form of address between the persons of the Trinity

In Hindi a differentiation is made between the way that the different persons of the Trinity are addressed by a regular person or by another person of the Trinity. When Jesus addresses God the Father or when God the Father addresses Jesus, a familiar form of address is used, unlike the way that any of them would be addressed with a honorific (pl.) form by anyone else.

Source: C.S. Thoburn in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 180ff.

complete verse (John 17:9)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 17:9:

  • Uma: “‘I pray for my companions over there. I do not pray for all people in the world. Those for whom I pray, just the people whom you (sing.) gave me, Father, because they are your (sing.) portion.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “‘O Father, I ask you for them. I do not ask for all men/mankind but only for the people you have given to me because they really belong to you.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “I beseech you because of them. I do not beseech you to help the people who do not believe in me, but rather I beseech you to help the people you have given me because they are also yours.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘Who I am praying-for, it is not those who don’t believe in me but rather your (sing.) people whom you (sing.) entrusted to me.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “I am now praying for these ones. I’m not praying for all the people, but on the contrary only those whom you gave me, for they are indeed yours.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “I ask you the favor that you care for them. I do not ask this favor for all the people who live on earth. Those whom you delivered over to me are those I ask you to care for because they are in your hand.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

request / beg (Japanese honorifics)

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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.

The concept of “requesting” is translated in the Shinkaiyaku Bible as o-negai (お願い), combining “request” (negai) with the respectful prefix o-. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

respectful form of "give" (kudasaru)

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 to do this is through the usage of lexical honorific forms, i.e., completely different words, as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.

In these verses, kudasaru (下さる), a respectful form of kureru (くれる) or “give” is used. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also respectful form of “give” (tamawaru) and give (Japanese honorifics).

first person pronoun referring to 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 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”.

Translation commentary on John 17:9

In this verse Jesus prays to the Father (verses 1,5) for the disciples.

Them … those you gave me refers to Jesus’ immediate disciples. In verse 20 Jesus will pray for future believers.

The world is used here again for those who oppose God (see comments at 1.10). The fact that Jesus is not praying for the world is emphatic in the Greek sentence structure.

The contrast between the positive I pray for them and the negative I do not pray … but for those … presents some complications in translation. The contrast is particularly difficult because them in the first sentence refers to those you gave me, who are specified in the second sentence. As a result, it may be necessary to restructure the relationships, for example, “I pray for the men you gave me because they belong to you; I do not pray for the people of the world.” It is also possible to restructure this sentence in the following way; “I do not pray for the people of the world; rather, I pray for the people you gave me, because they belong to you.”

Because they belong to you explains why Jesus prays for the disciples. How is it possible to reconcile the fact that Jesus does not pray for “the world” and the fact that God loved “the world” and gave his Son (3.16)? According to Johannine theology, the coming of the Son into “the world” is not only the means whereby “the world” is saved, but also the means by which it is judged. So “the world” consists of those people who refuse Jesus and align themselves with the power of Satan. From the viewpoint of Johannine theology, there is no hope of salvation for “the world”; the only hope is that “the world” will be proved wrong and defeated. However, even though “the world” is hostile to Jesus and his followers, the precise reason for the disciples’ existence in “the world” is that they may proclaim the message of salvation to “the world.” In the same way that the presence of Jesus brought either salvation or judgement, so will the word of the disciples. Those who believe will also become Jesus’ disciples, while those who will not believe remain as part of “the world” in opposition to God. The last part of this verse is similar to part of verse 6 (they belonged to you, and you gave them to me).

Relating the clause because they belong to you to what precedes presents a problem. A literal rendering of verse 9 may suggest that God gave these people to Jesus, because they already belonged to God, but that is not the meaning in this passage. Because they belong to you must be directly related to the prayer. It may be necessary to say, for example, “I pray for them because they belong to 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 .