“For the first group, the ‘glory, greatness, uniqueness of God or Jesus,’ we used a term meaning ‘greatness, bigness.’ In some contexts it seemed better to replace the simple noun by ‘the fact that God is great.’ So, ‘we saw his glory’ in John 1:14 is rendered as ‘we saw what his greatness is like.’
(Source: Kathrin Brückner in Notes on Translation 2/1988, p. 41-46).
Following is a Russian Orthodox icon of Isaiah from the 18th century (found in the Transfiguration Church, Kizhi Monastery, Karelia, Russia). The text in the scrollis from Isaiah 2:2: “In the last days […] shall be established.”
Orthodox Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )
Following are a number of back-translations of John 12:41:
Uma: “Those words were written by the prophet Yesaya long ago, because he had seen the power of Yesus and he foretold it.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “This was said by Nabi Isaya because he saw the brightness of Isa and he said this about Isa.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The reason Isaiah said these words is because he knew long ago that Jesus would have great power, and Jesus was the one he was talking about there.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Isaias said that, because Jesus’ godhood was shown to him before, and it was Jesus moreover that he was speaking-about.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Isaias spoke like that because it had been shown to him how great was the praiseworthiness/glory of the coming Cristo, therefore he spoke like that concerning him,” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Isaiah spoke this word because he knew that Jesus was the greatest, therefore he spoke about him.” (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 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. ).
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®).
Isaiah said this is literally “These things Isaiah said.” But once again “these things” is best translated this for English speakers, as in most translations.
Because (hoti) appears in some Greek manuscripts as “when” (hote). The manuscript evidence is heavily in support of the reading because, and in the context it seems more probable that a scribe would have changed because to read “when” than vice versa. Most modern translations (with the exception of Jerusalem Bible and Luther) follow the reading because. Note the similar change in verse 17.
Jesus’ glory is literally “his glory,” but the pronominal reference is ambiguous for the English reader, and for this reason Good News Translation makes it explicit. Note the ambiguity of New English Bible: “Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke about him.” According to the English sentence structure, it would be natural to refer the pronouns to God, who is mentioned in the last part of the preceding verse. However, John is affirming that Isaiah had seen Jesus’ glory, and this information should be made explicit (note Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “Isaiah spoke here of Jesus. He said this because he had seen his glory”). New American Bible is similar to Good News Translation, and Jerusalem Bible makes “Jesus” explicit by reading “Isaiah said this when he saw his glory, and his words referred to Jesus.”
Certain problems are involved in the translation of verse 41 because the temporal relations are not made explicit in the Greek text. Because he saw Jesus’ glory could mean that Isaiah saw in his own day the pre-incarnate glory which Jesus had. However, it is better to understand this clause as referring to Isaiah’s prophetic vision of the glory that Jesus would have as the result of his death and resurrection. One may translate, therefore, “he saw ahead of time the glory that Jesus would have later” or “… how wonderful Jesus would be.”
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 .
Isaiah said these things because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about Him: The words Isaiah said these things refer to what Isaiah wrote that is quoted in 12:40. He wrote that because he had a vision of the Lord’s glory. See Isaiah 6:1. This was about six hundred years before Christ was born.
these things: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as these things is plural. If it is more natural in your language to use a singular word, you should use it. For example:
this (New Revised Standard Version)
because he saw Jesus’ glory: This clause explains why Isaiah wrote what he did. He saw the glory of the Lord (Isaiah 6:1–3). John here identifies “the Lord” with Jesus Christ. When Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord, he was in some way seeing the glory of Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ glory: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as glory here refers to something that reveals greatness, majesty, and power. See Key Biblical Termsglory 2b. In some languages it may be natural to translate this word using an adjective. For example:
that he was glorious
-or-
how great he was
and spoke about Him: This phrase here indicates that what Isaiah wrote refers to the Lord, Jesus. For example:
and his words referred to Jesus (New Jerusalem Bible)
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