The Greek that is translated as “sinner” in English is translated in various ways:
“people with bad hearts” (“it is not enough to call them ‘people who do bad things,’ for though actions do reflect the heart, yet it is the hearts with which God is primarily concerned — see Matt. 15:19“) in Western Kanjobal
“people who are doing wrong things in their hearts” in San Blas Kuna (source for this and above: Nida 1952, p. 148)
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 19:7:
Noongar: “All the people watching, they began talking angrily. ‘This one Jesus is going to sit and to eat in the house of a bad man!'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “When the people saw that Yesus went to the house of Zakheus, they murmured/complained, they said: ‘Ii, why in the world is he visiting in the house of a sinner(emphatic)!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “When the people heard what Isa said to Sakkiyas, they grumbled, they said, ‘Na, why dang (exclamation) does he go along to the house of that sinful person?'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when the people heard these words of Jesus to Zacchaeus, they didn’t like it and they spoke to each other, ‘Why is Jesus going to go up into the house of a person who really transgresses against God?'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “But all those who saw, they murmured/grumbled saying, ‘Why (rebuke particle) does he have-himself-welcomed in the house of that sinner?'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Without anything further, as for all who saw that, they talked-among-themselves saying, ‘Expl., he goes to stay with one who is sinful!'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Kinaray-A: “When the people saw that Jesus was going into the house of Zaqueo, they grumbled and said, ‘Why is he going into the house of that man who is a sinner?'” (Source: Balbina Abadiano in Notes on Translation 1988, p. 40ff.)
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. ).
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 19:1-10:
Zacchaeus lived in Jericho and was rich — yet he was hated,
because he collected taxes for the Roman authorities.
Somehow Zacchaeus found out
that Jesus was passing through Jericho,
and he wanted to see what he was like.
Crowds covered every inch of the ground,
and since Zacchaeus was short and couldn’t see the road,
he climbed up a big tree and waited.
Jesus spotted him in the tree and shouted,
“Zacchaeus, come down! I want to visit with you today.”
Zacchaeus scampered down and greeted Jesus with a smile.
But jealousy took control of the crowds, and they grumbled,
“This guy Zacchaeus is scum!
Is Jesus really going to eat with him?”
When Zacchaeus got up from the meal, he said to Jesus,
“Lord, I promise to give half of my property to the poor,
and to everyone I’ve ever cheated,
I’ll pay back four times as much.”
“Now you and your family are acceptable to God!” said Jesus.
“Indeed you are truly a son of your ancestor Abraham.
I came to look for and to save people that others reject.”
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 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®).
kai idontes pantes diegogguzon ‘when they saw this they all grumbled.’ pantes refers to all the people who watched Jesus go into Zacchaeus’ house. For diagogguzō cf. on 15.2.
para hamartōlō andri eisēlthen katalusai ‘he has gone to be the guest of a sinful man.’ para hamartōlō andri is emphatic by position, and goes with katalusai. For kataluō cf. on 9.12. For hamartōlos cf. on 5.8.
Translation:
For murmured see on 5.30.
To go in to be the guest of, virtually synonymous with, but slightly more specific than “to stay in the house of” in v. 5d. Some renderings used are, ‘to go to sleep in the house of’ (Shona 1966, similarly Kele), ‘to enter (lit. ascend) for the night into the house of’ (cf. Tae’ 1933); several versions, however, use the same rendering in both verses.
Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.
And all who saw this began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinful man!”: The phrase began to grumble, saying is literally “were complaining, saying.” It introduces an example of what the people said. Some other ways to translate it in English are:
But the people who saw this complained about it. They said, “He has gone to stay with a sinner.” -or-
Everyone who saw this started grumbling, “This man Zacchaeus is a sinner! And Jesus is going home to eat with him.” (Contemporary English Version)
Notice that the Contemporary English Version has changed the order of the information in the quote. Use a natural order in your language.
In some languages it may be more natural to use an indirect quote here. For example:
They all began to mutter that it was not right for him to go and stay with a sinner. -or-
The people did not like it. They said that Zacchaeus was a sinner and that Jesus should not visit in his home.
19:7a
And all who saw this began to grumble: The word this is not in the Greek text. The Berean Standard Bible has supplied it to make the clause natural in English. In some languages you may need to make the clause more explicit. For example:
When the people saw that Jesus had gone to Zacchaeus’ house with him…
In some languages this information may already be implied, and you may not need to translate the phrase saw this. For example:
But the people were displeased. (New Living Translation (2004))
all who saw this: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates literally as all refers to the crowd that was following Jesus. They were there watching. Refer to them in a clear way in your language. Some ways to refer to them in English are:
All the people who were there -or-
The whole crowd that was following Jesus
began to grumble: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as began to grumble indicates here that the people complained about what Jesus did. They criticized Jesus because they did not think that he should go to stay with a sinner such as Zacchaeus. Some other ways to translate began to grumble are:
said that Jesus should not do that -or-
criticized Jesus
The form of the Greek verb can be translated as an action that is beginning, as in the Berean Standard Bible. The same form of the word was used in 15:2 in a similar context. See how you translated it there.
19:7b
He has gone to be the guest of a sinful man!: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as has gone to be the guest means “has entered to rest/lodge.” The word for “to rest/lodge” is different from the one that was translated as “stay” in 19:5. However, both words have the same meaning in this context. Jesus went to Zacchaeus’ house and probably spent the night there. Some other ways to translate this are:
Jesus is staying with a sinner! (New Century Version) -or-
He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. (English Standard Version) -or-
He has gone to stay at a sinner’s house (New Jerusalem Bible)
a sinful man!: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as a sinful man here refers to a person who habitually disobeys God. See how you translated the verb “sin” in 17:3–4. Some ways to translate sinful man here are:
person who ⌊habitually⌋ sins -or-
person who does not obey God -or-
wrongdoer
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