Εἰ ὁ κόσμος ὑμᾶς μισεῖ, γινώσκετε ὅτι ἐμὲ πρῶτον ὑμῶν μεμίσηκεν.
The World’s Hatred
18“If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you.
The Greek in the Gospel of John and 1 John that is translated as “world” in English is translated as “all the people who sleep in all the places of the earth” in Samo (source: Shaw / Van Engen 2003, p. 178), as “world people” in Lisu (source: Cooke 1947, p. 29), and as “people (of the world)” (shìrén / 世人) in Protestant Mandarin Chinese Bible translations.
For the Chinese translation of “world” outside these two books see world (Chinese).
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 Translator 2002, 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 Nepali translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and other people with the medium honorific pronoun timīlē (तिमीले) or timīlēharū (तिमीलेहरू). His disciples respond with a high honorific pronoun. (Source: Chitra Chhetri in The Bible Translator 2009, p. 73ff. )
In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.
The Greek and Hebrew that is translated in English as “hate” or a form thereof is translated in Tabasco Chontal as “don’t want to see [the person who is hated].” (Source: John Beekman & Harwood Hess in Notes on Translation, March 1963, p. 1ff.)
See also hate.
Following are a number of back-translations of John 15:18:
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”.
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. )
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 .
Section 15:18–16:4b The world would hate the disciples
Jesus warned the disciples that the world would hate them because they did not belong to the world. They now belonged to Jesus and because the world hated Jesus it would also hate them. And because the world hated Jesus, it also hated the Father. When the Holy Spirit came, he would tell about Jesus, and the disciples should tell what they know about him too. Jesus told them these things so that their faith would stay strong.
Here are some other possible section headings:
The world’s hate
-or-
The world’s hate for Jesus and his disciples
Paragraph 15:18–21
Jesus warned his followers that people will hate them and persecute them because they belong to him.
15:18a
If the world hates you: This clause assumes that the people of the world would hate Jesus’ followers. In some languages it is more natural to make that clear. For example:
If the unbelievers hate you, and they will
-or-
When the unbelievers hate you
the world: This phrase here refers to the unbelievers in the world. These people would hate Christ’s followers. They did not understand them or sympathize with them.
15:18b
understand that it hated Me first: These clauses reminded Jesus’ disciples that people had hated him. Here are other ways to translate these clauses:
realize that it hated me before it hated you (God’s Word)
-or-
remember that it hated me first (New Living Translation (2004))
understand: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translated as understand means “continue to remember.” (It can also be a statement, “you know,” rather than a command. A few translations follow that meaning.) Here are other ways to translate this word:
know (English Standard Version)
-or-
just remember (Good News Translation)
-or-
realize (God’s Word)
-or-
never forget
it: This word refers to the world. If you have translated the word “world” as a plural such as “unbelievers,” then it will need to be translated as a plural such as “they.”
General Comment on 15:18b
In some languages it may be natural to translate the information in this verse as more than one sentence. For example:
You know how unbelievers have hated me. Well, now they will hate you (plur.) also.
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