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 )

speak (Japanese honorifics)

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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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.

In this verse, the Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “speak” or “say” or similar in English is translated in the Shinkaiyaku Bible as o-hanashi (お話し), combining “speak” (hanashi) with the respectful prefix o-.

Another respectful way of saying “speak” in Japanese is by using o-katari (お語り), combining “speak” (katari) with the respectful prefix o-. In the Shinkaiyaku Bible this is used in Exodus 20:19 (Moses’ speech), 2 Samuel 7:25, 2 Samuel 7:29, and 1 Chronicles 17:23. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

complete verse (Luke 24:6)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 24:6:

  • Noongar: “He isn’t here! He has been raised! Remember what he said to you in Galilee:” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “He is no longer here. He is alive again! Remember what he said to you yesterday [recent past time] in Galilea.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Isa is no longer here. He is already alive again. Remember what he told you when he was there yet in Jalil.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Because as for Jesus, he’s no longer here because he’s risen from the dead. You remember what he said to you when you were still in Galilee.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Jesus is not here, because he came-to-life again. Have you forgotten what he told you when you were in Galilea” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “He is no longer here, because he has been made alive again. Remember what he said to you when there in Galilea.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

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 .

Translation commentary on Luke 24:6 – 24:7

Exegesis:

ouk estin hōde ‘he is not here,’ i.e. in the tomb.

alla ēgerthē ‘but he has risen,’ cf. on 7.14.

mnēsthēte hōs elalēsen humin ‘remembering how he said to you.’ hōs does not refer to the mode of speaking but to what was said.

(V. 7) legōn ton huion tou anthrōpou hoti dei paradothēnai ‘saying that the Son of man must be delivered up.’ ton huion tou anthrōpou, though syntactically the object of legōn, is the subject of paradothēnai. dei denotes the divine compulsion. For the phrase about the Son of man cf. on 9.44.

anthrōpōn hamartōlōn ‘of sinful men.’ Here hamartōlos is used in the meaning ‘wicked,’ ‘evil.’

kai tē tritē hēmera anastēnai ‘and rise on the third day,’ cf. on 9.7.

Translation:

For has risen and rise cf. on 9.7f.

Remember, see on 16.25.

How he told you, or, ‘what (or, the things) he told you,’ ‘his words to you.’ V. 7. may become then, ‘that is, “The Son of man must…” ,’ or, as a new sentence, ‘He said…,’ followed by the verse in indirect or direct discourse.

Still, cf. on 8.49.

(V. 7) For must cf. on 2.49, for delivered into the hands of sinful men on 9.44. Sinful, i.e. ‘evil.’

And be crucified, or, ‘and these will crucify (see on 23.21) him.’

For on the third day see on 9.22.

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.