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 14:4)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 14:4:

  • Uma: “You know the way to go to my dwelling-place.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “And you know the way to where I am going.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And you know the way going to where I am going.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “You surely know the path the goes to where I am going.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “And you know the trail now which goes to this where I am going.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Now you know where I am going and you know the road.'” (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)

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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 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 14:4

You know the way that leads to the place where I am going is more literally “and where I am going you know the way.” Since the phrase that John uses is difficult in Greek, and since Thomas in verse 5 distinguishes between where Jesus is going and the way to get there, some ancient scribes expanded the Greek text to read “You know where I am going and you know the way” (New English Bible alternative reading). However, this reading is obviously an attempt to make the text read more smoothly, and it is not followed by most modern translations.

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 14:4

14:4

You know the way to the place where I am going: Jesus indicated that his disciples knew the way to his Father’s home. Here are other ways to translate this sentence:

You know the way that leads to the place where I am going. (Good News Translation)
-or-
You know the way to where I am going. (Contemporary English Version)

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

the way: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the way can also be translated as “the path” or “the road.” Literally, the phrase refers to the path between two places and figuratively to the method of getting somewhere.

the place where I am going: This clause refers to heaven, God’s home.

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