μνημονεύετε τοῦ λόγου οὗ ἐγὼ εἶπον ὑμῖν, Οὐκ ἔστιν δοῦλος μείζων τοῦ κυρίου αὐτοῦ. εἰ ἐμὲ ἐδίωξαν, καὶ ὑμᾶς διώξουσιν· εἰ τὸν λόγον μου ἐτήρησαν, καὶ τὸν ὑμέτερον τηρήσουσιν.
20Remember the word that I said to you, ‘Slaves are not greater than their master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also.
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “remember” in English is translated in Mairasi as “it is (or: place it) in your liver’s crack” (source: Enggavoter 2004) and in Noongar as barrang-dwangka, literally “ear-hold” (source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018).
See also forget, wisdom, God remembered Noah and Seat of the Mind / Seat of Emotions.
Following are a number of back-translations of John 15:20:
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 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. )
Remember what I told you (so also New American Bible) is literally “remember the word that I said to you” (Revised Standard Version). The reference is to the words of Jesus that follow (No slave is greater than his master), and so New English Bible translates “Remember what I said,” while Jerusalem Bible renders “Remember the words I said to you.” No slave is greater than his master refers back to 13.16. The emphasis in Chapter 13 is on imitating the humility of Jesus, while here it relates to the necessity of sharing his fate.
Remember does not necessarily imply here that the disciples had forgotten what Jesus had said. An appropriate equivalent may be “Think about what I told you.”
In this context greatness may be interpreted as a matter of importance, for example, “A slave is not more important than his master” or “No slave surpasses his master in importance.” In some languages the relation may be inverted by saying “A master is always more important than his slave.”
If they persecuted me is a condition true to fact, as was the “if” clause in verse 18. The meaning is that they did persecute Jesus, and so they will also persecute his disciples. Though the clause If they persecuted me is formally a condition, it states a fact, and in combination with the following clause must be somewhat altered in some languages, for example, “They persecuted me, and they will persecute you too” or “they caused me to suffer, and accordingly, they will cause you to suffer also.”
If they obeyed my teaching is literally “if they kept my word.” But the use of the verb “to keep” in this context has the meaning of “to obey”; and “the word” of Jesus is a summary term for his teaching.
Throughout verses 18-20 the description of the world’s attitude has been completely negative, but here Jesus suddenly seems to change; there are some who obey his teaching, and so there will also be some who will obey the teaching of his followers. That is, Jesus is indicating that the attitude of the world toward his disciples will not be completely negative, just as it was not completely negative toward him. Some did respond to his teaching (for example, the disciples themselves), and so some will also respond to the teaching of his followers. Some commentators assume a negative implication behind Jesus’ words here, for example, New English Bible “they will follow your teaching as little as they have followed mine.” This interpretation is apparently the basis for Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch: “as little as they have believed my word, so shall they believe yours.” However, even though one might like to read this meaning into the present passage, especially in view of the negative implications in verse 21, it is difficult to arrive at this meaning on the basis of the Greek sentence structure, and so it is probably better not to translate with negative implications. Jesus’ words should be taken to mean that if there are some who persecuted him, there were also some who listened to him; and accordingly, if there are some who persecute the disciples, there will also be some who will respond to their message. One may, therefore, translate the second part of verse 20 “Some persecuted me, and they will persecute you also, but others obeyed what I said, and they will obey also what you say.”
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 .
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