John 21:19 – TIPs

the kind of death

The Greek in John 21:19 that is translated as “the kind of death” or similar in English is translated in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) as welchen Tod, nämlich den Sklaventod or “the kind of death, namely the death of a slave.”

Feed my Sheep

The following is the stained glass window “Feed My Sheep”, designed by Walter Crane and installed in 1891 in Christ Church, Streatham, London.:

Source: Victorian Web

Stained glass is not just highly decorative, it’s a medium which has been used to express important religious messages for centuries. Literacy was not widespread in the medieval and Renaissance periods and the Church used stained glass and other artworks to teach the central beliefs of Christianity. In Gothic churches, the windows were filled with extensive narrative scenes in stained glass — like huge and colorful picture storybooks — in which worshipers could ‘read’ the stories of Christ and the saints and learn what was required for their religious salvation. (Source: Victoria and Albert Museum

glorify God

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The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “glorify God” in English is rendered as “wake God up” in Guerrero Amuzgo.

Other translations are “say that God is very great” (Central Tarahumara), “say how good God is” (Tzotzil), “speak about God as good” (Tzeltal), “give God a great name” (Highland Puebla Nahuatl), “give God highness” (Kipsigis), “take God out high” (in the sense of “to exalt”) (Huautla Mazatec), “make great / exalt” (Toraja-Sa’dan, Javanese), “lift up God’s brightness” (Kpelle), “show God to be great” (Central Pame), “make God shine” (Wayuu), “make God’s name big” (Huastec), “make God important” (Isthmus Zapotec) (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida), or “say to God: You are of good heart” (Huichol) (source: Nida 1964, p. 228).

In Waama this is translated as “make God’s name big.” (For the translation into Waama, five categories of verb doxazo and the noun doxa were found that were all translated differently, see glorify (reveal God’s or Jesus’ glory to people)).

In Shipibo-Conibo it is translated as “brag about God” (“This may strike some at first as being an unspiritual approach, but it surely is Pauline, for Paul used the word ‘to brag’ when he declared his confidence in Jesus Christ and in the salvation of the world which God wrought through His Son.”) (Source: Nida 1952, p. 162)

glory, honor

For the translation of the Greek that is translated into English as “glory” or “glorify” in Waama, five categories were found that were all translated differently. (See also raised to glory, glorify (God’s name), glorify (reveal God’s glory to people), glory (of God).)

For the occurrences where “‘glory’ can be replaced by ‘honor,’ ‘raise,’ or ‘approval,’ something that one can give to men or to God or receive from them. Thus in this context glory does not refer to the greatness and honorability itself but rather to the recognition or acknowledgement of such honorability. The honorability is already there (or is at least purported to be). In Waama we always had to express the idea by verbs like ‘praise,’ ‘appreciate’ (if man does it as opposed to God), and the expression “make somebody’s name big.”)

(Source: Kathrin Brückner in Notes on Translation 2/1988, p. 41-46).

follow me

The Greek that is translated as “Follow me” in English is translated as “Be my disciple” in Ojitlán Chinantec and “Don’t forsake me” in Tenango Otomi (the latter is used in John 21). (Source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)

In Kaingang it is translated as “run with me and do as I do.” (Source Ursula Wiesemann in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 65).

complete verse (John 21:19)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 21:19:

Uma: “With that figure of speech, Yesus foretold how Petrus would be killed, in order to honor God. After that, Yesus also said, saying to Petrus: ‘Follow me!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Isa said this to tell as to how Petros would be killed in order to praise God. And Isa said also to him, ‘Follow me.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “(The reason Jesus said this is because he is telling the means of Peter’s death by which he will cause God to be famous.) And when Jesus had said this, he spoke again saying, ‘Follow me.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Jesus said this to make-known the way Pedro would die in honoring God. Then he said to him, ‘Follow-me (sing.).’ And they went.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Jesus spoke like that because it’s like he was making known how the death of Pedro would be which would be a cause of praise/glory to God. Then Jesus said next, ‘It’s necessary that you always follow/obey me.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Jesus spoke this to show Peter that he would be killed. He showed how it would be that people would look favorably on God. Afterwards he said, ‘Don’t forsake me.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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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. )

Honorary "are" construct denoting God ("say")