1st person pronoun referring to God (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 first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also pronoun for “God”.

Translation commentary on Acts 7:32

In verse 32 the words of God are quoted exactly from Exodus, whereas the response of Moses is described with more freedom by Luke.

Many languages possess no such convenient device as the preposition of employed in an expression such as the God of your ancestors. Such a construction is often spoken of as a “possessive genitive,” but obviously the ancestors do not possess God. Accordingly, in a number of languages one must translate this expression as “I am the God whom your ancestors worshiped” or “I am the one whom your ancestors acknowledged as God.”

With fear is added by the Good News Translation to the verb tremble in order to make clear for the reader why it was that Moses trembled (see Phillips “trembled and was afraid”). In a number of languages it is necessary to employ two verbs “trembled and feared” since this is the most natural way of indicating the nature of the trembling.

In a number of languages a rendering of dared not look involves a statement of lack of capacity, for example, “did not have the strength to look” or “was not able to look.” In other languages, the failure to look is related to the fear, “was so afraid he did not wish to look.” In the choice of a term for dare it is important to avoid the meaning often associated with “daring someone to do something.”

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 .