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 Peter 1:21

The content of this benefit which the readers have received through the coming of Christ is here made explicit: Through him you believe in God. The relationship of believers to God is always through Christ, that is, through what God has done in Christ, his life, his death, and exaltation.

In this type of context the phrase Through him indicates a type of causative agent. Accordingly, Through him you believe in God may be rendered as “he caused you to believe in God.” It is also possible to understand Through him in a somewhat broader sense, namely, “because of what you know about Christ, you believe in God.”

You believe in God is literally “you are faithful to God,” and some take it with this literal meaning (compare Knox “you have learned to be faithful to God”). However, others take “faithful” here to mean “believe” or “trust.” Taken in this latter sense, the expression may be rendered as “you now have faith in God” (for example, Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible “you are believers in God”), or “you have come to trust in God” (New English Bible).

Belief in God in the sense of “trust in” or “confidence in” is often expressed figuratively, for example, “to lean one’s weight on” or “to put one’s hand in” or “to give oneself to.”

In the New Testament, it is usual for God to be described in relation to what he has done in Jesus Christ. Here, he is described as the one who raised him from death and gave him glory. The resurrection of Christ is spoken of in many places of the New Testament as God’s mighty act (Acts 2.32; 3.15; Rom 4.24, 25; etc.). Here, Christ’s resurrection and exaltation are put together as one single action of God. Glory is a New Testament word with many meanings, depending on its context. Here, it may be understood to include all that God has done to exalt Christ. Most translators retain the literal rendering (but compare Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “heavenly glory”). It is, however, possible and even advisable to translate glory meaningfully (for example, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “gave him honor”; Phillips “gave him unimaginable splendor”). With glory taken as greatness or exaltation, then a possible translation of he gave him glory is “he made him great” or “he exalted him” or “raised him up above all others” or “caused him to have great honor.”

The last part of the verse should be related to the immediately preceding clause in terms of reason-result or cause-effect. It is because God has raised Jesus from the dead and exalted him that the believers can now fix their faith and hope in God. A very important question is the relation between faith and hope. Faith is of course trust in God, and hope here seems to be the assurance and confidence that whatever God has planned and promised he will do. It is possible from the Greek construction to take hope as the predicate of faith and come out with the translation “your faith is also hope in God” (compare Moffatt “your faith means hope in God”; also Revised Standard Version margin). Most scholars and translations, however, take faith and hope as two related aspects of the Christian experience, both of which are directed to God.

The Good News Translation‘s clause and so your faith and hope are fixed on God is in the Greek text literally “and so your faith and hope is toward God” or “… to God.” Accordingly, one may render this final clause of verse 21 as “and so your confidence is in God, and your hope is in what God has promised.”

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The First Letter from Peter. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on 1 Peter 1:21

1:21a

The Greek sentence continues here, but several English versions, including the Berean Standard Bible, start a new sentence here. For example:

Through him you now trust in God (NET Bible)

Through Him: The phrase Through Him means “Through Christ,” that is, by means of what Christ had done. Some other ways to translate this are:

because of what he has done
-or-
By means of what Christ has done

you believe in God: See how you translated believe in 1:8.

1:21b

who raised Him from the dead: The phrase who raised Him from the dead refers to God, whom Peter has just mentioned in 1:21a. God brought Christ back to life after he died on the cross. Here is another way to translate this phrase:

who brought Christ back to life (God’s Word)

and glorified Him: The Greek words that the Berean Standard Bible translates as glorified Him can be translated literally as “having given glory to him.” Another way to translate this phrase is:

and gave him glory

Peter already mentioned Christ being glorified as part of the content of Old Testament prophecy (see the note at 1:11c on “glories”). Here Peter wrote that God had glorified Him. This means that God gave him great honor. This took place when God gave Jesus a resurrected body and took him to be with him in heaven. Jesus’ new body is free from human limitations and can never die again. Other ways to say this include:

gave him great honor
-or-
honored him

1:21c

and so your faith and hope are in God: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as and so has been interpreted in two ways:

(1) It indicates result or consequence. They had faith and hope in God as a result of God raising Christ and giving him glory. For example:

so that your faith and hope are in God (Revised Standard Version)

(Berean Standard Bible, Contemporary English Version, God’s Word, New American Standard Bible, New Century Version, NET Bible, New International Version, Revised English Bible, Good News Translation, Revised Standard Version, New Living Translation (2004))

(2) It indicates purpose. God raised Christ and gave him glory in order that they should have faith and hope in God. For example:

for this very purpose—that your faith and hope should be in God (New Jerusalem Bible)

(King James Version, New Jerusalem Bible)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), as most English versions do.

faith and hope: The Greek words that the Berean Standard Bible translates as faith and hope have closely related meanings. One way we can distinguish between them is:

• faith : The believers’ faith was their belief in God and their trust in him and in what he had done for them. See how you translated faith in 1:5a, 1:7a, and 1:9.

• hope : The believers’ hope was their expectation that God would do good things for them in the future. They had confidence that God would keep the promises he had made concerning their inheritance (1:4a and 1:4b) and the new life he had prepared for them (1:3b).

Peter mentioned this hope previously at 1:3c and 1:13c.

If your language uses verbs instead of the nouns faith and hope, you may be able to translate them as:

you believe in God and hope in him
-or-
you trust God and look forward to ⌊the life⌋ he ⌊promised⌋

© 2018 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
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.

Commentaire sur la traduction de la première lettre de Pierre 1.21

Par lui vous croyez en Dieu : cette proposition précise le bienfait accordé aux lecteurs/auditeurs διά dia, à travers ou grâce à la venue du Christ. C’est-à-dire, une relation avec Dieu est assurée par l’intermédiaire du Christ. Cette relation est fondée par l’œuvre accomplie par Dieu en Jésus-Christ : sa vie, sa mort, sa résurrection et son élévation à la droite du Père.

Par lui se réfère au Christ, et certaines versions le rendent explicite. La préposition grecque διά dia a plusieurs sens et selon le contexte peut désigner un moyen, un instrument ou une cause. On pourra donc retenir Par ou dire « par le moyen de Christ ». Mais dans ce contexte, Par lui semble évoquer un agent de type causal : « le Christ a fait que vous croyez en Dieu » ou « grâce à Christ, vous croyez… » Quelque soit l’expression choisie, il est clair que le Christ est la clé qui ouvre le chemin à la connaissance de Dieu.

vous croyez en Dieu est littéralement « (vous) les croyants en Dieu ». Le verbe grec peut avoir le sens d’avoir confiance ou d’être fidèle à : « (vous) les fidèles à Dieu ». Certains traducteurs l’ont compris dans ce dernier sens, mais selon la plupart des versions, le sens est vous croyez (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible en français courant, La Bible du Semeur, Parole de Vie, Bible de Jérusalem), « vous avez foi en Dieu » (Osty-Trinquet), ou « vous êtes devenus croyants en Dieu ».

qui l’a ressuscité des morts et lui a donné la gloire : le NT parle souvent de Dieu en relation avec l’œuvre qu’il a réalisée en Jésus-Christ. Ici il est décrit comme ayant accompli deux actes, que Pierre présente sous forme de chiasme antithétique :
CH1 celui qui ayant ressuscité
CH2 des morts
CH2 et gloire
CH1 lui ayant donné

Cette structure, souvent présente dans des textes en hébreu, souligne le point culminant d’une argumentation. Ici on voit l’opposition entre la mort que Jésus a subie et la gloire qu’il a ensuite reçue. Ici comme En effet, comme dans de nombreux passages du NT, la résurrection du Christ est présentée comme un effet de la puissance divine (Act 2.32 ; 3.15 ; Rom 4.24,25). La résurrection du Christ précède son élévation à la gloire.

ressuscité des morts : en grec le verbe ἐγείρω egeirô désigne parfois le fait de se réveiller (Matt 1.24) ou de « se lever (pour partir) » (Matt 2.14). Mais ici il s’agit de revenir de la mort. La Nouvelle Bible Segond parle de « celui qui l’a réveillé d’entre les morts ». La Bible en français courant dit qu’il l’a « ramené d’entre les morts », et la Parole de Vie est encore plus simple : « Dieu qui l’a réveillé de la mort ». Dans certaines langues, une autre possibilité sera « il l’a élevé (ou enlevé) de la mort ». Notez bien qu’il ne s’agit pas de la même racine utilisée en 1 Pierre 1.3.

des morts est un pluriel en grec comme dans la Traduction œcuménique de la Bible ou la Bible en français courant. Mais la Parole de Vie utilise un singulier : « l’a réveillé de la mort ». Les traducteurs devraient être cohérents et employer la même expression partout dans le NT.

et lui a donné la gloire : c’est Dieu qui accomplit les deux actes : « réveiller de la mort » et « donner la gloire ». Dans le NT, le mot gloire a diverses significations selon les contextes. Voir 1 Pierre 1.7. Ici il semble évoquer peut tout ce que Dieu a fait pour assurer au Christ « une position suprême » (Bénétreau, p. 108). Beaucoup de versions en restent à la traduction littérale, mais il est aussi possible de rendre gloire d’une façon dynamique. Dans certaines langues, on dira « il l’a rendu grand », « il lui a donné un grand nom », « il l’a élevé très haut » ou « il l’a honoré (plus que tous les autres) ».

de telle sorte que votre foi et votre espérance reposent sur Dieu : de telle sorte que (grec : ὥστε hôste) introduit la conséquence des faits mentionnés dans le début du verset. C’est parce que Dieu « a relevé (Jésus) d’entre les morts » et l’a élevé à la gloire que les croyants peuvent maintenant placer leur foi et leur espérance en Dieu. Les traducteurs devraient exprimer cette relation d’une manière naturelle dans leur langue, par exemple « ainsi vous placez votre foi et votre espérance en Dieu » (Bible en français courant). La Parole de Vie commence une nouvelle phrase ici : « Voilà pourquoi vous mettez votre foi et votre espérance en Dieu ».

votre foi et votre espérance : Pour foi, voir 1 Pierre 1.5. Pour espérance, voir 1 Pierre 1.3. Ces deux noms sont liés par la conjonction καί kai, et, mais quel est le rapport entre eux ? Il va de soi que la foi implique la confiance en Dieu, tandis que l’espérance désigne l’assurance ou la certitude que Dieu réalisera tout ce qu’il a prévu et promis. Il est peut-être possible de considérer l’espérance comme un élément de la foi, ce qui donnerait « votre foi qui est aussi espérance en Dieu ». Mais la plupart des exégètes comprennent la foi et l’espérance comme deux aspects différents de l’expérience chrétienne, tous les deux exprimant des attitudes positives dirigées vers Dieu.

reposent sur Dieu est littéralement en grec « sont vers Dieu » ou « en Dieu ». La La Bible du Semeur propose « sont tournées vers Dieu ». La nuance du grec est exprimée sous forme active en Bible en français courant, « ainsi vous placez votre foi et votre espérance en Dieu », et la Parole de Vie est similaire : « Voilà pourquoi vous mettez votre foi et votre espérance en Dieu ». On pourra dire plus simplement « Voilà pourquoi vous avez confiance et vous espérez en Dieu ».

Source: Margot, Jean-Claude. La première lettre de Pierre – Manuel de traduction – Commentaire linguistique et exégétique de la Bible. Alliance biblique universelle, 2021.