The term that is translated as “resurrect” or “rise again” as referring to Jesus in English is translated in British Sign Language with a sign that combines the signs for “Jesus” and “standing on feet again.” (Source: Anna Smith)
“Resurrect” or “rise again” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
The Christian BSL website notes: “A British Sign Language (BSL) translation of Resurrection / Rise Again / Rose Again (Jesus). Jesus’ return to life three days after his death on the cross. In the translation of Rise Again or Rose Again the word AGAIN isn’t signed; signing the word AGAIN in BSL in this context would erroneously indicate that Jesus was resurrected more than once.” (see here )
The Greek that is translated “scripture” or “scriptures” in English is translated as “God’s word which people wrote” in Guerrero Amuzgo (source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125), “paper writings” in Copainalá Zoque (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.), and “writing that one believes” in Cherokee (putting the focus on the ones who interact with them rather the scriptures themselves) (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 101).
In the Yatzachi Zapotec translation of the Gospel of John, any reference to the evangelist and presumed narrator is done in the first person.
The translator Inez Butler explains (in: Notes on Translation, September 1967, pp. 10ff.):
“In revising the Gospel of John in Yatzachi Zapotec we realized from the start that the third person references of Jesus to himself as Son of Man had to be converted into first person references, but only more recently have we decided that similar change is necessary in John’s references to himself as ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved.’ As I worked on those changes and questioned the informant about his understanding of other passages in the Gospel, I discovered that the reader misses the whole focus of the book as an eyewitness account unless every reference to the disciples indicates the writer’s membership in the group. In view of that we went back through the entire book looking for ways to cue in the reader to the fact that John was an eyewitness and a participant in a many of the events, as well as the historian.
“When the disciples were participants in events along with Jesus, it was necessary to make explicit the fact that they accompanied him, although in the source language that is left implicit, since otherwise our rendering would imply that they were not present.”
In this verse, the Yatzachi Zapotec says: “At that time we did not yet understand the Word of God which is written saying that Jesus will come to life from among the dead people.”
Following are a number of back-translations of John 20:9:
Uma: “Until that day, they had not really understood what was written in the Holy Book long ago that said: Yesus had to live again.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “There is certainly written in the holy-book about Isa that he would live again from his death, but they did not yet understand it.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then the disciple who had arrived first also entered. He also saw all of this, and even though they did not yet know the prophecies that it was necessary for Jesus to be raised, he believed at that time that Jesus had been raised.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Because what God had caused-to-be-written that said that he had to live again, they did not yet understand it.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “(They didn’t yet understand what is there in the writing, which is contained there which says, it is necessary that Jesus would come alive again.)” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “So he realized what had been written in the Holy Book, that Jesus must be resurrected from where he was entombed.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
They still did not understand the scripture may be translated “but even then they did not understand what the scripture meant when it said that…” or “… did not really understand what the words of the scripture meant which said that…” or “… did not know how to understand the words of the scripture, He must rise from death.”
Which said that he must rise from death is more literally “that he must rise from (the) dead.” John does not indicate what scripture he has in mind. Although the word scripture commonly refers to a single passage of the Old Testament (note 19.36-37), in the present passage the term is better taken as a reference to the Old Testament as a whole. The word must indicates a necessity based on the divine will and purpose.
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 .
For they still did not understand from the Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead: The two disciples did not understand that their scriptures, our Old Testament, taught that the Messiah would rise from the dead. This is a parenthetical statement. It is not part of the main story but a comment by the author. Some English translations therefore place this sentence in parentheses. For example:
(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) (New International Version)
20:9a
For: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as For here means “because” and introduces a parenthetical statement. In some languages it may be natural to leave it untranslated, as the New International Version has done. Introduce the following parenthetical information in a way that is natural in your language. For example:
because
they still did not understand from the Scripture: This parenthetical statement explains why the disciple only believed after he saw the empty tomb and the grave cloths. It was because the disciples did not realize that their scriptures said that the Messiah must rise from the dead. At that time they did not know that this was what the Scriptures meant. They knew what the Scriptures said, but they did not understand its full meaning.
they still did not understand: There are two ways to interpret the expression that the Berean Standard Bible translates as they still did not understand :
(1) It means that the disciples still did not understand. They did not understand until some future time. For example:
At that time Peter and the other disciple did not know (Contemporary English Version) -or-
They still did not understand the scripture (Good News Translation)
(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, New Revised Standard Version. Contemporary English Version, God’s Word, New Century Version, King James Version, New American Standard Bible, NET Bible, Good News Translation)
(2) It means that the disciples did not understand until this point. At this time they began to understand. For example:
for until then they still hadn’t understood (New Living Translation (2004))
(New Living Translation (2004), Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible)
If you must choose between the interpretations, it is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). It is followed by most important English translations and also has the support of commentaries. In some languages it may be natural to translate it as a positive statement. For example:
for only later did they understand the scripture
they: This pronoun here refers to two men, Peter and John. In some languages it may be natural to make this explicit. For example:
Peter and the other disciple (Contemporary English Version)
still: The word still means “up to that time.” It implies that later the situation changed and the disciples did understand.
did not understand: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as understand is more literally “know.” Here in this context it refers to knowing the meaning of something. The disciples knew what the Scriptures said, but they did not realize that it was speaking about Jesus’ resurrection.
the Scripture: This phrase here probably refers to the Jewish word of God as a whole, which is our Old Testament. The author may have been thinking of passages such as Isaiah 53:10–11, Psalm 16:9–11, and Hosea 6:2. See how you translated this word in 2:22 and 10:35. Here are some ways to translate this word:
what is written in God’s Word -or-
what God’s book says -or-
what the prophets wrote long ago
20:9b
that Jesus had to rise from the dead: This clause indicates what the disciples did not understand from scripture. They did not understand that it was necessary for Jesus to rise from the dead. It was necessary because God had decided and declared that it would happen. It was God’s will and purpose. See how you translated the similar idea, that Jesus must die on the cross, in 3:14. Here are other ways to translate this clause:
when it said that Jesus had to come back to life (God’s Word) -or-
which showed that he must rise from the dead (Revised English Bible) -or-
that he was certainly/surely going to live again
rise from the dead: This phrase means “become alive again after dying.” See how you translated this phrase in 2:22, Mark 9:9, and Luke 2:46. For example:
rise from death (Good News Translation) -or-
rise to life (Contemporary English Version) -or-
return to life
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.