complete verse (John 8:30)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 8:30:

  • Uma: “After Yesus said all that, many people believed in him.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “When they heard Isa say this, many people trusted in him.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when he said this, many of them believed in him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “And they were many who believed on him upon their hearing that.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Many believed of those who heard him.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “When Jesus had spoken this word, many there were who believed in him.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Honorary "are" construct denoting God (“speak”)

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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, hanas-are-ru (話される) or “speak” is used.

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

Translation commentary on John 8:30

For the first part of this verse the Greek text has “as he was saying these things.” In this summary verse, as in verse 20, Good News Translation makes the pronominal reference (“he” = Jesus) explicit for stylistic reasons. It also reverses the order of the two clauses as they appear in Greek (see Revised Standard Version, for example, “As he spoke thus, many believed in him”).

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 .