betray

The Greek that is translated as “betray” in English does not have an immediately corresponding term in Tado. The term that was chosen there was “sell.” (Source: Budy Karmoy in this blog post )

Judas (Iscariot)

The term that is transliterated as “Judas” in English means “Praise of the LORD.” The name Iscariot means “man of Kerioth” or “a man of murder.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )

It is translated in American Sign Language with the sign for the letter J and the sign signifying holding a bag of money, referring to John 12:6. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)


“Judas” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor

In Spanish Sign Language it is translated with with the sign for “kiss,” referring to Matthew 26:49 et al. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)


“Judas” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

In Hungarian Sign Language it is based on the sign for betrayal. (Source: Jenjelvi Biblia and HSL Bible Translation Group)


“Judas” in Hungarian Sign Language (source )

For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .

Painting by Nalini Jayasuriya (1927 – 2014). “Jayasuriya grew up in Sri Lanka and later studied art in England. She experimented with many forms of art hut is best known for her acrylic and pastel paintings on Biblical themes. She has written extensively on art subjects and held many exhibitions. In her painting of Judas the tortured face of the disciple reflects some of the complexities of the man who betrayed Jesus.” (Source for this and the image: The Bible Through Asian Eyes by Masao Takenaka and Ron O’Grady 1991)

See more images of Nalini Jayasuriya.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Judas .

John as a first-person evangelist (John 6:71)

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: “He said that about Judas Iscariot the son of Simon, the person who was to pass him into the hands of those who hated him, and Judas was one of us twelve.”

complete verse (John 6:71)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 6:71:

  • Uma: “The one Yesus was aiming-at, was Yudas the child of Simon Iskariot. For even though Yudas was one of the twelve disciples, he was the one who would sell Yesus to his enemies.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Isa said this about Judas, the son of Simon Iskariyot. For this Judas was one of Isa’s twelve disciples and he was the one to betray Isa in the future.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The one he was speaking about was Judas the son of Simon Iscariot. Judas was one of the twelve and it was Judas who would betray him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The one he was speaking-of, it was Judas the child of Simon Iscariot, because even though he was one of his twelve disciples, it was he nonetheless who would later betray Jesus.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “As for that which Jesus said, the one he was referring to was Judas who was the Son of Simon Iscariote, because as for that Judas, even though he was included in those twelve chosen by Jesus, even so, well, that was the one who would trade him.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Jesus was speaking of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. Because Judas was to betray Jesus and he was one of the twelve learners.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Honorary "are" construct denoting God ("say")

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 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, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on John 6:71

The manuscript evidence is strongly in support of connecting Iscariot with Simon rather than with Judas, and so most modern translations read Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Judas in the second sentence is actually a pronoun in Greek (literally “this one”), which Good News Translation renders by the noun Judas, in order to avoid suggesting that Simon Iscariot was one of the twelve and one who would betray Jesus.

In Greek was going to betray him comes before even though he was one of the twelve disciples. Jerusalem Bible, Phillips, and Revised Standard Version have essentially the same restructuring as Good News Translation. Here, as in verse 67, the twelve disciples is literally “the twelve.”

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on John 6:71

6:71

In this verse, John the author gives an explanation of what Jesus said in 6:70a-b. He tells what would happen later, which no one except Jesus knew at the time of this event.

6:71a–b

He was speaking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. For although Judas was one of the Twelve, he was later to betray Jesus: The conjunction For here introduces Jesus’ grounds for calling Judas a devil. The word For here means “because.” Some English translations do not translate this word, but leave the connection implied.

Here are some other ways to translate this verse and indicate the grounds:

The one he was talking about was Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, because even though he was one of his twelve disciples, he would later betray Jesus.
-or-
Jesus was talking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. He would later betray Jesus, even though he was one of the twelve disciples. (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
He was speaking of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, one of the Twelve, who would later betray him. (New Living Translation (2004))

6:71a

He was speaking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot: This clause tells the name of the disciple to whom Jesus referred in 6:70a.

Here are other ways to translate this clause:

Jesus was talking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. (New Century Version)
-or-
He meant Judas son of Simon Iscariot. (Revised English Bible)

6:71b

although Judas was one of the Twelve, he was later to betray Jesus: This statement indicates that Judas would betray Jesus. How this happened is recorded in Matthew 26:14–16, 47–50. In some languages it may be necessary to make the names explicit:

Judas would betray Jesus even though he was one of the twelve (12) disciples

although Judas was one of the Twelve: This phrase is a short way of saying “although he was one of the Twelve disciples.” It gives the reason why what happened was unexpected or surprising. Although Judas was one of the twelve (12) disciples, who were mentioned in 6:67 and 6:70a, he would betray Jesus. One would not expect that one of Jesus’ closest companions would betray him.

Here are other ways to translate this phrase:

even though he was one of the twelve disciples (Good News Translation)
-or-
although Judas was one of the twelve
-or-
Judas was one of the twelve, but later… (New Century Version)

betray Jesus: In this context the word betray means to hand someone over to his enemies. Judas would bring Jewish leaders to Jesus to arrest him and put him on a cross to die.

Here are other ways to translate this word:

turn against Jesus (New Century Version)
-or-
give Jesus to his enemies

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