different levels of fatherhood

New Testament Greek is by Balinese standards an extremely impolite language. Consider, for example, the second person pronoun. When speaking to God, to a nobleman, to a friend, to a pupil, or to a slave, the same word is used. In Balinese this is completely different. In the above examples one would differentiate various social ranks and use terms which, more or less freely translated, mean “adored one” or “he who is borne on the head”, “feet of Your Highness”, “older (or younger) brother”, “little one”, and “you”. (…) In Balinese one has to cope with three vocabularies within the language, each of which, at a moderate estimate, includes some hundreds of words. One employs the ordinary common language (“Low Balinese”) when speaking with intimates, equals, or inferiors; polite terms must, however, be used as soon as one begins to speak to one’s superiors or to strangers; and “deferential” terms are obligatory in all cases when one is so bold as to speak of parts of the body, or the acts, possessions, and qualities of important people. The Balinese sums up the two last named vocabularies under the term alus (“fine”, or “noble”): we say “High Balinese”. (…)

Joseph and Mary are spoken of as Jesus’ parents, and here the familiar words for “father” and “mother” are appropriate. But when Jesus speaks of being “about my Father’s business” (vs. 49), thus indicating who His true Father is, He uses the High Balinese word adji “father”.

Source: J.L. Swellengrebel in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 124ff.

Jesus' human vs. divine nature in modern Burmese translation

There are three different levels of speech in Burmese: common language, religious language (addressing and honoring monks, etc.), and royal language (which is not in active use anymore). Earliest Bible translations used exclusively royal and religious language (in the way Jesus is addressed by others and in the way Jesus is referred to via pronouns), which results in Jesus being divine and not human. Later editions try to make distinctions.

In the Common Language Version (publ. 2005) the human face of Jesus appears in the narrative of the angel’s message to Joseph and what Joseph did in response (Matthew 1:21-25). The angel told Joseph that Mary was going to give birth to a son, not a prince.

Likewise in Luke 2:6-7 the story of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem is told simply using the Common language. Again in the description of the shepherds’ visit to the baby Jesus (Mark 1:21-25), in the story of Jesus’ circumcision (Luke 2:6-2:7), and in the narrative of the child Jesus’ visit to Jerusalem (Luke 2:46-51), the human face of Jesus comes to the forefront.

On the other hand, the child Jesus is clearly depicted as a royal or a divine child in the story of the wise men (Matthew 2:9-12), the story of the flight to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-14), and the return to Nazareth (Matthew 2:20-21).

(Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )

See also Mary (mother of Jesus).

The 12-year old Jesus in the temple

Hand colored stencil print on washi by Sadao Watanabe (1982).

Image taken with permission from the SadaoHanga Catalogue where you can find many more images and information about Sadao Watanabe. For other images of Sadao Watanabe art works in TIPs, see here.

Following is an image by He Qi:

He Qi © 2021 All Rights Reserved.

Image taken from He Qi Art . For purchasing prints of this and other artworks by He Qi go to heqiart.com . For other images of He Qi art works in TIPs, see here.

The following is an artwork by Vinayak Shivaram Masoji (1897–1977):

“V.S. Masoji is a Bengali Indian artist who studied at Shantiniketan, an artist’s institution founded by the national poet of Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore.” (Source for this and the image: The Bible Through Asian Eyes by Masao Takenaka and Ron O’Grady 1991)

Following is a 1973 painting of the JESUS MAFA project, a response to New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings was selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made, and these were then transcribed to paintings:

Jesus sits in front of some religious leaders listening and asking questions as they listen to him, their astonishment evident in their facial expressions. In the background we see Mary and Joseph approaching, undoubtedly relieved to find their child safe and sound. We are reminded of Jesus’ humanity in this story. He was a child who did not fully consider the feelings of his parents and the consequences of his actions. He grew not only physically, but intellectually and emotionally as well. Through Jesus’ increase in wisdom, we are reminded that we too are called to grow into deeper understanding. And that requires that we ask questions whose answers may challenge our long-held beliefs and theologies.

From Art in the Christian Tradition , a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. Image retrieved March 23, 2026. Original source: librairie-emmanuel.fr.

The following is a stained glass window from Mary Lowndes after William Holman Hunt, made by Lowndes and Drury, 1910. From St Martin & All Saints Church, Oxford:

Photo by the wub, hosted by Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication 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 )

complete verse (Luke 2:49)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 2:49:

  • Noongar: “Jesus said to them both, ‘Why must you two come to this place, looking for me? Didn’t you know that I must be here, in my father’s house?'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “He said to them: ‘Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know that I had to be in the house of my Father!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “‘Why did you search for me?’ said Isa. ‘Didn’t you know that I have to be here in the house of my father?'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus answered, ‘Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know that it was necessary that I would be here in the house of my father?'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘How come? Why were you looking-and-looking-for-me? You should have known that I needed to be here in my Father’s house,’ Jesus said in reply.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Jesus replied, saying, ‘Mother, why were you looking for me? Didn’t you (pl.) know that I have to be here in this house of my Father?'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Japanese honorifics (Luke 2:49)

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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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” and sagas-are-ru (捜される) or “search” are used.

Also, when the referent is God or a person or persons to be greatly honored, the honorific prefix go- (御 or ご) can be used, as in go-zonji (ご存じ), a combination of “know” (zonji) and the honorific prefix go-.

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

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Luke 2:41-52)

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 2:41-52:

Every year Mary and Joseph went to Jerusalem for Passover,
       and when Jesus was twelve, they went there as usual.
After Passover, his parents left,
       not knowing Jesus had stayed on in the city.

They thought he was traveling with friends,
       and they went a whole day before looking for him.

When they could not find Jesus with relatives or friends,
they returned to Jerusalem and for three days
       anxiously searched everywhere.

Finally, they found Jesus in the temple,
listening to the teachers, asking them questions,
       and surprising everyone by his wisdom and knowledge.

“Son, why have you done this to us?” asked his mother.
       “Your father and I’ve been frantically searching for you.”

“Why did you have to search for me?” questioned Jesus.
“Didn’t you know I’d be here in my Father’s house?”
       But they didn’t understand what he meant.

Jesus returned home to Nazareth with his parents,
       and was always obedient to them.
But his mother never stopped thinking about all of this.

As Jesus grew up, he grew wiser and stronger —
       so much so that God and people were pleased with him.

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

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

See also pronoun for “God”.