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 his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.
In Nepali translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and other people with the medium honorific pronoun timīlē (तिमीले) or timīlēharū (तिमीलेहरू). His disciples respond with a high honorific pronoun. (Source: Chitra Chhetri in The Bible Translator 2009, p. 73ff. )
In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.
In the GermanGute Nachricht (Good News) translation of 1982, this occurrence of the Greek term which is translated in most English versions of “kingdom (of God or heaven)” is translated with “God’s new world” (Gottes neue Welt). The das Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022), also in German, translates these occurrences as “God’s new reality” (about Werner’s translation, see here ).
For an explanation of the differentiated translation in German as well as translation choices in a number of languages, see Kingdom (of God / heaven).
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 22:14-23:
The time had now come to slaughter lambs for Passover,
so Jesus sent Peter and John
to make preparations for the meal.
“Where do you want us to do this?” they asked.
Jesus replied:
“As you enter the city, you’ll meet a man
carrying a jug of water.
Follow him into the house and say to the owner,
‘Our teacher sent us to find out where he can eat
the Passover meal with his closest friends.’
The owner will take you upstairs and show you
a large room ready for you to use.
Prepare the meal there.”
Peter and John left, and they found everything
precisely as Jesus had indicated,
so they did exactly as he had instructed.
When it was supper time, Jesus said,
“I’ve really wanted to eat this Passover meal
with you before I suffer.
It will be the last one I eat
before the Celebration Supper
in the Ultimate Kingdom.”
Jesus took a cup of wine in his hands,
and after giving thanks to God, he said,
“Take this wine and share it with each other.
I’ll drink no more wine before the Celebration Supper
in the Ultimate Kingdom.”
Jesus then took some bread in his hands,
and after giving thanks to God,
he broke the bread and passed it around.
Then he said, “This is my body offered for you.
Eat this and remember me!”
After the meal, Jesus took another cup of wine
in his hands and said, “This is my blood
poured out for you, and with it
God makes his new agreement.
Here at the table is the one who will betray me!
I’ll die as God intends,
but it will be terrible for my betrayer.”
The followers started arguing
about who would do such a thing.
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 22:16:
Noongar: “So I tell you, I will not again eat with you, only when the truth of all these things becomes known in the Kingdom of God.'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “Because so that you know: I will no longer eat the Paskah food that is like this, until the meaning of this feast is fulfilled when God becomes King in the world.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “For I tell you, after this I will not eat this again. I only will eat it again when God rules already over his people and when it is fulfilled what the real meaning of this feast is.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Because it’s true what I say to you, I will not again eat the Passover supper until the time in the future when its true meaning is fulfilled when God rules over mankind.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Because I tell you that I will not again join-in-eating at a fiesta like this until what-it-signifies is fulfilled in the ruling of God in heaven.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “For what I will say to you is really true that I won’t eat this again until what is alluded to by it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Gurung: ” . . . When people eat the feast in heaven, the meaning of this festival will be fulfilled. And until this festival is fulfilled I will not eat its meal.” (Source: Warren Glover in The Bible Translator 1978, p. 231ff.)
Willy Wiedmann, the artist, commented on this picture: “In spite of some difficulty, and unlike Leonardo da Vinci [see here ] I did not set my last supper in a theatrical scene with Jesus in the center behind an elongated table with all the disciples, with two at each end so that that there are 11 seated behind the table. And not like the panel by Juan de Juanes (1623-79) [see here ] in which the six disciples left and right are very dynamic figures. And also not like Martin Schongauer’s Last Supper [see here ] with a slightly shorter table (also incidentally very similar to Juanes in the attitudes of the figures) and two figures seen from the back in the foreground of the panel. Instead I have given the Master the middle place to the foreground, with his back to us to finally leave the controversial Jesus-existential questions unanswered. Slightly symbolically it means that he is leaving his world. The iris color is meant to transfer the rainbow to Jesus, that God once linked to Noah (my kingdom is not of this world). I attempted to present answers that correspond to the characters of each individual.”
Image and text taken from the Wiedmann Bible. For more information about the images and ways to adopt them, see here .
For other images of Willy Wiedmann paintings in TIPs, see here.
Following is a painting by Wang Suda 王肅達 (1910-1963):
Copyright by the Catholic University Peking, China.
Text under painting translated from Literary Chinese into English:
Beginning of the Holy Communion
You have this as food and this is my body.
Image taken from Chinese Christian Posters . For more information on the “Ars Sacra Pekinensis” school of art, see this article , for other artworks of that school in TIPs, see here.
Following is an acrylic on canvas painting by Hanna-Cheriyan Varghese:
Used with permission by the Overseas Ministries Study Center (OMSC) at Princeton Theological Seminary. You can purchase this and many other artworks by artists in residence at the OSMC in high resolution and without a watermark via the OSMC website .
“Hanna-Cheriyan Varghese (1938 – 2009) of Selangor, Malaysia, was the artist in residence at OMSC for the 2006–2007 academic year. She was born to Christian parents, and she remembered her mother taking her to a different worship service every week: ‘My parents encouraged me to attend different churches so that my siblings and I would appreciate the liturgy and traditions of the Christian believers of different denominations. Christians are a minority in Malaysia so we continue to struggle for our identity in a Muslim society. There is no open conflict as such.’
“She always had a passion for painting and drawing. She worked in the mediums of acrylic paint and Batik dye.
“‘All creative work, be it the spoken word, the written word or the sung word, are essentials in praise and worship, meditation, education, inculturation and evangelism. This also includes art and pictures, which is universal seeing.’ Hanna Varghese.” (Source )
Orthodox Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )
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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 first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
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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