4“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?
The Greek that is translated as “a hundred sheep” in English is translated in Ekari with “sixty sheep.” In Ekari “sixty” is the highest basic unit, the equivalent of “one hundred” in Greek. The arithmetical equivalent of “hundred” would be the cumbersome “forty of the second sixty.”
While Mairasi has a set term for “hundred” (ratu, also meaning “king”), 99 is expressed more complicatedly: “four whole people and two hands and one hand and four.” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006: “steppe”
Yakan: “the lonely place” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a land where no people lived” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “the place with no inhabitants” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Cherokee: inage or “far away downstream” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 16)
Matumbi uses various term: lubele (desert, sandy place without water) — used in John 11:54, lupu’ngu’ti (a place where no people live, can be a scrub land, a forest, or a savanna) — used in Mark 1:3 et al.), and mwitu (a forest, a place where wild animals live) — used in Mark 1:13 et al.) (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Chichewa Contemporary translation (2002/2016): chipululu: a place uninhabited by people with thick forest and bush (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Adioukrou: loj or “savannah” — “land that is not village, nor forest, nor field (source: Hill 2006)
Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place,” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).
“Sheep are known throughout most of the world, even though, as in Central Africa, they are a far cry from the fleecy wool-producing animals of colder climates. Where such animals are known, even by seemingly strange names, e.g. ‘cotton deer’ (Yucateco) or ‘woolly goat’ (Inupiaq), such names should be used. In some instances, one may wish to borrow a name and use a classifier, e.g. ‘an animal called sheep.’ In still other instances translators have used ‘animal which produces wool’, for though people are not acquainted with the animals they are familiar with wool.” (Source: Bratcher / Nida)
In Dëne Súline, it is usually translated as “an evil little caribou.” To avoid the negative connotation, a loan word from the neighboring South Slavey was used. (Source: NCEM, p. 70)
Note that the often-alleged Inuktitut translation of “sheep” with “seal” is an urban myth (source Nida 1947, p. 136).
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 15:4:
Mairasi: “‘Now suppose that one person from among you guys if the number of his domba [sheep] is one ratu [king; hundred], then one of them gets his face lengthened [lost] what will he himself the owner do? He himself will immediately leave his other domba animals, the four whole people and two hands and one hand and four [ninety-nine] of them, over there in the big grassy flat place. Then he will go look for that one which had a lengthened face [which was lost] continuously until he will find him.” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Noongar: “‘If one of you had 100 sheep and lost one of them, what would you do? A man would leave the other 99 sheep and he would look for this sheep, the lost one, and he would not stop, only when he finds it.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “He said: ‘For example one of our companions has a hundred sheep. If one sheep gets lost, what does he do? Definitely he leaves-behind the ninety-nine sheep in the field, and he goes to hunt for his lost sheep until he finds it.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “‘For example, if one of you has one hundred sheep and-then one of them goes astray, what do you (pl.) do? Certainly you (pl.) will leave the ninety nine there in the open-place and go to look for the one that went astray as long as you (pl.) do not find it.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “‘For example, one of you has a hundred domestic animals who are sheep, and one of them is lost. What does he do? Certainly he leaves those ninety-nine grazing and he looks for that one who is lost until he finds him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “‘For-example, if there is among you an owner of a hundred sheep and one gets lost, what perhaps will he do? Surely (lit. indeed perhaps–connotes no doubt) he will leave the ninety nine in the grazing-area in order to go look for the lost one until he finds it.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “‘Supposing there is one of you who has a hundred sheep, and then suddenly/unexpectedly one of them was lost, well, what will he do? Isn’t it so that he will leave the ninety nine there in the eating/grazing-place, for he will look for this which is lost until he finds it?” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.
As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.
Here, Jesus is addressing religious leaders with the formal pronoun, showing respect. Compare that with the typical address with the informal pronoun of the religious leaders.
The only two exceptions to this are Luke 7:40/43 and 10:26 where Jesus uses the informal pronoun as a response to the sycophantic use of the formal pronoun by the religious leaders (see formal pronoun: religious leaders addressing Jesus).
In most Dutch translations, the same distinctions are made, with the exception of Luke 10:26 where Jesus is using the formal pronoun. In Afrikaans and Western Frisian the informal pronoun is used throughout.
Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Luke 15:1-7:
A mixed crowd — some politically incorrect
and others simply street scum —
were hanging around, listening to Jesus teach.
A group of religious snobs came up and started griping,
“This guy goes around with the wrong crowd,
and he even eats with them.”
Then Jesus told them this story:
What would you do, if you had a hundred sheep,
and one of them wandered off?
Wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine out in the field
and look for the lost sheep, until you found it?
Sure you would, and you’d be so glad when it was found
that you’d throw it on your shoulder and carry it home.
Then you’d say to your friends, “Let’s celebrate!
I’ve found my lost sheep.”
“That’s how it is with God,” declared Jesus.
“God gets more excited over one person
who has a change of heart
than over ninety-nine self-righteous bigots.”
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
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 formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
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