true (John 5)

The Greek that is translated as “true” in English is translated in Elhomwe as “to be trusted.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

complete verse (John 5:31)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 5:31:

  • Uma: “‘If it were just I who says that I am the sent-one/messenger of God, and there were no other people who gave witness to me, you would not know whether my words are true or not.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “If I were the only one speaking about myself, you certainly would not believe.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “If I alone testify about myself, my witnessing cannot be trusted.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘If it is only I who confirms/verifies concerning myself, what I say is emphatically not to-be-believed.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Jesus said also to them, ‘Probably if I only am the one testifying about myself, you will regard it as not true.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “If I give my own testimony to the truth of what I say, then you are not able to believe what I say.” (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. )

See also pronoun for “God”.

Translation commentary on John 5:31

On the use of the word testify or “witness” in the Gospel of John, see comments on 1.8.

What I say is not to be accepted as real proof is literally “My testimony is not true.” New English Bible translates this clause “that testimony does not hold good”; Phillips “what I say about myself has no value”; New American Bible “you cannot verify my testimony.” Jerusalem Bible has “my testimony would not be valid.” Moffatt translates “If I testify to myself, then my evidence is not valid.” As these translations all indicate, the point is not that Jesus is saying that his testimony concerning himself is untrue but rather that it could not be accepted as legal evidence in a court of law. The same law mentioned here is appealed to in 8.17. According to Jewish law, a man could not be convicted of a crime on the testimony of one witness (Deut 19.15). The present context, of course, is different from a situation in which a person is accused of a crime and put on trial. Here the witnesses are simply called in, as it were, to verify testimony.

As noted, it is often important to avoid a literal translation of the second part of verse 31, since it would imply that Jesus’ statements were untrue. In some languages an appropriate equivalent of verse 31 is “If I tell you about myself for my own sake, then you do not accept what I say as being true” or “… as evidence” or “If I merely speak to you on my own behalf, then no one will believe my words.”

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 .