refuse to come to me

The Greek in John 5:40 that is translated as “refuse to come to me” or similar in English is translated in Matumbi as “refuse to believe/trust/rely on me.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)

complete verse (John 5:40)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 5:40:

  • Ojitlán Chinantec: “And you do not want to believe in me so that I might give you eternal life.”
  • Alekano: “But though you should come to me and have eternal life, you confusedly reject me.”
  • Lalana Chinantec: “Even though the word of God speaks about me, you are not willing to become my people. If you became my people, you would come to life.” (Source for this and above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
  • Uma: “But even so, you still do not want to come to me, in order to receive that good life.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But you do not want to follow me and-what’s-more I can give you life without end.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “I would that you would believe because you would be given eternal life.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “and you still refuse to be-joined-to me so that I would give you life.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But well, you just don’t want to follow/obey me so that I might give you life which has no ending.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “And you do not want to believe in me to have the new life.'” (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”.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 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. )

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing his disciples and common people

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 his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.

In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.

Translation commentary on John 5:40

Sometimes it may not be enough to say to come to me, since an expression of movement may be understood only in a literal sense. A more satisfactory equivalent may be “to follow after me” or “to come and learn from me.”

The preceding verse speaks of eternal life, and that is the meaning of the word life in this verse. In order to emphasize the qualitative distinction in the kind of life offered by Jesus, the final clause of verse 40 may be translated “in order to really live.”

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 .