εἰ ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου ἦτε, ὁ κόσμος ἂν τὸ ἴδιον ἐφίλει· ὅτι δὲ ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου οὐκ ἐστέ, ἀλλ᾽ ἐγὼ ἐξελεξάμην ὑμᾶς ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου, διὰ τοῦτο μισεῖ ὑμᾶς ὁ κόσμος.
19If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “world” in English is translated in Mandarin Chinese with shìjiè (世界). While shìjiè is now the commonly used term for “world” in Chinese, it was popularized as such by Chinese Bible translations. (Source: Mak 2017, p. 241ff.)
See also world.
Following are a number of back-translations of John 15:19:
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 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. )
See also pronoun for “God”.
The “if” clause in verse 18 introduces a condition true to fact, but here the “if” clause introduces a condition contrary to fact (“If you belonged to the world, and you do not…”). Belonged to the world is a relatively difficult concept to translate in some languages. One may say in certain instances “to be a part of the world.” In others it may be better to say “to be one with the people of the world” or “to be the same as the people of the world.”
Then the world would love you as its own is more literally “then the world would love its own.” But to translate literally would possibly convey a wrong impression. The purpose of this statement is to contrast the world’s hatred of Jesus’ disciples with the world’s love for its own people. Good News Translation makes this contrast explicit, as does also New American Bible. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders “The world would love you as its children, if you belonged to it.”
Its own is a neuter construction in Greek, but hear it is used in a collective sense to refer to persons (see the comments at 6.37 and 39). Would love you as its own may be rendered in some languages “would love you as people who belong to them” or “… who are the same as they are.”
But I chose you emphasizes again Jesus’ initiative in choosing his disciples (see verse 16).
From this world (several translations “out of the world”; Jerusalem Bible “my choice withdrew you from the world”) is intended to indicate the separation of the disciples from the world and its ways. John describes in absolute categories the contrast between the world and Jesus’ disciples. See especially 17.14,16, which also indicate that the disciples do not belong to this world. Throughout this sentence the pronouns I and you are emphatic. Good News Translation reverses the Greek sentence order, which has “you do not belong to the world” first and “I chose you from the world” second. Good News Translation makes this rearrangement because both temporally and logically, the matter of choosing the disciples comes before their separation from the world.
The phrase from this world may be understood as an aspect of the purpose involved in Jesus’ choosing the disciples, for example, “I chose you so that you wouldn’t be a part of this world” or “… so that you wouldn’t be the same as the people in the world.”
And you do not belong to it may be rendered “and as a result you are not part of the world.”
That is why refers to both the preceding clauses of this sentence. To make this connection clear, it may be necessary to reorder the entire sentence and translate “The reason the world hates you is that I chose you from this world, and you do not belong to it.” Note, for example, New American Bible “… the reason it hates you is that you do not belong to the world. But I chose you out of the world.”
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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