For the occurrences where “‘glory’ can be replaced by ‘honor,’ ‘raise,’ or ‘approval,’ something that one can give to men or to God or receive from them. Thus in this context glory does not refer to the greatness and honorability itself but rather to the recognition or acknowledgement of such honorability. The honorability is already there (or is at least purported to be). In Waama we always had to express the idea by verbs like ‘praise,’ ‘appreciate’ (if man does it as opposed to God), and the expression “make somebody’s name big.”)
(Source: Kathrin Brückner in Notes on Translation 2/1988, p. 41-46).
The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated in English as “serve,” “minister,” “walk with,” or “service” is translated in Igede as myị ẹrụ or “agree with message (of the one you’re serving).” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
In Quetzaltepec Mixe, “serve” is translated as “obey.” (Source: Robert Bascom)
Following are a number of back-translations of John 7:18:
Uma: “A person who brings his own words, he is just asking-to-be-praised. But the person who seeks the being-honored [by others] of God who sent him, he is an upright person, he is not deceitful [lit., there is no his deceit].” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “If a person speaks from his own thinking, that is what he strives for, his own fame. But if that is what he strives for, that the one who commands him will be famous, na that person is straight and he does not deceive.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Because if there is a person who teaches his own thinking, he is just trying to become known to people. But the person who teaches the fame of the one who sent him, his word can be trusted because his teaching is not a lie.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “The one who is speaking what came-from his mind/thoughts alone, he puts-forth his ability so that he-himself will be praised/spoken-highly-of. But the one by-contrast who puts-forth his ability so-that the one who sent him will be praised/spoken-highly-of, what he is saying is entirely true, he having no trickery.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Because that one who teaches from his own perception, there’s nothing else he’s striving for than that he be praised by people. But that one who strives in teaching so that the one who sent him be praised, everything he says is true and there’s no evil motive in his mind/inner-being.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “He who just speaks his own ideas is trying to have the people look favorably upon him. But he who earnestly tries to get the one who sent him to look favorably upon him speaks the truth. And there won’t be any falsehood found in him.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system, one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and others for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are Twents as well as the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In the latter two languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
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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, tsukawas-are-ru (遣わされる) or “send” 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®).
On his own authority is the same expression translated on my own authority in the previous verse, except that there the third person is used in place of the first. Sometimes it is difficult to render the expression speaks on his own authority. It may be necessary to say “speaks, claiming that his words are just his own” or “speaks, saying that his words are his own thoughts alone” or “… saying that he himself has thought up all that he says” or “speaks only from his own mind.”
The meaning of is trying to gain glory for himself is clear, though the Greek underlying this phrase is translated in a variety of ways. The contrast is between a teacher who represents himself as the source of knowledge and one who speaks as the representative of another from whom he has received his knowledge. Jerusalem Bible translates “is hoping to get honour for himself,” and New English Bible has “aims at honour for himself.” Phillips is rather high level, “has an eye for his own reputation.” Moffatt translates “aims at his own credit.” To gain glory for himself may be expressed idiomatically in some languages as “to raise up his own name,” “to make everyone shout his name” or “to make everyone say of him, Isn’t he wonderful?”
He who wants glory for the one who sent him may be rendered “he who wants others to praise the one who sent him” or “he who wants the person who sent him to be honored.”
It is often necessary to place an adversative expression (English “but” or “however”) at the beginning of the second sentence of verse 18, for example, “but he who wants people to honor the one who sent him.” It is also possible to use a conditional expression, for example, “If anyone wants people to honor the one who sent him, then that one is honest.” The difficulty with the conditional expression is that it makes the reference too broad; as a relative clause it is possible to make the reference more specifically applicable to Jesus.
The word translated honest (Greek alēthēs; Revised Standard Version “true”; New American Bible “truthful”; Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible “sincere”) is used of God in 3.33 and in 8.26; in both cases it is translated true in Good News Translation. In the present context honest is used of one who speaks what is true. The word translated false (so also New English Bible; Revised Standard Version “falsehood”; Moffatt, New American Bible “dishonesty”) is used only here in the Gospel of John. It is used many times in the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew word meaning “lie.” In this verse it is obvious that honest and false are used in contrast to each other. This contrast may be expressed in some languages as “he tells the truth; he doesn’t lie at all” or “he tells what is true; not at all does he tell what is not true” or “… false.”
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 .
He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory: This clause refers to people who teach their own ideas or on their own authority. Their teaching does not come from God and God did not send them. Jesus said that people who did that sought their own glory.
Here are other ways to translate this clause:
Those who teach their own ideas are trying to get honor for themselves. (New Century Version)
-or-
Those who speak on their own authority are trying to gain glory for themselves. (Good News Translation)
This clause refers to anyone and everyone who speaks their own words and ideas. Those people’s motives are selfish because they want other people to praise them. So, the examples above use a plural subject, “Those who.” In some languages it may be natural to translate it in the singular, as in the Berean Standard Bible.
seeks his own glory: This phrase means “want others to praise them.” These people say what they do so that others will admire and praise them. In some languages it may be natural to translate glory as a verb. For example:
want others to praise/honor them
-or-
want to be praised/honored
7:18b
but: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as but here indicates a contrast between the people described in 7:18a and the one described here. In some languages it may be natural to start a new sentence here.
He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is a man of truth: This clause refers to true teachers in general. But Jesus also implied that he was an example of that kind of teacher. He himself was a man who wanted glory for the one who sent him. In some languages a literal translation may imply that Jesus was speaking only of others, not himself. If this is true in your language, it may be necessary to explicitly say that Jesus was referring to himself. For example:
I want to honor the one who sent me. That is why I tell the truth…. (Contemporary English Version)
seeks the glory of the One who sent Him: The expression seeks the glory of means to try to bring praise or honor to someone. In this context, Jesus wanted to honor God. It would be good to emphasize the contrast with 7:18a by using the same expression that you used there. See the note and translation examples there.
the One who sent Him: This expression refers to God, who sent Jesus. In some languages it is more natural to make this explicit. For example:
God who sent me
is a man of truth: The word truth here describes someone who tells the truth. Jesus implied that he could be trusted because he spoke what is true. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:
is honest (Good News Translation)
-or-
speak the truth (New Century Version)
7:18c
in Him there is no falsehood: This clause is another way of saying that he is completely true or genuine. Repeating this idea is a way to emphasize that there is absolutely nothing untrue in him.
Here are other ways to translate this clause:
he does not deceive at all
-or-
he does not tell lies
General Comment on 7:18b–c
The clause “in Him there is no falsehood” is the negative of the positive statement in 7:18b, “is a man of truth.” The negative and positive statements are parallel; they mean the same thing and repeating the idea emphasizes it.
Here are some other ways to translate these parallel statements:
but a person who seeks to honor the one who sent him speaks truth, not lies (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him (New International Version)
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