Following are a number of back-translations of John 4:43:
Uma: “After two nights in Samaria, Yesus continued his journey going to Galilea land.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “When he had been there for two days, Isa and his disciples left from Sikar going to the place Jalil.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when those two days were over, Jesus and company left there and they went on to the province of Galilee.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “When the two days were finished, plural Jesus left Samaria and went to the province Galilea.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “After Jesus-and-company had been there two days, they set out again. They continued on to Galilea, the region where he grew up.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “After two days Jesus passed through Samaria on his way to the land of Galilee.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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: “After we had been there two days we left and returned.”
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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, ik-are-ru (行かれる) or “go” is used.
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®).
Verses 43-46 are transitional, referring again to the journey interrupted in verse 3. After spending two days there, Jesus left and went to Galilee is literally “But after the two days, he went from there into Galilee.”
In some languages it is essential that verbs of movement indicate clearly whether one is going to a new place or returning to where he was before. In such languages Jesus … went to Galilee must be translated “and he went back to Galilee.”
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 .
After Jesus left Samaria, he returned to Galilee, his home province. There he healed the son of a government leader. This healing was unusual because Jesus never saw the sick boy. He healed him from a distance.
Here are some other possible headings for this section:
Jesus did his second miracle in Galilee -or-
Jesus caused an official’s son to get well -or-
Jesus healed someone who was far away
Paragraph 4:43–54
The people welcomed Jesus back because some of them had seen him heal people in Jerusalem. Then a government official asked Jesus to heal his son. At first Jesus seemed to not want to heal him. He said that people wanted to see more and more miracles before they believed in him.
The official pleaded for his son again. Finally, Jesus told him that his son would not die. The official went home and discovered that Jesus had healed his son from a distance. The official and all his people in his house became believers in Jesus.
4:43
After two days: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as After two days marks the order of events in time. It also indicates that a new story is beginning. Consider how it is natural to mark the beginning of a new story. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:
At the end of the two days (New Living Translation (2004)) -or-
When the two days were over (New Revised Standard Version)
two days: This phrase refers to the two days that Jesus stayed in Sychar, as mentioned in 4:40.
Jesus left for Galilee: Although the Greek uses a third person singular verb that refers to Jesus, Jesus’ disciples went with him. In some languages it may be necessary to include this information. For example:
Jesus ⌊and his company/disciples⌋ left there and they went on to Galilee.
Galilee:Galilee was the name of the region where Jesus grew up. See Luke 2:4, 39, 51. It was one of the Roman provinces of Palestine. It is more natural in some languages to include that information. For example:
going to Galilee ⌊land⌋ -or-
continued to ⌊the province of⌋ Galilee
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