complete verse (Acts 17:26)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 17:26:

  • Uma: “From one person, he brought forth [lit., caused to be descended] all of mankind, and he commanded us to inhabit the whole world. He established from the start the border of the land of the dwelling of every nation, and the time of their rule.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “The first man created by God,’ Paul said, ‘he was the beginning of all the tribes and God made them to dwell here in the whole world. And beforehand already he set a limit as to how long and as to which land/place they should live in.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And out of only one origin he made all kinds of people, and he spread them here all over the earth. And he established beforehand the boundaries of where we human beings live and also the time of our living here.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Only-one person is whom he created at first in order that that would be the origin of the mutually-different people on the surface of the earth. He also designated long ago the time that each nation would rule and the boundaries of their countries.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “And it’s true, although the origin of us people is one only, he has made the nations many now, so that this world which he created would be spread all over with people. And he indeed is the one who has determined the times and land of each of these nations, as to when he would set them up or cause them to be wiped out, and where would be the limits of the places where they would live.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Teutila Cuicatec: “God made of one single race the people of all nations and commanded them to live on all the earth. He established the period that they should live and where they should live.”
  • Isthmus Mixe: “He made us, he gave us one blood, as many of us as live in all groups of towns, so that we might live in all the land of the earth. He has appointed what time and place we should live in.” (Source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

determine (Japanese honorifics)

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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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.

The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “determine” or similar in English is translated in the Shinkaiyaku Bible as o-sadame (お定め), combining the verb “determine / ordain” (sadame) with the respectful prefix o-. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

pronoun for "God"

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 Kouya, Godié, Northern Grebo, Eastern Krahn, Western Krahn, and Guiberoua Béte, all languages of the Kru family in Western Africa, a different kind of system of pronouns is used (click or tap here to read more):

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 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. ).

See also first person pronoun referring to God.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Gender of God .

Translation: Chinese

在现代汉语中，第三人称单数代词的读音都是一样的（tā），但是写法并不一样，取决于性别以及是否有生命，即男性为“他”，女性为“她”，动物、植物和无生命事物为“它”（在香港和台湾的汉语使用，动物则为“牠”）。这些字的部首偏旁表明了性别（男人、女人、动物、无生命事物），而另一偏旁通常旁提示发音。

到1930年为止，基督教新教《圣经》经过整整一百年的翻译已经拥有了十几个译本，当时的一位圣经翻译者王元德新造了一个“神圣的”代词“祂”，偏旁“礻”表示神明。一般汉语读者会立即知道这字的发音是tā，而这个偏旁表示属灵的事物，因此他们明白这个字指出，三位一体的所有位格都没有性别之分，而单单是上帝。

然而，最重要的新教圣经译本（1919年的《和合本》）和天主教圣经译本（1968年的《思高圣经》）都没有采用“祂”；虽然如此，许多其他的圣经译本采用了这个字，另外还广泛出现在赞美诗和其他基督信仰的书刊中。（资料来源：Zetzsche）

《吕振中译本》的几个早期版本也使用“祂”来指称“上帝”；这个译本的《新约》于1946年译成，整部《圣经》于1970年完成。克拉默斯（Kramers）指出：“‘他’的这种新写法（即‘祂’）产生了一个小问题，就是在指称耶稣的时候，是否一律使用这个敬语代词？《吕振中译本》遵循的原则是，在称呼耶稣这个人的时候，用一般的‘他’，而在称呼耶稣神性的时候，特别是升天之后的耶稣，则用尊称‘祂’。”

Translator: Simon Wong

Translation commentary on Acts 17:26

The phrase rendered from the one man (so also Zürcher Bibel) is literally “from one.” It seems most probable that Paul is referring to the widespread belief that God created all men from Adam (see An American Translation*, Phillips “from one forefather”), rather than a more general notion that all people were “from a common origin” (Moffatt; see New American Bible “from one stock,” New English Bible “of one stock,” Barclay “of one common stock”). The King James Version rendering, “of one blood,” is based upon a textual variant which has very little support. This first clause, from the one man he created all races of men, must often be rather extensively restructured—for example, “God created first one man and from that one man came all the races of people.” If one adopts the alternative interpretation of this clause, it may be rendered as “God created all the different kinds of people from one single family” or “God created one single clan from which all the different races of people have come.”

Made them live over the whole earth may be rendered as “caused them to live in different places all over the earth” or even “caused them to go to different places over the whole earth and to live there.”

He himself fixed beforehand correctly translates the force of the Greek participle which describes action that took place before he created and made them live. In some languages it is impossible to translate beforehand without indicating specifically what event is being referred to; therefore “before he created them he decided when and where they would live.”

Made them live (v. 26) and so that they would look for him (v. 27) (these two verses form one sentence in the Greek) are actually infinitives dependent upon the main verb in the sentence, created. It is possible to understand these infinitive clauses either in the sense of purpose or of result. The Good News Translation has translated the second clause as one of purpose, while the first has been made into a construction parallel with the main verb created.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Acts 17:26

17:26a

From one man:
This phrase in Greek is literally “from one.” Paul probably referred to Adam here but did not name him. This phrase in Greek is not emphasized.

It would not have helped the discussion by naming Adam to the Greeks, because they did not believe the Jewish Bible (our Old Testament). Do not name Adam here.

He made every nation of men: Adam was the ancestor of all other people. God made his descendants into the many different nations.

nation: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as nation refers to people grouped by language and culture. The English word nation usually refers only to people under one government.

In some languages the word nation can refer to people grouped by language and culture. However, in some languages the word nation refers only to people under one government. If that is true in your language, use a word or phrase that refers to people grouped by language and culture.

men: Here the word men refers generally to people. For example:

people (Good News Translation)

17:26b

that they should inhabit: This phrase in Greek is literally “to dwell.” The word “to” indicates purpose here. For example:

so that they could occupy (New Jerusalem Bible)

17:26c

and He determined their appointed times: The Greek words are literally “seasons/times having been determined.” This clause explains what God did before he made the nations. He decided when each nation would begin, end, and when it would be powerful. Other ways to translate this clause are:

having determined allotted periods (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
but he decreed the times…of their habitation (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall (New Living Translation (2004))

17:26d

the boundaries of their lands: This phrase in Greek is literally “the boundaries of their habitation.” God also decided where each nation would live. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

the boundaries of the places where they would live (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
limits of their habitation (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
and he determined their boundaries (New Living Translation (2004))

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