The Greek that is translated as “was raised from the dead” is translated as “rose from the dead” (Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac), “came up again from where he was buried” (Huehuetla Tepehua) or “returned from among the dead” (Ojitlán Chinantec). (Source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
The translator of the Wichí Lhamtés Nocten New Testament rearranged the chronology of John 12:12-19, because he found the traditional order of verses confusing. The new order is 12a, 14a, 17, 18, 12b, 13, 14b, 15, 16, 19.
The back-translation of this section is as follows:
The next day, when many people had already gone to Jerusalem to gather for the festival of Passover, Jesus mounted a donkey and then he too went into that city. And the people who had been with him the day recently when he called Lazarus who was in the tomb to rise from amongst the dead, they told others what they had seen Jesus do. And that’s why the people, when they heard that Jesus was about to enter Jerusalem, cut palm leaves and went to meet him and kept crying out saying:
“God is great! Blessing is with the man who comes with the word (authority) of the Lord! Blessing is with him who is the King of the people of Israel!”
Just as the age-old Writing says:
“People of Zion, don’t be afraid.
Look upon your King, he comes on a little donkey.”
But at first his disciples did not understand such things. But later when Jesus entered his greatness, then they remembered that all things that had been done thus were indeed what the age-old Writing had said about Jesus.
But the Pharisees, when they saw those things, spoke amongst themselves saying:
“You see this. If it is so, we can do nothing. Because look, everybody is going with him!”
The Greek that is transliterated as “Lazarus” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign depicting that he is bound in clothes, referring to John 11:44. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
Following are a number of back-translations of John 12:17:
Uma: “In Yerusalem at that time, there were many people who had been with Yesus when he called Lazarus from inside the grave and made him live again. Those people kept on telling about that happening.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “The reason that the crowds met Isa on the way was because they had heard about the doing of Isa that had caused wonder when he called Lasarus from the grave and made him alive. For the people who had happened to be present, told hep the people about this doing of Isa.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The many people who had seen Jesus when he called and raised Lazarus from the dead, they spread the news about what he had done.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “The many people who had seen Jesus’ calling of Lazarus to come-out of the cave when he made-him -alive, they repeatedly reported what they had seen there.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Those people who had been companions of Jesus when he made Lazaro alive again, they kept on testifying to what they had seen.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “The people who had been with Jesus when he had summoned Lazarus and caused him to be resurrected from the tomb talked and talked about all they had seen Jesus do.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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®).
The most emphatic element in this sentence is the verb that Good News Translation translates had reported what had happened (literally “were witnessing” or “were testifying”). The verb “to witness” is used in John’s Gospel in various ways; it is discussed in some detail in 1.7. New American Bible here translates “kept testifying to it”; New English Bible “told what they had seen and heard”; Jerusalem Bible “were telling how they had witnessed it.” In Greek the verb is in the imperfect tense and perhaps indicates action in progress, as these translations indicate.
In the Greek text Jesus is literally “he.” In place of when (hote) some Greek manuscripts read “that” (hoti), which changes the meaning somewhat. If the reading “that” is accepted, the statement he called Lazarus out of the grave and raised him from the death becomes the content of the verb had reported. The following translation would then result: “The crowd that was with Jesus had reported that he called Lazarus out of the grave and raised him from death.” Most translations, however, accept the same reading as Good News Translation, because it is supported by better manuscript evidence. The other reading is evidently an attempt to smooth out the difficulty concerning the mention of the various crowds in this narrative.
The order of constituent clauses in verse 17 produces some difficulty, since the linguistic and temporal orders are not parallel. The presence of the people with Jesus when he called Lazarus out of the grave and raised him from death is prior to the time in the verb had reported, but this time in turn is after what is contained in the report, namely, what had happened. However, verse 17 is prior to the content of verse 18 and also prior to the content of verse 16. Note also that the content of verse 17 constitutes the reason for the behavior of the crowd in verse 18. These problems of relative time may make it necessary to recast verse 17 as “When Jesus called Lazarus to come out of the grave and raised him from death, the people who were there with Jesus later reported what had happened to Lazarus.” This rendering may then constitute an introduction to verse 18, for example, “Because of what these people said, the crowd went out to meet Jesus.”
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 .
Meanwhile: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Meanwhile indicates that the narrative is returning to the time before Jesus died. Nearly all English translations do not translate the word. Introduce this change of time in a way that is natural in your language. For example:
Now (New International Version)
many people: The phrase many people here refers to the people who were with Jesus when he raised Lazarus from the dead (11:19, 31). These people may have been part of the bigger crowd mentioned in 12:12. The words “had been with Jesus” tell who these people were. They were those who were with Jesus earlier. Here is another way to say this:
the people who had been with Jesus (Good News Translation)
The fact that these people had been with Jesus implied that they watched Jesus and saw what he did. In some languages it may be natural to make this explicit. For example:
the crowd that had been present ⌊and watched⌋ Jesus…
continued to testify: This phrase indicates that the people who saw Jesus raise Lazarus continued testifying (telling others what they saw). They did so regularly and often. In some languages it may be natural to make explicit what they testified about. For example:
were continuing to testify about it (NET Bible Bible)
-or-
kept telling what they had seen and heard (Revised English Bible)
-or-
kept talking about him and this miracle (Contemporary English Version)
testify: To testify means “to tell what one has personally seen and heard.” See how you translated this in 5:31–33.
12:17b
when He called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead: Jesus had commanded Lazarus to leave the tomb. His command gave Lazarus life and made it possible for him to obey. See 11:43. It was by calling Lazarus from the tomb that Jesus raised him to life. In some languages it may be natural to show this connection by translating 12:17b in this way:
when, calling Lazarus from the tomb, Jesus raised him from the dead
-or-
call Lazarus from the tomb, raising him from the dead (New Living Translation (2004))
from the tomb: This tomb was a cave that had a stone over it. See the notes on 11:17, 38. The stone had already been removed when Jesus called to Lazarus to come out.
raised him from the dead: The pronoun him refers to Lazarus. Jesus caused Lazarus to come back to life again. Lazarus returned to a normal human life. Here is another way to translate this phrase:
brought him back to life (God’s Word)
General Comment on 12:17
In some languages it may be natural to translate this verse as two separate sentences. For example:
There had been many people with Jesus when he raised Lazarus from the dead and told him to come out of the tomb. Now they were telling others about what Jesus did. (New Century Version)
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