Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 23:55:
Noongar: “The women following Jesus from Galilee went with Joseph and they saw Joseph put Jesus’ body in the grave.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “That is why the women who accompanied Yesus from Galilea followed Yusuf going to that grave. They saw how the body of Yesus was put in the grave.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “The women who had followed Isa from Jalil, followed Yusup and they saw the grave and how he laid Isa into the grave.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And those women who had come from Galilee with Jesus, they went with Joseph to bury the body of Jesus. And they saw where Jesus was placed in the burial place.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “The women who had gone-with Jesus from Galilea, they followed Jose and saw the place where Jesus was buried and the way Jose had placed-inside (i.e. buried) his corpse.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Those women who had accompanied Jesus from Galilea followed Jose who went burying. They saw that burial-place and how Jesus was laid there.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
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 23:50-56:
Joseph Arimathea was honest and earnest,
eagerly awaiting the advent of the Ultimate Kingdom.
Although he was a member of the council,
he had disagreed with their decision to execute Jesus.
Joseph approached Pilate, requesting the body of Jesus.
He removed it from the cross, and wrapped it in a linen cloth,
before placing it in a tomb carved from solid rock —
a pristine tomb, as yet undefiled by death.
Friday had arrived — the Sabbath would commence at sunset.
Those women who had come from Galilee
now followed Joseph and watched
as the body was placed in the tomb.
They wanted to go at once and prepare burial spices,
but their religion required they rest on the Sabbath.
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. ).
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®).
The syntactic structure is as follows: katakolouthēsasai (subordinate participle) hai gunaikes (subject) … etheasanto (main verb); hupostrepsasai (subordinate participle) hētoimasan (second main verb, same subject).
katakolouthēsasai de hai gunaikes ‘the women, having followed,’ i.e. Joseph. The placing of the participle before the subject at the beginning of the clause is for stylistic reasons. The participle denotes the act that connects the events of these verses with the preceding story.
katakoloutheō ‘to follow,’ ‘to follow after (somebody),’ with the implication of following at some distance.
haitines ēsan sunelēluthuiai ek tēs Galilaias autō ‘who had come with him from Galilee,’ identifying the women as those referred to in v. 49.
etheasanto to mnēmeion kai hōs etethē to sōma autou ‘(they) saw the tomb and how his body was laid.’ Note the twofold object of etheasanto, i.e. a noun (to mnēmeion) and an indirect question (hōs etethē …), which denotes the act of burial, rather than the manner. For to sōma cf. on v. 52. As implied in the story as a whole the women saw the grave with a view to coming back later. Hence etheasanto may be rendered, ‘they noted,’ ‘they took note.’
(V. 56a) arōmata kai mura ‘spices and ointments.’
Translation:
For followed see on 7.9. A specification of the person followed may be preferable, or of the place reached, ‘followed to-that-place’ (Balinese, Batak Toba 1885).
Saw. The verb may have to be repeated, cf. e.g. ‘saw the grave and burial affair saw’ (Ekari), ‘looked at the grave: saw how they had put his body’ (Sranan Tongo).
(V. 56a) Then they returned, or, ‘after that they went back home,’ i.e. to their lodgings in Jerusalem, not to Galilee.
For ointment above on 7.37.
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.
The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee: This phrase refers to the same women who were mentioned in 23:49. There the Berean Standard Bible refers to them as “the women who had followed Him from Galilee.” Refer back to them in the way that is natural in your language.
23:55b
followed: The verb followed indicates that the women accompanied Joseph when he went to the tomb in 23:53. In some languages it may be necessary to say explicitly where the women went, or where Joseph went. Some other ways to translate it are:
had followed Joseph ⌊to the tomb⌋ -or-
followed closely behind Joseph (God’s Word) -or-
went with Joseph (Good News Translation)
23:55c
and they saw the tomb and how His body was placed: This clause indicates that the women went all the way to the tomb with Joseph and saw it. They also saw how Jesus’ body was laid in the tomb. The text does not necessarily imply that the women went into the tomb. It implies that the tomb was still open and the women were able to look inside and see Jesus’ body.
In some languages it may be necessary to say that the women arrived at the place where the tomb was before saying that they saw it. Notice that Joseph as well as the women arrived and saw the tomb. Luke mentioned only the women because they are in focus here. The women observed the location of the tomb carefully because they planned to return to it on Sunday morning.
Some other ways to translate the clause are:
⌊When the women got there,⌋ they saw the tomb and how Jesus’ body was placed in it. -or-
They observed the tomb and how his body was laid in it. (God’s Word)
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