Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Peter 5:7:
Uma: “Offer all your anxiety to him, because he is the one who takes care of you.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Entrust to him all your troubles because he is the one who cares for you.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Entrust any of your troubles to Him for He is the One Who cares for you.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Surrender also to God all your worries, because he concerns-himself-on-your-behalf (lit. hurts-for you) and takes-care-of you.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Entrust to him whatever is concerning-you/on-your-mind that you are worried about. Because he truly will help, for he keeps-in-mind your situation.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Tell God all that troubles your hearts, because he is caring for you.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system, one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and others for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are Twents as well as the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In the latter two languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
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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).
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 benefactive construction as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.
Here, shinpaishite (心配して) or “worry” is used in combination with kudasaru (くださる), a respectful form of the benefactive kureru (くれる). A benefactive reflects the good will of the giver or the gratitude of a recipient of the favor. To convey this connotation, English translation needs to employ a phrase such as “for me (my sake)” or “for you (your sake).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
The first part of this verse is a quotation taken from Psalm 55.22 (Septuagint). Leave translates a verb which is literally “throw” (compare Revised Standard Version “cast”). In the Greek, this is a participle closely subordinated to the verb Humble yourselves, and clearly indicates that trusting God for one’s worries is itself an act of humility. Most translations render the participle here as an imperative. To “throw upon” means “to give up to”, “to commit,” “to surrender”, so as not to be bothered anymore. Many translations retain the figurative expression (compare Jerusalem Bible “Unload all your worries on to Him”; Knox “Throw back on him the burden of all your anxiety”); the Good News Translation, however, drops the figure in favor of its non-figurative meaning (compare Phillips “You can rest the weight of all your anxieties upon Him”; Barclay “Bring all your worries to him to carry for you”).
It may be difficult to obtain an expression which will indicate how one can transfer the responsibility for certain worries from the believer to God. In some instances this may be done as “let God do your worrying for you” or “instead of your thinking anxiously about everything, let God do that.”
In the Greek text worries is singular in form, but because of the attributive meaning “all” or “every,” it is plural in meaning, and therefore in English it is best translated as “all your worries.”
There is no indication as to the nature of these anxieties, but it can be deduced that they are somewhat related to the suffering which the Christians are experiencing.
He cares for you expresses the reason for the immediately preceding exhortation. This is clearly indicated by because (compare Jerusalem Bible “since”). The verb for cares denotes the idea of being concerned for, of guiding, sustaining, and in the present context, of not being indifferent to the plight of Christians. Jesus is himself recorded as having expressed a similar message to his disciples, exhorting not to worry because God is aware of their needs (Matt 6.25-34). It is noted by many commentaries that the belief expressed here is clearly distinctive of the Judaeo-Christian tradition; other religions concentrate on divine goodness and perfection, but the Christian faith starts with the conviction that God does care.
He cares for you should not be translated in such a way as to mean simply “he likes you.” What is involved here is God’s provision for the believer’s needs, and therefore “he takes care of you” or “he provides what you need.”
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 .
Cast all your anxiety on Him: The Greek clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Cast all your anxiety on Him is literally “casting all your anxiety on him,” continuing the sentence from the previous verse. The Berean Standard Bible has chosen to begin a new sentence here, as do many other English translations.
This Greek clause connects with the previous verse and suggests that one way in which we humble ourselves before God (5:6) is by casting all our anxiety onto him. The word anxiety means “fear, worry.” Peter wanted his readers to tell God about their concerns and trust him to take care of them. He used a figure of speech to express this idea, as if he wanted his readers literally to Cast or throw their worries onto God. Other ways of translating this clause include:
give all your worries to him (New Century Version)
-or-
Leave all your worries with him (Good News Translation)
-or-
If you have any kind of trouble in your mind, give it to God (Easy English Bible)
5:7b
because He cares for you: This verse part gives the reason why believers can freely cast their anxiety upon God. The reason is that God loves them and is concerned about their well-being. Some other ways to translate this clause are:
he provides what you need
-or-
he is watching over you
General Comment on 5:7a–b
In some languages it may be natural to reverse the order of these verse parts and to give first the reason for the command:
7b God cares for you, so 7a turn all your worries over to him (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
7b He cares for you, so 7a cast all your anxiety on him (Revised English Bible)
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
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