Ketut Lasia is one of the last traditional Balinese painters in the Ubud style. As an adult, Lasia converted from Hinduism to Christianity, and he paints primarily biblical scenes. You can find artwork from Ketut Lasia in a variety of formats for sale at Fine Art America .
Following are a number of back-translations of John 4:40:
Uma: “So, they went to meet with Yesus, and they asked that he stop in their town. He did stop there two nights.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Therefore when the Samariya people arrived there where Isa was, they urged him to stay with them for a while. And Isa stayed there for two days.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when the Samaritans arrived coming there to Jesus, they begged him that he would not immediately continue on his journey. Therefore Jesus and company stayed there for two days.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “So when they arrived where Jesus was, they persuaded (lit. hung-onto) him to stay-with them. And he stayed there two days.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Therefore when those Samaritanos came to Jesus, they asked him to stay a while with them. That’s why Jesus was there for two days.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “When those inhabitants of the land of Samaria arrived, they told Jesus that he should stay over where they lived. So Jesus stayed there two days.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
“Jesus is dressed in a different style of clothing than the style of the woman who is shown as a Lanna Thai northerner. It is unusual for him to talk to a person from a different region, especially a woman. The clothes, the roof of the house in the background, and the dipper for water all indicate that this is in northern Thailand.”
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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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, taizais-are-ru (滞在される) or “stay” is used.
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system, one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and others for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are Twents as well as the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In the latter two languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
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®).
The verb begged translates a verb tense in Greek which seems to focus attention on the action in progress and so may be rendered “kept begging.” Goodspeed‘s “they asked him” is certainly too weak.
As some commentators point out, there are theological overtones in the words rendered to stay and stayed (see especially John’s use of the verb in 14.10 and 15.4). It is almost impossible to bring out this kind of overtone in translation, and such matters should be left to the teaching ministry of the church.
Jesus is not explicitly rendered in the Greek text, which has the pronoun “he.”
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 .
So: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as So introduces the result of the Samaritans’ belief. Because of their belief, they wanted Jesus to stay with them. Here are other ways to translate this connection:
Because of their belief -or-
Therefore -or-
As a result
when the Samaritans came to Him: The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as came to Him indicates that the Samaritans walked to where Jesus was. Consider whether it is more natural to say came or “went.” For example:
So when the Samaritans went to Jesus (God’s Word)
4:40b
they asked Him to stay with them: The pronouns they and them refer to the Samaritans. They wanted Jesus to remain for a while in their town, Sychar. Here is another way to translate this clause:
they begged him to stay in their town
4:40c
and He stayed two days: Jesus stayed two days with those Samaritans, in Sychar.
General Comment on 4:40
In some languages it is more natural to use direct speech here. For example:
The Samaritans came to Jesus and said to him, “Please stay in our town a while.” So he stayed for two days.
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