לָ֠כֵן יִתֵּ֨ן אֲדֹנָ֥י ה֛וּא לָכֶ֖ם א֑וֹת הִנֵּ֣ה הָעַלְמָ֗ה הָרָה֙ וְיֹלֶ֣דֶת בֵּ֔ן וְקָרָ֥את שְׁמ֖וֹ עִמָּ֥נוּ אֵֽל׃
14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “bear (a child)” or “give birth to” is translated in Mairasi as “go to the forest,” reflecting the traditional place of childbirth for Mairasi women. (Source: Enggavoter 2004)
In Spanish it is translated as dar a luz, literally “to give to light.” Likewise, in Portuguese (dar à luz) and Italian (dare alla luce). (Source: Mark Terwilliger)
See also in childbirth / travail and birth.
For the phrase “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel” see Matthew 1:23.
Note that this quote in the New Testament is not taken from the Hebrew Bible but from the Greek Septuagint (LXX) which translates to English as “Look, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and you shall name him Emmanouel.” (Translation by NETS — for the Greek version see the title’s tooltip)
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 ta (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential ta (祂) is used.”
In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one 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 in the following way: “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 the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both 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 .
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
The Hebrew adonai in the Old Testament typically refers to God. The shorter adon (and in two cases in the book of Daniel the Aramaic mare [מָרֵא]) is also used to refer to God but more often for concepts like “master,” “owner,” etc. In English Bible translations all of those are translated with “Lord” if they refer to God.
In English Old Testament translations, as in Old Testament translations in many other languages, the use of Lord (or an equivalent term in other languages) is not to be confused with Lord (or the equivalent term with a different typographical display for other languages). While the former translates adonai, adon and mare, the latter is a translation for the tetragrammaton (YHWH) or the Name of God. See tetragrammaton (YHWH) and the article by Andy Warren-Rothlin in Noss / Houser, p. 618ff. for more information.
In the New Testament, the Greek term kurios has at least four different kinds of use:
In the first and fourth case, it is also translated as “Lord” in English.
Most languages naturally don’t have one word that covers all these meanings. According to Bratcher / Nida, “the alternatives are usually (1) a term which is an honorific title of respect for a high-ranking person and (2) a word meaning ‘boss’, ‘master’, or ‘chief.’ (…) and on the whole it has generally seemed better to employ a word of the second category, in order to emphasize the immediate personal relationship, and then by context to build into the word the prestigeful character, since its very association with Jesus Christ will tend to accomplish this purpose.”
When looking at the following list of back-translations of the terms that translators in the different languages have used for both kurios and adonai to refer to God and Jesus respectively, it might be helpful for English readers to recall the etymology of the English “Lord.” While this term might have gained an exalted meaning in the understanding of many, it actually comes from hlaford or “loaf-ward,” referring to the lord of the castle who was the keeper of the bread (source: Rosin 1956, p. 121).
Following are some of the solutions that don’t rely on a different typographical display (see above):
We have come to rely on another term which emphasizes God’s essential nature as YHWH, namely jukurrarnu (see tetragrammaton (YHWH)). This word is built on the same root jukurr– as is jukurrpa, ‘dreaming.’ Its basic meaning is ‘timelessness’ and it is used to describe physical features of the land which are viewed as always being there. Some speakers view jukurrarnu in terms of ‘history.’ In all Genesis references to YHWH we have used Kaatu Jukurrarnu. In all Mark passages where kurios refers to God and not specifically to Christ we have also used Kaatu Jukurrarnu.
New Testament references to Christ as kurios are handled differently. At one stage we experimented with the term Watirirririrri which refers to a ceremonial boss of highest rank who has the authority to instigate ceremonies. While adequately conveying the sense of Christ’s authority, there remained potential negative connotations relating to Warlpiri ceremonial life of which we might be unaware.
Here it is that the Holy Spirit led us to make a chance discovery. Transcribing the personal testimony of the local Warlpiri pastor, I noticed that he described how ‘my Warlaljamarri called and embraced me (to the faith)’. Warlaljamarri is based on the root warlalja which means variously ‘family, possessions, belongingness’. A warlaljamarri is the ‘owner’ or ‘possessor’ of something. While previously being aware of the ‘ownership’ aspect of warlaljamarri, this was the first time I had heard it applied spontaneously and naturally in a fashion which did justice to the entire concept of ‘Lordship’. Thus references to Christ as kurios are now being handled by Warlaljamarri.” (Source: Stephen Swartz, The Bible Translator 1985, p. 415ff. )
Law (2013, p. 97) writes about how the Ancient Greek Septuagint‘s translation of the Hebrew adonai was used by the New Testament writers as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments: “Another case is the use of kurios referring to Jesus. For Yahweh (in English Bibles: ‘the Lord‘), the Septuagint uses kurios. Although the term kurios usually has to do with one’s authority over others, when the New Testament authors use this word from the Septuagint to refer to Jesus, they are making an extraordinary claim: Jesus of Nazareth is to be identified with Yahweh.”
See also Father / Lord.
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).
(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
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, atae-rare-ru (与えられる) or “give” is used.
(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: Isaiah announces that Yahweh himself will give a sign even though Ahaz does not want one. The word Therefore is an important marker that shows the new direction the dialogue is taking. It may be rendered “Since you won’t ask” or “Even so.” Good News Translation and Bible en français courant say “Well then,” and New Jerusalem Bible has “in any case.” The Lord is not the divine name Yahweh, but the title meaning “my master” (see 1.2). The Lord is followed by an independent pronoun, so it is literally “my Lord he.” This pronoun stresses the Lord’s determination in the face of the king’s unwillingness. Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and others render it as a reflexive pronoun, saying himself. Revised English Bible and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh have “of his own accord.” The pronoun you is plural.
The sign to be given is a living one. Like Isaiah’s own children whose names carry God’s message (see 7.3 and 8.1), yet another child with a special name will become a living symbol. It is possible this child was Isaiah’s son (see Isa 7.3). Each time Ahaz sees this child he will be reminded of Yahweh’s promise. It is obvious that the sign here is intended for Ahaz since the child is to be born shortly.
Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son …: Some Christians think the prophet’s words here are a Messianic prediction since they are quoted in Matt 1.23. Commentators can be divided into two groups. Some favor a strictly Old Testament translation and interpretation, that is, they render the text according to the clear requirements of Hebrew syntax and vocabulary. Others prefer a rendering that favors a New Testament interpretation in which a virgin will conceive and give birth to the Messiah. We recommend that translators focus on the Hebrew text as it is, and try to understand and translate its meaning independently of the New Testament’s use of the text. (This is a translation principle that we follow throughout—always render the Old Testament text as it is.)
Before we look at the details of the last sentence in this verse, it may be useful to list three issues that need to be clarified:
1. Should the Hebrew noun ʿalmah be rendered “virgin” or “young woman”?
2. Should it be “a [virgin/young woman]” or “the…”?
3. Should the first verb be rendered “has conceived” or “will conceive”?
An additional problem is to identify the particular woman and child that Isaiah has in mind when he gives this sign from the LORD. We will deal with each of these issues below.
Behold calls Ahaz’s attention to an important announcement. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “Look,” while New Jerusalem Bible says “It is this.” Other versions (Good News Translation, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) do not translate it, assuming it is implied in the prophet’s words.
Two comments need to be made about a young woman. First, the Hebrew text has “the young woman,” not just any young woman. New Revised Standard Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Bible en français courant, and others render it this way and they are clearly correct in doing so. The definite article suggests that both Ahaz and Isaiah knew the woman and she may even have been in sight at the time Isaiah was speaking. Second, young woman renders the Hebrew noun here accurately. It is a term that can be applied to any young woman who is of an age to be married, not a very young girl. The Hebrew text does not indicate whether she was married or not, and it is even less concerned with whether she was a virgin or not. The controversy about the translation of this Hebrew noun arose because the Septuagint translated it with a Greek word meaning “virgin.” This Greek text is quoted in Matt 1.23. So we should avoid versions that place the word “virgin” in their text (Contemporary English Version, New International Version), sometimes adding a footnote to indicate that it is not the most accurate rendering (so Contemporary English Version).
Revised Standard Version, New International Version, Bible en français courant, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch render the Hebrew verb for conceive with a future tense. New Revised Standard Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, and New Jerusalem Bible say “is with child,” which indicates that the young woman is already pregnant (similarly Good News Translation). The Hebrew verb form here describes a condition that already exists, so New Revised Standard Version is more accurate than Revised Standard Version by saying she has conceived a child already. For a young woman shall conceive, Contemporary English Version translates “A virgin is pregnant,” but this kind of rendering is not recommended.
A different Hebrew verb form is used for the verb rendered bear. It is a participle, a form that often speaks of something about to happen. Although it can be rendered sometimes with a future tense in English, it carries a more immediate sense of something that could happen very soon. The Hebrew word for son can also mean more generally “child,” but son is the better rendering here.
And shall call his name Immanu-el: The Hebrew verb form here changes for a third time. This time it carries a more future orientation, indicating something that will happen. The mother will name her child. The name Immanu-el is significant. It is literally “with-us God,” meaning “God is with us.” His name carries the message of God’s presence with his people. This is the message Isaiah is bringing to King Ahaz. The child about to be born will be a living sign to King Ahaz that God will be with him and with the nation to protect them all.
For a discussion on how to treat certain personal names in this book, see Isa 7.3. If translators choose to transliterate the name Immanu-el, then they should give its meaning in a footnote. If they actually translate it, then it would be helpful to have a transliteration of the original name in a footnote. Because of the importance of both the Hebrew name as well as its meaning here, Bible en français courant (also Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) has the name as well as its translation in the text: “She will name him Immanuel, ‘God with us.’” This is a valid approach here.
Some models for the translation of this verse are:
• Since you won’t ask, my Lord himself is going to give you a sign. Look! A young woman is pregnant and will soon give birth to a son. She will call the child Immanuel, ‘God is with us.’
• Even so, my Lord will give you a sign anyway! See that young woman! She is pregnant and is about to give birth to a son, and she will call him Immanuel, that is, ‘God is with us.’
For this verse translators may have to consider church tradition, if there is one, including earlier translations of this book in the receptor language. Earlier renderings may have been influenced by its quotation in Matt 1.23. So if the new translation differs from the old and familiar one, there may well be some strong reaction against it in the church. Nevertheless, in the interests of accuracy, the above translation examples should be used as models. They are similar to Good News Translation and New Jerusalem Bible. If necessary, a traditional translation with the necessary explanations can be included in a footnote.
Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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