formal pronoun: angels addressing people

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 Translator 2002, 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, angels address people with the formal pronoun, expressing respect.

In most Dutch as well as in Western Frisian and Afrikaans translations, the angels are addressing people with the informal pronoun.

See also angel.

Resurrection of Jesus

The following is a stained glass window from 1855 by artist H. Beiler over the altar of the Evangelische Stadtkirche Bad Rappenau, Bad Rappenau, Germany:

Photo by Llez, hosted by Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Stained glass is not just highly decorative, it’s a medium which has been used to express important religious messages for centuries. Literacy was not widespread in the medieval and Renaissance periods and the Church used stained glass and other artworks to teach the central beliefs of Christianity. In Gothic churches, the windows were filled with extensive narrative scenes in stained glass — like huge and colorful picture storybooks — in which worshipers could ‘read’ the stories of Christ and the saints and learn what was required for their religious salvation. (Source: Victoria and Albert Museum )

Women at the Tomb

The following is a stained glass window from the Chartres Cathedral in Chartres, France, ca. 1150:

Source: Art in the Christian Tradition , a project of the Vanderbilt University Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. Original source: Wikimedia

Stained glass is not just highly decorative, it’s a medium which has been used to express important religious messages for centuries. Literacy was not widespread in the medieval and Renaissance periods and the Church used stained glass and other artworks to teach the central beliefs of Christianity. In Gothic churches, the windows were filled with extensive narrative scenes in stained glass — like huge and colorful picture storybooks — in which worshipers could ‘read’ the stories of Christ and the saints and learn what was required for their religious salvation. (Source: Victoria and Albert Museum )

complete verse (Luke 24:5)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 24:5:

  • Noongar: “The women were very afraid. They knelt to the ground. The men asked, ‘Why do you look for a living person among the dead people?” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “Those women were terrified and they fell-face-forward to the ground. Those two said to them: ‘Why do you hunt for a living person in the midst of the dead?” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “The women were terrified and they bowed-down-low. But the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek a living person here where they bury the dead?” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And as for these women, they knelt down, bowing their heads because they were very much afraid. And those men said to them, ‘Why are you looking for a person who is alive, here in the place where they bury dead people?” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The women bent-their-heads because of their excessive fear, but those men said to them, ‘Why are you looking for the one-who-came-alive in the place of the dead?” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “The women were afraid. They bowed down and hung-their-heads. And then they were questioned by those two men. They said, ‘Why are you looking for the living here with the dead?” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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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).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Luke 24:1-12)

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 24:1-12:

Before Sunday dawned, the women rushed to the tomb,
       carrying spices they had prepared.
The stone had been rolled away from the entrance,
       and they rushed right in.
Where was the body of the Lord Jesus?
It was nowhere to be seen,
       and they didn’t know what to think.

Two men there in shining white garments!
Where did they come from?

Shocked, the women fell to the ground, but the men said:

       “The living don’t dwell in tombs of the dead!
       Jesus has been raised to life,
              and now he’s long gone.
       While you were still in Galilee, don’t you remember
       he told you he’d be arrested, then executed on a cross,
              but three days later he’d rise to life?”

At that very moment, the women recalled
       what Jesus had said to them.

Quite a crowd of women had gone to the tomb,
among them: Mary Magdalene, Joanna,
       and Mary the mother of James.
They hurried off and informed others,
including the closest followers of Jesus,
       who refused to believe such nonsense.

However, Peter raced to the tomb,
but after stooping and looking carefully inside,
       he saw only burial clothes.
Still confused, he returned to the others.

Sung version of Luke 24

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®).

For more information, see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Luke 24:5

24:5a

As: In the Greek text, 24:5a begins with an common conjunction that is often translated as “and” or “but” (as in the New International Version). The Berean Standard Bible translates it as As. Here it introduces what the men said when the women bowed to them. Other ways to translate it are:

Then (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
but (New International Version)

Some versions do not have a conjunction. Connect this part of the verse with 24:5b in a natural way in your language.

the women bowed their faces to the ground: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible literally translates as bowed their faces to the ground is likely an idiom. It is not clear in this context whether they bent only their heads or whether they also bowed down or knelt. In this context the action probably showed both fear and respect.

Some other ways to translate this action are:

the women bowed down to the ground (Good News Translation)
-or-
the women bowed their heads to the ground (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
they bowed ⌊to show respect⌋ (Translator’s Reference Translation)

Translate the action in a way that communicates respect or fear in your culture.

in terror: The phrase in terror indicates that the women were very afraid. Some ways to translate it are:

The women were very afraid (New Century Version)
-or-
The women were terrified (God’s Word)
-or-
Full of fear (Good News Translation)

24:5b

the two men asked them: This clause introduces a rhetorical question that the men asked the women. Use a natural verb in your language. Some other ways to translate the clause in English are:

The men asked the women (God’s Word)
-or-
the men said (Revised English Bible)

24:5c

Why do you look for the living among the dead?: This is a rhetorical question. The men used it as a mild rebuke to the women. The men were saying that it was useless for the women to look for a live person in a tomb. The question implies that Jesus was alive, and therefore the women did not need to look for him in a tomb.

Some ways to translate this mild rebuke are:

• As a rhetorical question. For example:

Why are you looking among the dead for one who is alive? (Good News Translation)
-or-
Should you search for a living person in this place for the dead?

• As a statement. For example:

It is useless for you to look in the place of the dead for someone/one who is alive!

Translate this mild rebuke in a way that is natural in your language.

the living: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the living refers to Jesus. It indicates that Jesus was alive. This is clear from the Greek text, which uses a singular form. Other ways to translate the phrase are:

someone who is alive (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
the living one (God’s Word)

among the dead: The phrase the dead refers to dead people. The Greek text uses a plural form. The phrase among the dead implies that they should not be looking in a tomb, the place for burying dead people, to find a living person.

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