Following are a number of back-translations of John 11:46:
Uma: “But there were also some who went to the Parisi people and told them what Yesus had done.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “But others went to the Pariseo and reported to them what Isa had done.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “However some of them went to the Pharisees, and they told them what Jesus had done.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “But others though, they went to the Pharisees to go report what Jesus had done.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “But others, they went at once to the Pariseo and told what Jesus had done.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “But others went to tell the Pharisees about what Jesus had done.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The Greek that is a transliteration of the Hebrew Pərūšīm and is typically transliterated into English as “Pharisee” is transliterated in Mandarin Chinese as Fǎlìsài (法利賽 / 法利赛) (Protestant) or Fǎlìsāi (法利塞) (Catholic). In Chinese, transliterations can typically be done with a great number of different and identical-sounding characters. Often the meaning of the characters are not relevant, unless they are chosen carefully as in these cases. The Protestant Fǎlìsài can mean something like “Competition for the profit of the law” and the Catholic Fǎlìsāi “Stuffed by/with the profit of the law.” (Source: Zetzsche 1996, p. 51)
In Finnish Sign Language it is translated with the sign signifying “prayer shawl”. (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023) translates it into English as Observant. He explains (p. 302): “Pharisee has become a public, universal pejorative term for a hypocrite. Pharisees were observant of the interpretation of the Covenant Code called the ‘tradition of the elders.’ They conformed their behaviors to the interpretation. Among the various groups of Jews at the time of Jesus, they were perhaps closest to Jesus in their overall concern to make a radical commitment to the will of God (as they understood it).”
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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 of lexical honorific forms, i.e., completely different words, as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, nasaru (なさる), the respectful form of suru (する) or “do,” is used.
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®).
Although some of the people believed after seeing the miracle (verse 45), others reported to the Pharisees what Jesus had done. This is significant in the Gospel of John, because now the plot against Jesus begins to take form. Here the hostile Jewish party is identified as the Pharisees; in verse 54 the hostile Jews are simply called in Greek “the Jews” (Good News Translationin Judea). In 9.13,18 the terms “the Pharisees” and “the Jews” (Good News Translationthe Jewish authorities) are used interchangeably of the enemies of Jesus.
A literal translation of some of them returned to the Pharisees may suggest that the Pharisees had sent certain individuals to Bethany to investigate the situation. But that they did so is not implied in the Greek text. One can therefore translate “but some of them went away and went to the Pharisees” or “… returned home and went to see the Pharisees.”
Since not all the Pharisees are included in this reference, it may be necessary in some languages to use a form which means “some Pharisees.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
But: The word But introduces a contrast. While some people who saw the miracle believed, others reported what happened to the Pharisees. They were opposed to Jesus.
some of them went to the Pharisees: The phrase some of them refers to some of the Jewish people from Judea. They were not among the “many” Jewish people who believed in Jesus (11:45a). These Jews reported what Jesus did to the Pharisees. These Pharisees had not been there and were opposed to Jesus.
the Pharisees: The Pharisees were a Jewish religious group or party. It was very important to them to obey all of the Jewish religious laws very carefully and exactly. Here are some ways to translate this word:
• Transliterate the word Pharisees according to the sounds of your language and indicate that it refers to people. For example:
Farisi members
-or-
Parise adherents
• Transliterate the word Pharisees and indicate that it refers to a group of people with certain beliefs. For example:
people belonging to the Farise religious group
-or-
members of the religious group called the Farasi
See how you translated this in 1:24 and see the note there.
11:46b
told them what Jesus had done: The people who went to the Pharisees told the Pharisees that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. Here are other ways to translate this expression:
reported what he had done (Revised English Bible)
-or-
told them about Jesus’ actions/deeds
what Jesus had done: The Greek text here uses the plural form for what (“what things”), but it mainly refers to Jesus’ raising of Lazarus. See how you translated “what Jesus did” in 11:45b.
General Comment on 11:46
In some languages it may be natural to use direct speech for what these people told the Pharisees. If you do that, it may be necessary to supply information about what Jesus did. For example:
and told them, “Jesus has ⌊raised a man from the dead⌋ .”
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