go vs. return

Kayaw has two main verbs of movement: lè for movement in a direction away from one’s home, and the ge for movement in a direction returning back to one’s home. So in Kayaw, you “go somewhere”, but you never “go home”, you only “return home”. Thus, in John 14:2-5, Jesus speaks of returning to his Father’s house in heaven, rather than going to his Father’s house in heaven. In verse 5 Thomas says that he and the other disciples don’t know where Jesus is returning, or the way that would enable them to go there (for them a new place, not their home). This use of return implies that Thomas is confused about both Jesus’ origin (coming down from his Father) and Jesus’ destination (returning to his Father). This fits well with verses 6-11 where Jesus uses Thomas’ confusion to expound on his relationship to the Father. (Source: Anonymous)

complete verse (John 14:2)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 14:2:

  • Ojitlán Chinantec: “In my Father’s house are many rooms for people to live in. If there were not many rooms, I would not have told you there were many. But there are, so I am going to get them arranged for you to live in.”
  • Huehuetla Tepehua: “There where my Father is are many houses. If it wasn’t like that up in heaven, I would have told you that it wasn’t like that. I am going to fix up the houses that are going to be yours.”
  • Aguaruna: “There is a lot of free space, able to be lived in, in my Father’s place. If that were not true I would not have told you it was! I am going in order to prepare your staying place.”
  • Tsafiki: “Where my Father God lives are many houses to live in. It’s true. I’m not one who lies!”
  • Navajo (Dinė): “Where my Father’s home is there are many houses. If it were not that way, would I have told you that it was? I am going there in order to prepare a place for you.”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “Where my Father God is like a large house with many rooms. I would have told you if there were not rooms for you. And now I will return to prepare rooms for each of you.” (Source for this and above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
  • Uma: “In my Father’s house, there are many dwelling-places. I go to prepare your dwelling-places for you. If it were not like that, I would have told you.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “There in the place of my Father God, there are many dwellings. If this were not true I would not tell you this. I am going to prepare your dwellings.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “There are many places which can be lived in where my Father lives. For if this were not true I would not have said to you a while ago that I go to prepare a place for you to live in.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Because there are many dwelling-places for people -where my Father -is-staying in heaven, and I am going there to go prepare your dwelling-place. If this that I tell you were not true, would I tell it?” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “In heaven where my Father lives, it’s a dwelling-place with lots of room. This is really true, and I’m going ahead now to do what will cause you to be able to live there. If it’s not true, of course I wouldn’t say it to you.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “There at my Father’s house there are many places to stay. If there weren’t resting places, I wouldn’t have told you this. But now I am going to prepare a place for you.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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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 Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also pronoun for “God”.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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 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. )

Translation commentary on John 14:2

There are many rooms in my Father’s house represents a more natural reordering in English of the Greek text, which reads literally “In my Father’s house there are many rooms.” The word translated rooms (Goodspeed, Phillips, Jerusalem Bible; “dwelling-places” New English Bible, New American Bible; “abodes” Moffatt) has occasioned some difficulty. The King James “mansions” comes originally from Tyndale’s translation, at which time the word “mansion” merely signified a dwelling, and not necessarily a large and luxurious one, as in contemporary English. Some commentators take the Greek word used here (monē) to mean “stopping place” or “resting place.” This theory suggests that heaven is a place of progression, with many resting places or stopping places along the way. It seems better, however, to seek the meaning of this word in another direction, interpreting it in light of the Greek verb (menō), meaning “to remain,” and so suggesting a permanent dwelling place. The verb “to remain” plays a significant role in John’s Gospel, and it is natural to see a connection between the noun monē and the verb menō, since both words come from the same stem. Moreover, the presupposition that it means a permanent dwelling place is supported by the indications in Jewish literature of a belief that heaven has many dwelling places. Finally, this same noun is used in verse 23 in the clause translated “My Father and I will come to him and live with him,” which more literally reads “We will come to him and make our home (monē) with him” (Revised Standard Version). Hence, the word is best taken in a generic sense, meaning “a place of dwelling”; since this dwelling is obviously one place within the whole (house), the most natural English equivalent is “room.”

My Father’s house is best taken as a phrase descriptive of heaven as a place having many rooms (that is, room enough for all).

I am going to prepare a place for you should be translated in a rather general manner. If it is related specifically to rooms, it will be possible to say “I’m going to prepare rooms for you” or “… get rooms ready for you” or “… fix up rooms for you.” At the same time, one would not wish to use a term which would suggest that the rooms were in need of repair and that Jesus had to fix them up to make them habitable.

In Greek if it were not so immediately precedes the clause translated I would not have told you by Good News Translation. Since Greek manuscripts have no punctuation, it is possible to take this clause either as a declaration (Good News Translation I would not have told you) or as a question (Revised Standard Version “would I have told you…?”), expecting the answer “No.” This of Good News Translation represents “that I go to prepare a place for you” (Revised Standard Version), which in Greek follows I would not have told you.

The clause I am going to prepare a place for you is immediately preceded by a conjunction in Greek (hoti) which may signal either direct discourse (“that”) or a casual relation “since.” In the Greek structure this preposition may be omitted as superfluous, if it is understood to mean “that,” and so it is not found in some manuscripts. If one follows as Jerusalem Bible: “if there were not, I should have told you. I am going now to prepare a place for you.”

The UBS Committee on the Greek text decided in favor of the manuscripts that include “that” or “because” (hoti), assuming that its omission in some manuscripts may be explained as some scribe’s attempt to simplify the text by omitting a word which he considered unnecessary. The choice between the meaning of “that” or “because” is more difficult. Most translations obviously prefer to take the word in the sense of “that” (Revised Standard Version, for example). But the difficulty with this rendering is that, so far in discourse, Jesus has not told his disciples that he is going to prepare a place for them. If the solution of Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is followed, this problem is overcome. By taking “that” as a means of introducing the content of what follows, and by referring the clause if it were not so both forward and backward, a meaning is arrived at that makes good sense, and is possible on the basis of the Greek text.

Many languages require an inversion of the conditional sentence to read “If this were not so, I would not have told you this.” However, there are special difficulties in some languages with a condition contrary to fact in the present time; in these languages it may be necessary to translate, for example, “If this was not the case (but it is), I would not tell you this (but I am telling you this).”

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on John 14:2

14:2a

In My Father’s house are many rooms: The main idea in this sentence is that there is plenty of room for many people. For example:

In my Father’s compound there are many houses/homes.
-or-
There is room for many people to live with/near my Father.

In My Father’s house: The phrase My Father’s house refers to heaven. It is good to keep the metaphor. If the picture of God living in a house seems very strange, it may be possible to say something like:

In my Father’s ⌊heavenly⌋ home

many rooms: The phrase the Berean Standard Bible has translated as rooms means “places to live.” For example:

many places to live in (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
dwelling places (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
many apartments

14:2b

If it were not so: This clause here means “if there were not many rooms in my Father’s house.” It suggests the possibility that there might not be enough room for all of Jesus’ followers in heaven. This is a possibility that is not true. Translate this in a way that is natural in your language. For example:

If not
-or-
If that were not true (God’s Word)
-or-
If there were not many rooms there
-or-
unless it was true

14:2c–d

would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?: There is a textual problem here. Some Greek manuscripts include a word that can mean either that or “for/because.” Some Greek manuscripts do not include this word. Also, the original Greek text did not have any punctuation. So it is difficult to be sure of the original meaning of the text. Here are the possibilities:

(1) The text includes a word that can mean that or “for/because.” For example:

If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? (English Standard Version)

(Berean Standard Bible, Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, English Standard Version, God’s Word, New Living Translation (2004), NIV2011, New American Standard Bible, Revised English Bible, NET Bible)

(2) The text does not include that word. For example:

I would not tell you this if it were not true. I am going there to prepare a place for you. (New Century Version)

(King James Version, New International Version (1984), Contemporary English Version, New Century Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Good News Translation)

It is recommended that you follow option (1). The UBS Handbook Greek text includes the Greek word with only some doubt.

There is also an interpretation issue in how to understand the word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as that.

(1) The word means that. For example:

If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? (English Standard Version)

(Berean Standard Bible, Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, English Standard Version, God’s Word, New Living Translation (2004), NIV2011)

(2) The word means “for/because.” For example:

if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you (New American Standard Bible)

(New American Standard Bible, Revised English Bible, NET Bible)

It is recommended that you follow option (1) with more of the English translations. That seems to make the best sense of the Greek text. Following option (1) also means that you would understand the Greek as a rhetorical question. The expected answer to the rhetorical question would be “no.” Jesus would not have told his followers something that was not true.

There are two ways to translate this rhetorical question:

(1) Use a rhetorical question. For example:

would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? (New Living Translation (2004))

(2) Use a statement. For example:

I would not have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you.

Translate this rhetorical question in a way that is natural for a question that implies and expects the answer “no.” For example:

I would not have told you that I go to prepare a place for you, would I?

14:2c

would I have told you: This clause indicates here that Jesus would not have said something to his disciples if something else were not true. He told them that he would go to prepare a place for them (see the next clause). He would not have said that if there were not many places to live in his Father’s house. But there were many places to live there, so he told him that he would prepare a place for them.

you: This pronoun is plural and refers to the disciples.

14:2d

that I am going there to prepare a place for you: There is no record that Jesus had previously said these exact words. This may refer to his promise that his followers would always be with him and have eternal life. See, for example, John 12:26.

I am going: These words refer to Jesus going to his Father’s house in heaven, which he just mentioned. He would do that through his death and resurrection. It may be natural to make clearer where he would go. For example:

I go ⌊there⌋
-or-
I am going there (New International Version)

to prepare a place for you: This phrase refers to preparing a place for the disciples in the home of God the Father. Jesus prepared this place by dying for his people and making the way for them to go to God.

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