Following are a number of back-translations of Ephesians 4:9:
Uma: “What do these words mean? If he ascended going to the high place, certainly he had already descended to the low place, that means to this world.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Na, when it says that he was lifted up, that means that he first came down here to the earth.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And by means of this which says that He was raised up, we understand the word of God that He beforehand came down to earth.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “What then does it mean to say when it says that he returned to heaven? It means to say that he descended first from heaven down-to the lowest part of the world.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well because it said there that he returned-home to the highest-place, does that not mean that he first came here to this world?” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “What is meant by the word which says he went to heaven? It means that Christ arrived here to earth and then returned, going to heaven.” (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. ).
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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, kuda-rare-ru (降られる) or “descend” is used.
Illustration by Horst Lemke (1922-1985) for the GermanGute Nachricht für Sie – NT68, one of the first editions of the Good News Bible in German of 1968. Lemke was a well-known illustrator who illustrated books by Erich Kästner , Astrid Lindgren and many others.
In Good News Translation these two verses are placed within parentheses to show that the argument moves directly from verse 8 to verse 11; this parenthetical aside is made for the purpose of proving that the passage from the psalm had to refer to Christ, since an “ascent” implies a previous “descent,” and Christ is the only one who descended (from heaven) before ascending. “He went up”: this, says the author, necessarily implies a prior he came down.
Textus Receptus has katebē prōton “he came down first”; Good News Bible and all other editions of the Greek New Testament omit prōton. Good News Translationfirst he came down is based on the Good News Bible text and interprets the sense of the Greek, since the ascension of Christ followed his incarnation (“descent”). Some interpreters, however (see Abbott), take the text to mean that the descent followed the ascent and consisted of the coming of the glorified Christ in the Spirit to the church (see also Barth). Most commentators, however, take the ascent to follow the descent. The question in verse 9 is a rhetorical one, since the author is not asking for information but is calling special attention to the phrase “he went up”. It may be important, therefore, to identify the quoted phrase more specifically, for example, “What, then, do the words ‘he went up’ mean?” Or else a statement may be used, as follows: “This is what ‘he went up’ means.”
There may be some complications involved in rendering first in the second sentence of verse 9, since without some qualification this might mean the first thing that he ever did. Therefore, it may be necessary to translate “these words mean that before he went up he came down.”
To the lowest depths of the earth: Good News Translation (also New English Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, and most others) takes this to refer to the “descent into Hades” spoken of in 1 Peter 3.19 (see also Acts 2.31). As Good News Translation margin shows, the Greek can be taken to mean “to the lower depths, the earth itself” (so Salmond; New English Bible, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), which would be a statement of the incarnation as such, while Good News Translation and the majority of other translations take the text to refer to the descent of Christ into the world of the dead, after his crucifixion and death, followed by his resurrection and ascension. That Sheol, the world of the dead, is meant seems indicated by the fact that the ascent in verse 10 is described as reaching “above all the heavens” (and not just to “heaven” as such). This “above all the heavens” serves to define more precisely what is meant by the writer when he quotes “going to the height” in verse 8. The phrase “all the heavens” seems to reflect the Jewish idea that there is a series of three or seven heavens, at the uppermost of which God himself lives.
The phrase to the lowest depths of the earth may be rendered as “to the lowest place on earth” or even “to the deepest hole on earth.” This suggests Sheol, in view of the fact that it was normally regarded as a deep hole or abyss.
The phrase above and beyond the heavens may be translated as “above and beyond the sky.” It would be wrong to use a translation of heavens which would refer to the dwelling of God himself, for this would place Christ even above God rather than seated at the right side of God.
The final purpose clause, “so that he might fill the all,” is obviously related to the phrase in 1.23 “the one filling all in all.” The meaning here would be either (1) to bring all things to perfection, for fulfillment (so Robinson, Murray, Westcott), or (2) to fill all things with his presence (Dodd; Good News Translation, Twentieth Century New Testament, and others). Beare takes it to mean bringing all into subjection to himself by his redeeming power (also Salmond). Some translations have simply “to fill the universe” (New English Bible, New International Version, and others) or “to fill all things” (Barth; Revised Standard Version; Barclay says “fill all things with his presence and himself”). New American Bible “to fill all men with his gifts” is not recommended.
The statement to fill the whole universe with his presence is almost meaningless if translated literally, since it is likely to give the impression that Christ simply poured himself out over the universe. If one wishes to maintain a relatively close approximation to the statement to fill the whole universe with his presence, it would be possible to say “in order that he could be everywhere.” On the other hand, it might be possible to translate this expression as “in order that everything everywhere could be as it should be.” This would be the concept of bringing everything to perfection or fulfillment.
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1982. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Paul proved that this quotation from the Psalms applies to Christ, since Christ is the only one who descended from heaven before he ascended.
General Comment on 4:9–10
Some English versions put these verses in (parentheses) to show that this is background information given by Paul. If you are able to do this in your language and it would be natural to do so, you will want to consider following the example of those versions. If not, following the example of the Berean Standard Bible, which does not use parentheses.
4:9a
What does “He ascended” mean: This is a rhetorical question. So Paul is not asking the question so he can get an answer. He asked this question in order to introduce a new aspect of his teaching to his readers. He then explained how Psalm 68:18 applied to Christ.
ascended: The word ascended means “went up.”
There are two ways to translate this question:
• As a rhetorical question. For example:
Now, what does “he went up” mean? (Good News Translation)
• As a statement. For example:
Notice that it says “he ascended (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
The words “he ascended” mean…
Translate this in a way that is most natural in your language.
4:9b
except that He also descended: Here, the words except that have the meaning of “it could only mean that.” The Revised Standard Version and English Standard Version translate except that as:
but that
He also descended: Beginning here, Paul talked about Christ and how the words of the quotation in 4:8 are like Christ. So the pronoun He refers to Christ, and you can translate it that way if necessary. To make it clear that Christ descended before he ascended, the Good News Translation says:
first came down (Good News Translation)
Here are some other ways to translate the word descended :
came down (New Century Version)
-or-
had gone down (God’s Word)
to the lower parts of the earth: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible literally translates as to the lower parts of the earth may refer to:
(1) the earth below in contrast to the highest heaven. This refers to where Christ was when he became a human. For example:
This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world (New Living Translation (2004))
(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, Revised English Bible, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English, New Living Translation (2004), English Standard Version, NET Bible, New Century Version)
(2) Hades. This refers to where Christ was after he died. According to some interpretations of 1 Peter 3:18 and 1 Peter 4:6, Christ descended into Hades after his death. For example:
…it means that Christ had been deep in the earth. (Contemporary English Version)
(Good News Translation, Revised Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, King James Version, Contemporary English Version, God’s Word)
If possible, translate in a way in which either interpretation could be understood. If you must choose one interpretation, choose interpretation (1). You may also want to include a footnote that gives the other interpretation.
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®).
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.