Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 11:17:
Uma: “He taught them, he said: ‘Don’t you know what is written in the Holy Book? God said like this: ‘My house will become a prayer house used by people all over the world.’ Yet you [emphatic], you have treated it like the house of robbers!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Isa preached/taught, he said to the people, ‘It is written in the holy-book, God says, ‘My house is called a house for praying (of) all tribes.’ But you,’ said Isa, ‘you have made the house of God like a house for thieves to hide in.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Then he taught the people there, he said, ‘There is a written word of God which says, ‘As for my house, it shall be called a house of prayer for all people of every kingdom.’ But as for you,’ said Jesus, ‘you have made it a place where cheaters live.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Then he taught the many-people and said, ‘It is written in the word of God, ‘My house, it will-be-called a praying-place for people.’ But as for you, you have changed it to a place-where-you -cheat your fellows!'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “And then he taught the people saying, ‘Isn’t it so that it’s contained there in the written word of God, ‘The house where I am worshipped is to be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a nest of thieves!'” (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 ta (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential ta (祂) is used.”
In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one 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 in the following way: “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 the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both 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. ).
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.
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 second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.
In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
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 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” is used.
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®).
autois ‘to them’ is omitted by Westcott and Hort, and Taylor, but retained by all other editions of the Greek text.
Exegesis:
gegraptai (cf. 1.2) ‘it is written,’ ‘Scripture says’: the quotation, from Isa. 56.7, represents Yahweh speaking, so that ‘My house’ of the quotation is ‘God’s house’ (not as though Jesus were claiming the Temple was his own house).
proseuchēs (cf. 9.29) ‘of prayer.’
klēthēsetai ‘shall be called’: a Hebraism for ‘shall be.’
pasin tois ethnesin (cf. 10.33) ‘for all peoples,’ ‘for all nations.’
spēlaion lēstōn ‘a den of robbers,’ ‘a cave of bandits’: the phrase is a reference to another O.T. passage, Jer. 7.11.
Taught may require an object, as it does in so many languages, in which case one may have ‘taught the people.’
Is it not written anticipates a positive answer, but the form may be quite varied, e.g. (1) ‘Is it written…; it surely is so written’; (2) ‘it is written, is it not, of course, …’ and (3) ‘is it not written, no…’ or ‘is it not written, yes….’ It should be noted that in some languages agreement with a sentence introduced by a negative must also be a negative, while in other languages agreement is introduced by a positive – forms which are anticipated in some languages in the very form of the question.
Is it … written involves an awkward passive which because of the anticipatory it, referring to the following direct discourse, must be altered in many languages, e.g. ‘the writings contain, do they not, My house shall….’
House of prayer may be rendered as ‘house where they talk to God’ (Copainalá Zoque, Guerrero Amuzgo). In some instances, however, ‘all the nations’ must be made the subject of the praying, for the prayers are not to be uttered on behalf of all the nations, but the temple is a place where all people may pray, e.g. ‘a house in which people of all the nations may pray.’
Den is a cave, but one with a special purpose, namely, to hide in. In order for the full meaning to be conveyed, in Shipibo-Conibo this added feature must be introduced, e.g. ‘cave … to hide in,’ otherwise one might assume that this was only a providential provision for travelers caught in a rainstorm.
Robbers are not thieves, but those who take away possessions by force.
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.