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.
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 22:26:
Noongar: “But you must not behave the same way. No! The greatest person among you must become low, like the lowest person, and the boss must become the servant.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “But you, don’t be like that! Just the opposite. Whoever of you is of highest rank must behave like one whose life is very small [unimportant]. And the person who commands must behave like a servant.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “But you should not be like that. The greatest among you his conduct should be as if he were the youngest. And the leader should think of himself as if he is the servant.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “But as for you by contrast,’ said Jesus, ‘your activity cannot be like this. For the one who is the greatest among you, he must regard himself as the least of all. And the one who is the master should think of himself as the servant of everybody.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “But that isn’t the way you should be, because the most-important among you, he must consider himself as if he is the youngest, and the leader should become like a servant.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “But as for you, not like that. On the contrary the most important must consider himself as only ordinary/low-class, and the one in charge, servant of his companions.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
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 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).
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 22:24-30:
A heated debate broke out among the followers of Jesus —
each of them saying, “I’m the greatest!”
But Jesus interrupted and said:
“Foreign kings order their subjects around,
while claiming to be everyone’s friend.
Don’t be like that! I’ve come as your servant,
and if you want to be truly great, then become a servant yourself.
You may think a king is superior to a servant,
but I’ve been a servant to you.
“You’ve been faithful friends in all my troubles,
so I’ll let each of you rule as a king,
just as my Father has promised.
Not only will you eat and drink with me in the Ultimate Kingdom —
you’ll each have authority of your own.”
humeis de ouch houtōs ‘but you (should) not (be) like this,’ hence, ‘it should not be so with you.’ With this clause may be understood an indicative (cf. Translator’s New Testament), or an imperative, preferably the latter.
ho meizōn en humin ginesthō hōs ho neōteros ‘the greatest among you must become like the youngest.’ ho meizōn takes up meizōn in v. 24. ginesthō may be rendered ‘be,’ or, ‘become,’ preferably the latter. ho neōteros may be understood in terms of rank, or age, preferably the former. For the meaning of the comparative cf. on meizōn in v. 24.
ho hēgoumenos hōs ho diakonōn ‘the one who leads (must be) like the one who serves.’ hēgoumenos is best understood as referring to leadership in the community of believers, cf. Hebr. 13.7, 17, 24. In the same way diakonōn refers to service in the community in general though in v. 27 the role of the servant is illustrated from table service.
Translation:
Rather, or, “on the contrary” (New English Bible, Bible de Jérusalem); or as an separate exclamation, “far from it” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation).
Greatest … youngest, both referring to position and honour. It may be preferable to use a pair of more directly opposite words, e.g. ‘greatest–smallest,’ ‘highest–lowest,’ ‘most in-front–most at-the-end’ (Balinese), or, if age and rank are closely associated, ‘senior–junior.’
Let … become, or, “must become” (Phillips), “must take the … role” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation), ‘must start to behave as.’
Leader … one who serves, again a pair of terms that are not each other’s exact opposite. Leader, or, ‘the one who governs’ (Bible de Jérusalem), ‘the one who orders/commands’ (Balinese). One who serves (here and in the second occurrence in v. 27 referring to service in general), cf. the verbs mentioned in the note on “servant” in 12.37, but one may also consider a rendering that is a more direct opposite of the word for “leader”, e.g. ‘one who follows/obeys’ (Batak Toba, Tae’ 1933), ‘one who is-subordinate’ (Sundanese).
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.
But you shall not be like them: In Greek this clause is more literally, “But you, not so.” This is an ellipsis. Some information is left out of the clause. It introduces an emphatic contrast between Jesus’ disciples and the rulers of the Gentiles. Jesus’ disciples will be different from those rulers. They must not be like the rulers who do not serve God. Some other ways to translate this ellipsis are:
But among you it will be different (New Living Translation (2004)) -or-
Not so with you (NET Bible) -or-
But it is not this way with you (New American Standard Bible) -or-
But you must not be like that (New Century Version)
Translate the ellipsis in a natural way in your language.
22:26b–c
In 22:26b–c Jesus described the humble attitude that he wanted his apostles and other leaders to have. He made two parallel statements that have almost the same meaning. He used these parallel statements to emphasize the meaning.
These statements contrast with the two parallel statements in 22:25 about the attitude of Gentile leaders. Consider how to emphasize this contrast in a natural way in your language.
Instead: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Instead introduces a statement that contrasts with 22:25. In that statement Jesus told his apostles to have a totally different attitude from the rulers in 22:25. In 22:26a Jesus already indicated that his apostles must not be like those rulers, so in some languages a conjunction may not be needed here. Some other ways to introduce this statement are:
But (New Living Translation (2004)) -or-
Rather (God’s Word) -or-
Not so with you: on the contrary… (Revised English Bible)
Begin 22:26b in a natural way in your language.
the greatest among you should be like the youngest: This clause indicates that the apostle who is greater than all the others should behave very humbly. He should treat the others as humbly as if he had the lowest status among them. In Jewish culture the youngest people in a group had the lowest status. Some other ways to translate this are:
The greatest person among you must be like the lowliest -or-
The most important one of you should be like the least important (Contemporary English Version) -or-
Your greatest person must ⌊behave as humbly⌋ as the youngest person
the greatest…the youngest: The Greek text uses singular forms for the greatest and the youngest. However, in this context Jesus referred to any and all of the leaders among his followers. In many languages it may be more natural to use plural forms. For example:
Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank (New Living Translation (2004))
the greatest: The phrase the greatest occurred in 22:24b. You should translate in a similar way here.
should be like the youngest: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as youngest usually refers to being young in age. But in this context, it refers to having low status. In Jewish culture, the youngest people in the group should serve all the others. They should do the hard work that the others did not want to do, and they should not expect others to honor them.
In this context Jesus compared this attitude to the humble attitude that he wants his apostles and other followers to have. In some languages you may need to make the meaning more explicit. Some ways to translate it are:
must regard himself as the least of all. -or-
he must consider himself as if he is the youngest
22:26c
and: In most English versions, the parallel clauses in 22:26b and 22:26c are joined with the word and. In some languages a word like and may not be appropriate to join two statements with very similar meanings. Some other ways to connect them in English are:
yes -or-
indeed
Connect these statements in a natural way in your language. In some languages a connecting word or phrase may not be needed.
the one who leads like the one who serves: This statement is an ellipsis. The full form is:
the one who leads ⌊should be⌋ like the one who serves
This statement has a similar meaning as the one in 22:26b. The phrase the one who leads refers to the same person as “the greatest among you” in 22:26b. Other ways to make this clear in English are:
⌊Yes,⌋ as he rules ⌊them⌋, he should behave like a person who serves. -or-
when he leads ⌊others⌋, he must consider himself ⌊their⌋ servant
As in 22:26b, Jesus referred here to every disciple of his who rules or leads other disciples. Each leader should have the humble attitude of a servant. He should look for ways to help and serve others. In some languages it may be more natural to use plural forms. For example:
people who rule ⌊others⌋ should serve ⌊them⌋
the one who serves: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the one who serves refers to someone who helps, serves, or works for another person. Another way to translate it is:
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