Following are a number of back-translations of John 7:40:
Uma: “Many people heard those words of Yesus and some of them said: ‘He is definitely the prophet who was promised by God long ago.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “When the people heard these words of Isa, some said, ‘This person is really the prophet we (incl.) have been waiting for.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The many people who were there heard these words of Jesus and some said, ‘It is really true that this person is the one whom the prophets of God foretold and we are expecting.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Some who heard this that Jesus said, they said, ‘This one truly surprised-realization is the awaited prophet.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Some, when they heard that which Jesus said, they said, ‘This really is none other than that Prophet.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Hearing what Jesus said, some of the people said, ‘Truly this man is God’s spokesman which was to come to the earth.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Eugene Nida wrote the following about the translation of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek terms that are typically translated with “prophet” in English:
“The tendency in many translations is to use ‘to foretell the future’ for ‘prophesy,’ and ‘one who foretells the future’ for ‘prophet.’ This is not always a recommended usage, particularly if such expressions denote certain special native practices of spirit contact and control. It is true, of course, that prophets of the Bible did foretell the future, but this was not always their principal function. One essential significance of the Greek word prophētēs is ‘one who speaks forth,’ principally, of course, as a forth-teller of the Divine will. A translation such as ‘spokesman for God’ may often be employed profitably.” (1947, p. 234f.)
Following is a list of (back-) translations from other languages (click or tap for details):
Ayutla Mixtec: “one who talks as God’s representative”
Isthmus Mixe: “speaker for God” (source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Mezquital Otomi / Paasaal: “God’s messenger” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff. and Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Noongar: Warda Marridjiny or “News Traveling” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Kutu: mtula ndagu or “one who gives the prediction of the past and the future” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ebira: ọnịsẹ, a neologism that combines the prefix ọn for “a person” with ịsẹ for “prediction” (source: Scholz /Scholz 2015, p. 49)
French 1985 translation by Chouraqui: inspiré or “inspired one” (“someone in whom God has breathed [Latin: in + spiro]) (source: Watson 2023, p. 45)
In Ixcatlán Mazatec a term is used that specifically includes women. (Source: Robert Bascom)
“In some instances these spiritual terms result from adaptations reflecting the native life and culture. Among the Northern Grebo people of Liberia, a missionary wanted some adequate term for ‘prophet,’ and she was fully aware that the native word for ‘soothsayer’ or ‘diviner’ was no equivalent for the Biblical prophet who spoke forth for God. Of course, much of what the prophets said referred to the future, and though this was an essential part of much of their ministry, it was by no means all. The right word for the Gbeapo people would have to include something which would not only mean the foretelling of important events but the proclamation of truth as God’s representative among the people. At last the right word came; it was ‘God’s town-crier.’ Every morning and evening the official representative of the chief goes through the village crying out the news, delivering the orders of the chief, and announcing important coming events. ‘God’s town-crier’ would be the official representative of God, announcing to the people God’s doings, His commands, and His pronouncements for their salvation and well-being. For the Northern Grebo people the prophet is no weird person from forgotten times; he is as real as the human, moving message of the plowman Amos, who became God’s town-crier to a calloused people.” (source: Nida 1952, p. 20)
In British Sign Language it is is translated with a sign that depicts a message coming from God to a person (the upright finger) and then being passed on to others. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Prophet” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
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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 third person singular and plural pronoun (“he,” “she,” “it” and their various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. While it’s not uncommon to avoid pronouns altogether in Japanese, there are is a range of third person pronouns that can be used. In these verses a number of them are used that pay particularly much respect to the referred person (or, in fact, God, as in Exodus 15:2), including kono kata (この方), sono kata (その方), and ano kata (あの方), meaning “this person,” “that person,” and “that person over there.”
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®).
Some of the people in the crowd is literally “from the crowd,” to which a subject must be supplied in translation. In 16.17 a similar expression occurs (literally “from the disciples”) which Good News Translation translates some of his disciples.
Heard him say this and said is literally “having heard these words, they said.” Good News Translation transforms a participle, “having heard,” into a finite verb, heard, and changes the vague noun phrase, “these words,” into a more explicit verb phrase, him say this. The relation between the events of hearing and speaking may be indicated as “After some of the people in the crowd had heard him say this, they said.”
In 1.21 also the Prophet is mentioned, and there also he is distinguished from the Messiah. To indicate that the Prophet is a recognized figure in Jewish eschatological thought, Good News Translation translates “prophet” with a capital “P”; New English Bible translates this term “the expected prophet.” In 6.14 the Prophet is referred to as the Prophet who was to come to the world. In translation one may use such terms as “the expected prophet,” “the prophet whom we had been led to expect,” “the prophet whom we have been expecting” or even “… have been waiting for” or “… looking forward to.”
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 .
The people disagreed about who Jesus was. Some thought that he might be the Messiah and others said that it was impossible because he was from Galilee.
Here are some other possible section headings:
People in the crowd disagreed about who Jesus was
-or-
People argued about Jesus
7:40a
On hearing these words: The phrase these words means “what Jesus had said.” In some languages it may be natural to make it explicit that this refers to Jesus. For example:
When the people heard Jesus’ words (New Century Version)
7:40b
This is truly the Prophet: These people believed that Jesus was the prophet that Moses said would come. This prophet would be like Moses himself. See the notes on 1:21d and 6:14b.
Here are other ways to translate this clause:
“Surely this man is the Prophet we’ve been expecting.” (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
This must certainly be the Prophet. (Revised English Bible)
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