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 6:70

This verse may be punctuated various ways, for example “Didn’t I choose the twelve of you, even though one of you is a devil?” or “I chose the twelve of you, didn’t I? And yet one of you is a devil.” or “… yet one of you is a devil!” The different ways of punctuating the reply of Jesus do not affect the meaning essentially.

One of you is a devil is what the Greek text has, and that is clearly what it means. Phillips‘ translation “one of you has the devil in his heart” weakens the expression. Perhaps he is attempting to harmonize this statement with 13.2 and 13.27. The latter passage states that Satan entered into Judas. However, one should let this verse say what it says and not attempt to harmonize it with what is said later. Here the statement is simply that Judas is a devil.

Some languages present a difficulty in translating one of you is a devil, since they lack a definite term for “devil.” However, they often have a term for “demon,” and the devil is frequently spoken of as “the chief of demons.” In this context it may be satisfactory to say “one of you is a chief over demons” as the closest natural equivalent of “devil.”

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 .