The Greek that is often translated in English as “truly, truly, I tell you” or similar is translated in the Russian BTI translation (publ. 2015) as Поверьте Мне (Pover’te Mne) or “trust me.” (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
See also Amen.
Religious leaders sought him out to find answers to life's deepest questions (image)
“It is unusual for anyone to seek out another at night unless it is desired to be kept secret. Betel nut and condiments are laid out to welcome the guest even at the late hour. Nicodemus’s robe and bared shoulder show he is a religious devotee.”
Drawing by Sawai Chinnawong who employs northern and central Thailand’s popular distinctive artistic style originally used to depict Buddhist moral principles and other religious themes; explanation by Paul DeNeui. From That Man Who Came to Save Us by Sawai Chinnawong and Paul H. DeNeui, William Carey Library, 2010.
For more images by Sawai Chinnawong in TIPs see here.
complete verse (John 3:11)
Following are a number of back-translations of John 3:11:
- Uma: “These my words are very true: We(excl.) say what we (excl.) know, We(excl.) say/speak what we (excl.) see. But you do not believe our (excl.) words.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “Truly I tell you, we (excl.), that is what we (excl.) tell, what we (excl.) know and that is what we (excl.) testify about what we (excl.) have seen. But you (pl.) do not believe our (excl.) testimony.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “It is true what I tell you that what we say is not a lie because we know that what we cause people to understand is true because we have seen it. However you don’t believe what we say.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “This that I say is true that what we (excl.) talk-about is what we (excl.) know and have seen. But you however, you don’t receive/accept what we (excl.) are saying.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “It’s the truth I say to you. This which we (excl.) testify about to you (pl.), we (excl.) really know and have seen. But well, you don’t believe this testimony of ours(excl.).” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “Truly I tell you, we talk about what we know. We affirm what we have seen. But you don’t believe what we speak.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (John 3:11)
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, translators typically select the exclusive forms (excluding Nicodemus).
Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.
formal pronoun: Jesus addressing religious leaders
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 religious leaders with the formal pronoun, showing respect. Compare that with the typical address with the informal pronoun of the religious leaders.
The only two exceptions to this are Luke 7:40/43 and 10:26 where Jesus uses the informal pronoun as a response to the sycophantic use of the formal pronoun by the religious leaders (see formal pronoun: religious leaders addressing Jesus).
In most Dutch translations, the same distinctions are made, with the exception of Luke 10:26 where Jesus is using the formal pronoun. In Afrikaans and Western Frisian the informal pronoun is used throughout.
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 3:11
The shift from singular to plural should be carefully noted. The verse begins with the first person singular (I) addressing the second person singular (you). The shift is then made to the first person plural (we … our) addressing the second person plural (none of you). A number of theories exist as to why this shift is made, but the most probable solution is that John has shifted the time perspective from Jesus’ day to the time in which he writes his Gospel. If so, then “we” represents the Christian believers of John’s own day who are in dialogue with the Jews represented by “you (plural).” It is important for the translator to maintain the singular and plural contrast, and when using the first person plural to make it exclusive rather than inclusive. That is, in using the terms we and our, Jesus does not include Nicodemus.
As elsewhere, the expression I am telling you the truth may be rendered “What I am going to say to you now is certainly true.”
The two expressions, we speak of what we know and report what we have seen, amount to essentially the same thing; in other words, each attests to what one has personally experienced and therefore knows. It may be necessary in some languages to indicate to whom “we” are speaking, for example, “We are speaking to you all about what we know, and we are telling you all what we ourselves have seen.”
To accept our message is equivalent in a number of languages to “to believe what we say” or “to put confidence in what we declare.”
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 .
formal second person plural pronoun
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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