Following are a number of back-translations of John 15:18:
Uma: “‘If people who do not believe in me hate you, remember: I was the one they hated first.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Isa said to his disciples, ‘Do not be amazed/marvel if you are hated by the people who do not follow God. Remember that they hated me before you.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “If the people here in the world who are enemies of God are against you, don’t be surprised because they were already against me before.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Jesus also said to his disciples, ‘In-the-future those who don’t believe in me will hate you. If/When they do that, don’t be surprised. Remember that preceding-that they hated me.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “‘You really will now be hated by the mass of people who don’t believe-in/obey me, but consider this that as for me, I was hated by those people before they hated you.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “If people hate you, you should know that I was hated even before you.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.
As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.
Here, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.
In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.
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 show 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. )
If the world hates you states a real condition, not simply a conjecture, that is, the world does hate the disciples. In this present passage the world should be equated with the people who are aligned with the power of evil in opposition to God (see 1.10). Since If the world hates you states an actual fact, it may be necessary in some languages to say “If the world hates you, and it does.” In other languages the condition may be better interpreted as cause or reason, for example, “Since the world hates you, you must remember.” On the other hand, there is a sense of contrast, and therefore one may translate as “The world hates you, but you must remember that it hated me first.”
For the theme of the world’s hatred of Jesus see 7.7.
Just remember (Moffatt, Goodspeed, Jerusalem Bible “remember”) is literally “know” (Revised Standard Version, New American Bible). However, in the present context “remember” or “bear in mind” (New English Bible footnote) is apparently the meaning. It is possible to take this verb in the indicative (Phillips “you know that it hated me first”; New English Bible “as you know well”), but most translators, whether translating “remember” or “know,” understand it to be an imperative. In the ancient versions also it was translated as an imperative. In this type of context remember should not be understood in the sense of remembering something previously forgotten. The meaning here is “constantly bear in mind.”
Has hated is in the perfect tense in Greek; it indicates the enduring hatred of the world.
In this context first must be understood in the sense of “prior to,” for example, “The people of the world have hated me prior to their hating you” or “… before they hated you.”
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 .
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 show 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. )
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