Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 23:49:
Noongar: “All who had known Jesus and loved him, and also all the women who followed him from Galilee, they stood at a distance and they watched.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “As for all the acquaintances of Yesus with the women who followed him from Galilea, they stood far off seeing/watching all that happened.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “All the friends of Isa, including the women who had come with him from Jalil stood there at a distance and they saw all that had happened.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And all the friends of Jesus, including the women who had come with him from Galilee, they were there somewhat afar off, watching everything that was happening.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “But all of Jesus’ friends and the women who had gone-with him from Galilea, they stayed at a distance watching.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Standing at a distance were all the friends of Jesus, including those women who had accompanied him from Galilea. Those things happened before their eyes also.” (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. ).
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 23:44-49:
The sun stopped shining and shadowy darkness
spread like a shroud from noon to mid afternoon.
The temple curtain split down the middle,
as the final words of Jesus thundered,
“Father, I trust myself to you!”
A Roman soldier witnessed the events and exclaimed,
“Today I’ve seen a truly good man!”
The crowd that had gathered to gape at the gruesome sight,
dispersed and disappeared with broken hearts.
But the close friends of Jesus — especially the women
who had accompanied him from Galilee —
stood at a distance as solemn witnesses.
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®).
heistēkeisan de… ‘but … stood there.’ Subject is hoi gnōstoi autō and gunaikes. de may be continuative (‘and’), or contrastive (‘but’), preferably the latter. The contrast is between the crowds that went home and the friends who remained behind.
pantes hoi gnōstoi autō lit. ‘all who were known to him,’ hence, ‘all his acquaintances,’ cf. on 2.44. pantes is used here hyperbolically.
gunaikes hai sunakolouthousai autō apo tēs Galilaias ‘the women who were following him from Galilee.’ The present tense implies that the following is not envisaged as something of the past only but as still continuing.
sunakoloutheō ‘to follow,’ equivalent to akoloutheō.
horōsai tauta ‘seeing this,’ best understood as going with both hoi gnōstoi and gunaikes. tauta has the same referent as ta genomena in v. 48 and to genomenon in v. 47.
Translation:
All, or, ‘many of.’
Acquaintances, see on 2.44, but here the term probably refers to a rather more intimate relationship; hence, “those who knew Jesus personally” (Good News Translation), “friends” (New English Bible).
Followed, i.e. were his followers, cf. on 5.11.
At a distance, cf. on 15.20. Neither the phrase itself nor the context give a clear indication as to the distance; they must have been within eyeshot but probably had not ventured close to the soldiers guarding the cross.
Saw, here in the sense of looking with deep concern, not in that of ‘watching, or gazing, at a spectacle,’ as in v. 48.
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 all those who knew Jesus: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as But can also be translated as “And.” However, here it probably introduces a contrast between the people who went away in 23:48 and the people who knew Jesus. Some English versions do not have a conjunction here. Introduce the people who knew Jesus in a natural way in your language.
all those who knew Jesus: The phrase all those who knew Jesus refers to the people who knew Jesus personally. They were friends who were there at the crucifixion. Some other ways to translate the phrase are:
All his friends (God’s Word) -or-
All those who knew Jesus personally (Good News Translation) -or-
all his acquaintances (Revised Standard Version)
The word all does not imply that every friend of Jesus was there. It distinguishes this group of friends from the other people there. One way to make this clear in English is:
His friends had all been standing at a distance (Revised English Bible)
In some languages it may be more natural not to include the word all here. For example:
those who were close friends of Jesus (New Century Version) -or-
Jesus’ friends (New Living Translation (2004))
23:49b
including the women: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as including the women is literally “and the women.” It implies that the women were among the other people there who knew Jesus well.
Connect this phrase with 23:49a in a natural way in your language. In some languages it is not appropriate to refer to women as “close friends” of a male leader. Your translation should not imply an immoral relationship.
In some languages it may be natural to change the order of clauses in this verse. See the General Comment on 23:49a–c below for an example.
who had followed Him from Galilee: This phrase refers to women who had been with Jesus in Galilee. (See 8:2–3.) They had come with him and his other followers to Jerusalem. Some other ways to translate the phrase are:
who had come with him from Galilee (Contemporary English Version) -or-
who had accompanied him from Galilee (Revised English Bible)
23:49c
stood at a distance: The phrase stood at a distance indicates that Jesus’ friends were standing some distance away from Jesus. They were close enough to see and hear what happened, but they were not very near him. Probably the soldiers kept friends from coming too near. Describe this distance in a natural way in your language.
watching these things: The phrase watching these things indicates here that Jesus’ friends and the women were watching all that was happening. They saw it and paid attention to it. Another way to translate the phrase is:
seeing/watching what was happening
General Comment on 23:49a–c
In some languages it may be more natural to reorder the information in this verse. For example:
49aBut all those who had known Jesus personally 49cstood at a distance and watched what happened. 49bAmong them were the women who had followed him from Galilee.
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