unconditional love right into their language. For centuries, the little word was there — unused but available, grammatically correct and quite understandable. When the word was finally spoken, it called into question their entire belief system. If God was like that, did they need the spirits of the ancestors to intercede for them? Did they need sorcery to relate to the spirits? Many decided the answer was no, and the number of Christ-followers quickly grew from a few hundred to several thousand.
“The New Testament in Hdi is ready to be printed now, and 29,000 speakers will soon be able to feel the impact of passages like Ephesians 5:25: ‘Husbands, ‘ɗvu’ your wives, just as Christ ‘ɗvu’-d the church…'”
In Hawai’i Creole English the love that God has is often translated as love an aloha. Aloha has a variety of meanings, including “hello,” “goodbye,” “love,” “thank you,” etc.
The Philippine languages of Cebuano, Tagalog, and Pampanga use a word (gugma, pag-ibig, and lugud respectively) that is also used for a “noble, refined love of people for each other,” distinct from romantic love. (Source: G. Henry Waterman in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 24ff. )
In Mairasi, the term that is used for love by God, for God and for people is the same: “desire one’s face.” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Joseph Hong (in The Bible Translator 1996, p. 233ff. ) explains the translation of this kind of love into Khmer: “Expressing the idea of God’s love has also caused some problems. Since the Khmer knows only about the Buddha as compassionate, the translation team was at a loss to find an adequate term to express God’s love for humankind which is so great that God even allowed himself to become a human being. A solution was found which says that God “relates himself” to (that is, “interacts with”) human beings, srolanh (ស្រលាញ់).”
See also love (Jesus for young, rich man), God is love, Honorary “are” construct denoting God (“love”), and this devotion on YouVersion .
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.
Following are a number of back-translations of 1 John 4:17:
In this (compare “by this” in 2.3. Love, literally “the love,” is preferably interpreted as referring to God’s love for us and may have to be rendered ‘his/God’s love,’ ‘that he/God loves (us).’ With us is probably a Hebraism; the preposition has the same meaning as in the phrase “in him” in 2.5a, which see.
That: in the interpretation recommended in these notes, the that clause explains in this by mentioning something that is to be made to happen. Accordingly the connective that has the meaning “namely that,” “to wit that.” If, however, in this is taken as pointing back, the connective that can better be given consecutive meaning, as in “so that,” “with the result that.”
We may have confidence for the day of judgment is preferably taken as a reference to the future, “we will have confidence on….” For “to have confidence” see comments on 2.28.
The day of judgment, or ‘the day when all men (or we) are judged,’ ‘the moment when Christ judges mankind/us’: the phrase occurs as a technical term for an eschatological event (an event at the last days), both in the Greek version of the Old testament and in the New Testament (for example, Matt 10.15; 12.36; 2 Peter 2.9; 3.7). References to that event are found also in John 5.22, 27; 1 John 2.28-29, where it is Christ who judges in the name of God.
Judgment and “to judge” are in themselves neutral terms referring to making a decision in a lawsuit or in a similar affair. The concept is often to be rendered by an idiomatic or descriptive phrase such as ‘word straight to throw,’ ‘separate the good men from the wicked,’ ‘to measure something,’ and ‘to finish a case.’
In the present context, however, this basically neutral word has acquired a menacing sound because of man’s sinfulness; hence such renderings as ‘judge us for our sins (literally to receive our words about our sins),’ ‘inquiry about sin.’ Some versions use words referring to condemnation or punishment; this is to be rejected, since it anticipates an unfavorable decision for all, whereas the context presupposes a favorable decision for Christ’s followers.
Because as he is so are we in this world explains what is the foundation of their confidence. The clause is sometimes better rendered as a new sentence; for example, ‘This is so because as he is….’ For he (literally “that-one”) referring to Christ see comments on 2.6.
As he is so are we, or ‘we are just as Christ is,’ ‘our life is like Christ’s (life)’: the point of comparison may be Christ’s righteousness (see comments on 2.29 and compare 3.3) or his relationship with God. The latter fits the present context best; between God and Jesus there is perfect love and fellowship (compare John 14.10; 15.9-10; 17.11, 15-16, 21-23). Since this relationship is the model of the Christian’s relationship with God, and since Jesus can never be thought of as fearing his heavenly Father, his followers should not fear him either.
This point of comparison should preferably not be made explicit unless idiom requires doing so. In the latter case one may have to say something like ‘as he is living with God, so are we.’
In this world goes with so are we. The modification serves to express that man as he is in this world does not have the same direct and full relationship with God’s love as Christ has. As such it has a restrictive function. For world see comments on 2.15, meaning (2).
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 .
Paragraph 4:17–18
Read 4:17–18 in both Berean Standard Bible and Good News Translation. Compare the two versions.
Paragraph Theme: These verses concentrate on another theme from 4:12, namely God’s love being complete in us.
4:17a
In this way: (Alternative Interpretations) There are different interpretations as to what the Greek pronoun translated this refers to here:
(1) Probably it points forward to the second clause of the verse, “we have confidence…” (Good News Translation, The Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English) Some of these translations therefore restructure the sentence.
(2) Some think the pronoun refers back to the idea of loving and living in God in 4:16. (Berean Standard Bible, New International Version (2011 Revision) later editions)
love has been perfected among us: (Meaning) This is the same phrase as in 4:12c, except that a different preposition “among” is used here instead of “in.” See the note on 4:12c.
4:17b
so that: (Alternative Interpretations) There are different interpretations of how the first and second clauses of this verse fit together:
(1) Probably the first clause, “(God’s) love becomes complete in us” is explained by the second clause, “by our having confidence on the day of judgment.” (The Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English) John means that when we are allowing God to love us and to love others through us as he wants to, then we will not be afraid of God, even on the day of judgment.
(2) Some think that the second clause gives the purpose of the first clause. (New International Version (2011 Revision), Good News Translation)
(3) Some think that the second clause gives the result of the first clause.
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1).
4:17c
the day of judgment: (Biblical Term) This refers to the day when God will judge everyone, including believers.
4:17d
for: (Logical Relationship) This gives the reason why we will have confidence on the day of judgment. In translation it may be necessary to make clear which clauses it links. See Good News Translation and the Display.
in this world: (Multiple Senses) Here John uses this phrase to refer to our life on earth.
we are just like Him: (Alternative Interpretations) There are two interpretations of what this refers to, although it may not be necessary to make it explicit in translation:
(1) It probably refers to God living in us and us living in God, just as God and Christ were always in one another.
(2) It may refer to us being in a relationship of perfect love with God, as Christ was.
Him: (Pronoun Reference) This refers to Christ.
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.
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