complete verse (John 7:9)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 7:9:

  • Uma: “Thus the words of Yesus to his relatives, and he stayed in Galilea.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “After he had said this, he did not go away from Jalil.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then Jesus stayed behind in Galilee.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “he said. And he was left-behind then in Galilea.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Therefore he really did stay behind there in Galilea.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “After thus speaking to them, Jesus remained in Galilee.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Honorary "rare" construct denoting God ("stay")

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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 rare (られ) 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, todoma-rare-ru (とどまられる) or “stay” is used.

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

Translation commentary on John 7:9

There is a textual problem in this verse, but it makes no difference in translation, since in most languages it must be handled translationally. Some manuscripts include the pronoun “he” (Greek autos), which is actually redundant in the Greek text, since this information is contained in the verb ending. Some scribes therefore changed the reading “he” to “to them” (Greek autois). But the information that this was said “to them” (that is, to his brothers) is clearly implied in the Greek text. In some languages this information must be made explicit.

In translating stayed on in Galilee it may be necessary in some languages to suggest at least implicitly a period of time, for example, “stayed on for a few days.” It is important to avoid a verb which would suggest permanently staying in Galilee.

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 7:9

7:9

Having said this, Jesus remained in Galilee: In some languages it is more natural to reverse the order of the clauses in this sentence. For example:

Jesus stayed in Galilee after saying this.

Having said this: The word this refers to what Jesus just said to his brothers. In some languages it is natural to make either the subject or the object explicit. For example:

After ⌊Jesus⌋ said this ⌊to them⌋

Jesus remained in Galilee: Jesus did not go with his brothers to Jerusalem for the festival. He remained in the province of Galilee, north of Judea, for a while longer, probably a few more days. In some languages it may be natural to indicate here that Galilee was a region or province. For example:

he stayed in ⌊the province of⌋ Galilee

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