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 benefactive construction as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. Here, goran (ご覧) or “see/behold/look” (itself a combination of “behold/see” [ran] and the honorific prefix go- — see behold / look / see (Japanese honorifics)) is used in combination with kudasaru (くださる), a respectful form of the benefactive kureru (くれる). A benefactive reflects the good will of the giver or the gratitude of a recipient of the favor. To convey this connotation, English translation needs to employ a phrase such as “for me (my sake)” or “for you (your sake).”
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, okos-are-ru (起こされる) or “raise up / make happen” is used.
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, ik-are-ru (行かれる) or “go” is used.
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®).
ekporeuomenou autou ‘as he was coming out’: cf. 10.17 for another identical use of the present participle denoting action in progress.
ekporeuomai (cf. 1.5) ‘go out,’ ‘leave.’
potapoi (only here in Mark) ‘of what sort’: here as an exclamation, ‘how great!’ ‘how wonderful!’ (cf. 1 Jn. 3.1).
lithoi (cf. 5.5) ‘stones’: these are the sculptured and worked stones of which the Temple was made.
oikodomai (13.2) ‘buildings’: the plural refers to the various buildings in the Temple area.
The other words in this verse have already been dealt with: for hieron ‘temple’ cf. 11.11; heis ‘one’ as an indefinite article cf. 5.22; didaskale ‘teacher’ cf. 4.38; ide ‘see!’ cf. 2.24.
Translation:
He may require substitution by ‘Jesus.’
For temple see 11.11, and for teacher see 2.13.
Said may require translation by ‘exclaimed’ or ‘spoke with amazement’ in order to agree properly with the following sentence.
Wonderful must frequently be rendered by reference to (1) size, e.g. ‘how big’ or (2) appearance, e.g. ‘how beautiful’ or ‘how impressive.’ It is best to avoid the implications of value, or people may think that the stones were gems. More often than not the category of size is the most acceptable equivalent.
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 .
So: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as So is a common connector that is often translated as “and,” as in the Revised Standard Version. It connects a sequence of events in a story. In this context the Berean Standard Bible uses So because it also introduces what Jesus did as a result of what the people told him. Connect this verse to 1:30 in a natural way in your language.
He went to her: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as went to is literally “having approached.” In this context it indicates that Jesus came and stood close to where the woman was lying.
Here are some other ways to translate this clause:
So Jesus approached the place where she was lying -or-
He went to where the woman was
took her by the hand, and helped her up: The phrase took her by the hand, and helped her up means that Jesus grasped one of the woman’s hands in order to help her to sit or stand up.
took her by the hand: In some languages it is necessary to specify whether Jesus grasped the woman’s left hand or right hand. You may choose whatever one would be more appropriate in your language. The Greek text does not specify which hand.
helped her up: The phrase helped her up means that Jesus helped her to rise from a lying position. It is not clear whether he helped her to sit or to stand. If you need to specify one or the other, you should choose “stand.”
1:31b
The fever left her: The phrase The fever left her means that the woman’s body cooled and became normal again, and she was well. The context implies that she became well immediately. The phrase The fever left her may be expressed differently in some languages. For example:
she became healthy -or-
her fever/body cooled
and she began to serve them: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as she began to serve them indicates that the woman served or passed food and drink to them. The Contemporary English Version says:
she served them a meal (Contemporary English Version)
A translation should not imply that she cooked food for them. 1:12b and 1:32a indicate that Jesus healed her on the Sabbath day, and the law of the Jews forbade people to cook food on that day. (A number of scholars comment that the woman prepared a meal, but the TRT (pages 15–16) reminds us of the importance of understanding an event in its historical context. According to the Jewish law, all food to be eaten on the Sabbath day had to be prepared the previous day.)
them: Here the pronoun them refers to Jesus and his disciples.
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.