14and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people, and here I have examined him in your presence and have not found this man guilty of any of your charges against him.
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 23:14:
Noongar: “and said to them, ‘You brought this man before me and you say he has been lying to the people. Now I have asked him everything in front of you and I cannot find him guilty of one of these wrong things you accuse him of.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “and he said to them: ‘You brought this person here, you said that he was causing-to-fall the people. I have examined him in front of you all, but I do not find [even] one kind of evil behavior like what you have accused him of.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “He said to them, ‘You have brought this person here to me and you say that he has influenced the people to oppose the government. I have interrogated him here in your presence but I have found no sin in this person like what you accuse him of.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “and he said to them, ‘As for this man that you brought before me, you said that he was causing a riot in our town, but I have thoroughly investigated him before all of you, and I cannot find that he has done anything wrong.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “and he said to them, ‘You have charged this-one before me saying that he is persuading the many-people to revolt against the government. But here I have investigated him in your sight and I have found out nothing that confirms what you have been accusing him of.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “When they were assembled, he said to them, ‘You brought this person to me, along with your charge in which you said he is inciting the people to oppose the government. Well, I have interrogated him in your presence. Well, I have observed that there’s no truth in what you are charging him with.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
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. ).
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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 second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.
In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
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 23:13-25:
Pilate called together the chief priests,
the religious authorities, and all their cohorts.
Then he said:
“You brought Jesus into my court,
accusing him of being a troublemaker.
But you’re witnesses that I’ve found him innocent,
and so has Herod, who sent him back to me.
This man doesn’t deserve the death penalty.
I’ll have him beaten, then released.”
“Kill him! Set Barabbas free!” shouted the angry mob.
Now Barabbas had been in prison,
charged with terrorism and murder.
Pilate wanted to set Jesus free,
so he repeated himself to the mob.
But they shouted even louder,
“Nail him to a cross! Nail him to a cross!”
“What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate once again.
“I’ve found him guilty of nothing deserving death.
I’ll have him beaten and released.”
“Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!”
came the incessant cry of the crowd.
Finally, Pilate gave in to the demands of the frenzied mob.
He freed Barabbas, the terrorist and murderer,
then handed Jesus over to face certain death.
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®).
sugkalesamenos tous archiereis kai tous archontas kai ton laon ‘after summoning the chief priests and the rulers and the people.’ For sugkaleō cf. on 9.1. ton laon (cf. on 1.10) is to be interpreted in the same sense as tous ochlous in v. 4.
archōn ‘ruler,’ ‘leader,’ here best understood as referring to the members of the Sanhedrin, cf. on 22.66.
(V. 14) prosēnegkate moi ton anthrōpon touton ‘you brought this man before me.’ prospherō with following accusative and dative means here, ‘to bring before a judge.’
hōs apostrephonta ton laon ‘as one who is misleading the people.’ hōs with participle implies that it is not an established fact but their subjective allegation.
apostrephō lit. ‘to turn away,’ i.e. from allegiance or obedience, hence ‘to mislead,’ ‘to cause to revolt,’ ‘to subvert.’ The phrase repeats in a condensed form the accusations of v. 2, and apostrephō is virtually equivalent to diastrephō.
kai idou ‘and behold’ (cf. on 1.20), emphasizing the contrast between the allegations of the priests and the result of Pilate’s examination.
egō enōpion humōn anakrinas ‘I (for one) having examined (him) in your presence.’ egō is emphatic.
anakrinō ‘to question,’ ‘to examine,’ with personal object (here understood), or in absolute sense, ‘to conduct an examination,’ preferably the former.
outhen heuron en tō anthrōpō toutō aition ‘I have found no fault in this man,’ repeating v. 4.
hōn katēgoreite kat’ autou lit. ‘of the things of which you accuse him,’ going with outhen … aition, ‘no guilt of,’ i.e. ‘no ground for the accusations you make against him.’
Translation:
Called together, or, ‘summoned,’ i.e. ordered the Jewish leaders and crowd (who probably were still, or again, standing around in the neighbourhood of Pilate’s palace) to come together again at the place where Jesus’ case was to continue.
The rulers, cf. on 18.18; or here, more specifically, “the … councillors” (New English Bible), ‘the other members of the Jewish council.’
(V. 14) Said to them. The pronoun refers to all the groups mentioned in v. 13; if one has to use honorifics with reference to the leaders, one should take care to render Pilate’s address in such a way that the crowd is not excluded from the persons addressed.
You brought me this man, preferably, ‘you brought this man before me,’ cf. on 12.11.
As one who was perverting the people, or, bringing out the force of “as” in another way, ‘you-were-saying: he is perverting the people’ (cf. Tae’ 1933).
To examine, or, ‘to interrogate,’ ‘to investigate.’
Before you, or, ‘in your presence,’ ‘while you were standing by, or, heard it.’
I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him may require rather radical changes of structure, cf. e.g. ‘I did not find that he has committed any of the crimes you say he has done,’ ‘bad thing not even one concerning him have I found like you accuse him’ (Ekari), ‘I did not find any case at all in those (things) you accuse him of’ (Shona 1966); or, expressing a concessive connexion, “I have found nothing criminal about him, in spite of all your accusations” (Phillips), cf. also, ‘he has no sin, I found, although he has much sin, you say’ (Tzeltal); or again, taking “charges” with “to examine”, ‘I held an investigation concerning the charges you brought forward but I did not find any crime/fault in Him’ (Bahasa Indonesia RC, similarly Marathi). For charge cf. on “accusation” in 6.7. — The first part of the sentence echoes Pilate’s words in v. 4 and is echoed again in v. 22, a stylistic trait which should preferably be preserved.
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.
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