Following are a number of back-translations of John 7:30:
Uma: “At that time, there were some who wanted to arrest/catch him, but no-one laid their hands on him, because his time had not arrived.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Then they wanted to arrest him but nobody even touched him because the time for his being killed had not yet come.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And they tried to catch Jesus then, but no one dared to take hold of him because God did not yet permit it.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Upon Jesus’ saying that, the leaders tried to arrest him, but they had no capability, because it was not yet the time for-him-to-fulfill God’s plan.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “When those people heard, they wanted to arrest Jesus, but they weren’t able to do it because the determined time hadn’t yet come.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “The people wanted to grab him in order to jail him. But no one grabbed him because the time hadn’t come.” (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. ).
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®).
Then translates the Greek particle oun (see 2.18), which often is not represented in translation, as in verses 25 and 28 of this chapter.
They is best taken as a reference to some of the people of Jerusalem, as opposed to the Jewish authorities who initiate action against Jesus in verse 32. Because of the possible obscurity of the reference of the pronoun they, it may be best to translate “Then some of the people there tried to seize him.”
John evidently implies a miraculous event by his statement that no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come (see Luke 4.30). No one laid a hand on him is a fairly literal translation of the Greek. Its meaning is clear, and most translations maintain the imagery. Phillips has “no one laid a finger on him.” But no one laid a hand on him may be rendered as “but no one succeeded in grabbing him.”
On the expression his hour had not yet come, see 2.4 (note the similar expression in 7.6). Once again it should be emphasized that according to the Gospel of John, nothing does or can happen to Jesus apart from his own will, which is controlled by the will of his Father. There seems to be no indication in the Old Testament that miracles were expected of the Messiah, but evidently this expectation existed in the popular thinking of New Testament times.
To speak of his hour when referring to an occasion propitious for a particular person may be easy enough. However, to say that his hour had not yet come, when describing a difficulty or danger, may be misleading or confusing. One may say “for this to happen to him was not yet the time” or “the occasion for this to happen to him was not yet” or “this was not the hour when he was destined to be seized.”
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 .
So they tried to seize Him: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as So is more literally “therefore.” In this context it indicates that because of what Jesus said, some people there tried to arrest him.
Here are other ways to translate this clause:
At this they tried to seize him (New International Version)
-or-
When Jesus said this, the leaders tried to arrest him
they tried to seize Him: The Greek clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as they tried to seize Him is more literally “they were seeking to seize him,” as in the New American Standard Bible. The Greek does not make clear whom the pronoun they refers to. It could be the crowd (verse 20), people from Jerusalem (verse 25), or the chief priests and Pharisees (verse 32). Because of that, it is best to translate the word they literally. If that is not natural in your language, you may use another ambiguous word. For example:
The Jews tried to arrest him (God’s Word)
The Greek text does not say in what way these people tried to seize Jesus. Perhaps they talked about it together and made plans that did not succeed. Perhaps it did not refer to an official arrest by police or other authorities.
7:30b
but no one laid a hand on Him: The conjunction but introduces something unexpected: although the men tried to arrest Jesus, they could not do it. The phrase laid a hand on means “touched” or “grabbed.” So the men were not able to touch or grab Jesus. Here is another way to translate 7:30a–b:
The Jews tried to arrest him but couldn’t (God’s Word)
laid a hand on Him: This clause refers to arresting or seizing someone, probably using violence. Even though the men tried to arrest Jesus, they were not successful at this point.
7:30c
because His hour had not yet come: The conjunction because introduces the reason why the people could not arrest Jesus then. It was not the right moment or hour for him to be arrested. See the note on 2:4b and 7:6a.
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