Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Thessalonians 5:10:
Uma: “Yesus Kristus died to redeem us (incl.), so that when he comes we (incl.) can live together with him, whether we (incl.) are still living at that time or already dead.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “He died hep for us (incl.) so that we (incl.) live with him, if we (incl.) are dead already or if we (incl.) are still alive at the time of his return.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And whether we are still alive or whether we are dead at the return of Christ, we still have life forever with Him, for this is the reason why He allowed Himself to be killed.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “He died for us so that whether we die or are still living at his coming again, we will stay-with him.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “He died for he took our place in this punishment by God. Therefore whether alive or already dead at his returning, we will be his home-sharers there in the good-situation which has no ending.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Jesus Christ died for us. Therefore we will live with him forever, those who have died when he comes, those who still are alive when he comes.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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.
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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 benefactive construction as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.
Here, shinde (死んで) or “die” 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. )
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. ).
To say that Christ died for us is an apparently simple statement, but it raises great problems of theological interpretation, and some (fortunately smaller) problems for the translator, centering on the meaning of the word for. Greek uses two main prepositions in similar contexts, and it is dangerous to press too hard the distinction between them. The one used here (huper) tends to have a fairly general meaning: “on behalf of” or “for the sake of,” rather than “instead of” or “in place of.” The implication here is that Christ died in order that those who believe in him might benefit in some way. Paul goes on immediately to say in what way: the purpose of Christ’s dying is that all believers might live together with him forever (cf. 4.17). Might is required in English after in order that.
The phrase for us (in the clause who died for us) expresses a benefactive relation; that is, we are the beneficiaries of the fact of Christ’s dying. Some languages even have a benefactive case, and that would be the appropriate form to use in this context.
Whether we are alive or dead is literally “whether we are awake or asleep.” “Sleep,” both here and in 4.13 and 15, is a metaphor for death, and this determines the meaning of “to be awake.” This verb does not have the specific meaning here that it has in verse 6, that of being alert for the coming of Christ, but it has the wider meaning of remaining alive (that is, until the time of his coming). Here Paul cleverly uses two terms which he had been using to speak of alertness but which at this point he transposes to mean “alive/dead.” In this way he brings us back to 4.13. When he comes (cf. Bible en français courant) is implicit in the text.
Whether we are alive or dead is rendered in some languages as “it makes no difference whether we are alive or dead,” or “whether we are alive or dead, it is all the same.” When he comes must be closely related to “being alive or dead.” Therefore one may translate the entire expression as “whether we are alive or dead when he comes, that will not make any difference.”
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
He died for us: In the Greek text this phrase is closely connected to 5:9b. It explains more clearly the phrase “through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
for us: Paul said that Jesus died in order to benefit believers in some way. In this case, 5:10b–c gives the benefit: “so that…we may live together with Him.”
5:10b
so that: This translates a conjunction that indicates one of the purposes for which Jesus died (5:10a), that is, that all believers will be able to live with Jesus forever.
whether we are awake: In this context, being are awake refers not to “being alert” (5:6b) but to being alive at the time when Jesus comes again.
or asleep: Paul was once more using sleep as a euphemism for “death,” as he did in 4:13a, 4:14b, and 4:15c.
5:10c
we may live together with Him: Commentators do not agree about which word together should be connected with. There are two possible interpretations:
(1) It is connected with the phrase with Him and means that believers will live in heaven together with Christ. This seems to be what all English versions follow.
(2) It is connected with the verb live and means “together with each other.” That is, the two groups of believers, those who are still alive when Jesus returns and those who have already died but whom God will resurrect, will together go and be with Jesus.
The first option is the most natural way to understand the Greek grammatical construction here. So it is recommended that you follow it (1).
Paul does not say where the believers will live with Jesus. The important point is that wherever Jesus is, on earth or in heaven, the believers will be with him.
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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.
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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