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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 rare (られ) 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, kiteo-rare-ru (来ておられる) or “has come” 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 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®).
After hē mētēr sou ‘your mother’ Tischendorf, Nestle, Soden, Vogels, and Kilpatrick add kai hai adelphai sou ‘and your sisters’: this clause is omitted by Textus Receptus, Westcott and Hort, Taylor, Lagrange, Merk, Revised Standard Version. Since the manuscript evidence is not decisive one way or the other, internal evidence will determine whether or not the words should be included.
Exegesis:
idou (cf. 1.2) ‘look,’ ‘see’: should not be omitted (as is done by Revised Standard Version).
exō zētousin se ‘outside they are asking for you.’
exō ‘outside’: ordinarily taken with ‘mother and brothers’: ‘your mother and brothers are outside.’ Moffatt, however, joins it to the verb, ‘wanting you outside.’
zēteō ‘search for,’ ‘ask,’ ‘request’: here in the latter sense of ‘asking,’ ‘wanting’: they were not looking for him since they knew him to be there. In Mark zēteō is used in both ways: (1) ‘search for,’ ‘seek’ (1.37; 14.55; 16.6); with the idea of ‘examine,’ ‘consider’ (11.18; 14.1, 11); (2) ‘want,’ ‘request,’ ‘ask’ (3.32; 8.11, 12); with the idea of ‘attempt,’ ‘try’ (12.12).
Translation:
Though the equivalent of Greek idou ‘behold,’ ‘look,’ ‘pay attention’ should be rendered in some manner, it is not always easy to find just the right introductory particle. Probably, the meaning here is really not ‘look,’ but rather a kind polite way in which the crowd could interrupt Jesus, in order to call his attention to the request of mother and brothers. One must choose a form which would be appropriate for the context, e.g. ‘listen’ (Tzeltal), ‘but listen’ (Shilluk).
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 .
and a crowd was sitting around Him: This clause indicates that many people were sitting around Jesus. They had been listening to his teaching. In some languages it may be necessary to make that explicit. For example:
Many people were sitting around him listening to his teaching
around: The word around indicates that people surrounded Jesus on many sides.
3:32b
Look: In Greek this part of the verse begins with a word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Look. It indicates that the people wanted Jesus to stop teaching and listen to what they intended to tell him.
Here is another way to translate this:
Listen!
Some translations do not translate this word because it is not common English style for this context. Consider whether there is a similar expression in your language that would be natural to say to a teacher in a context like this.
He was told: The Greek clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as He was told introduces what the people said to Jesus. In some languages an indirect quote may be more natural here. See the General Comment on 3:32b–d for examples.
This is a passive clause. The people in the crowd sitting around Jesus were the ones who told him the message. Here are some ways to translate it:
• Use a passive verb. For example:
he was told by people in the crowd
• Use an active verb. For example:
people in the crowd told him
Your mother and brothers are outside: There is a textual issue in this part of the verse:
(1) Some Greek manuscripts have Your mother and brothers. These manuscripts do not mention sisters. For example, the Revised Standard Version says:
Your mother and your brothers are outside (Revised Standard Version)
(New International Version, Berean Standard Bible, Revised Standard Version, God’s Word, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English, New American Standard Bible, NET Bible, New Century Version, Revised English Bible, King James Version)
(2) Some Greek manuscripts have Your mother and your brothers and your sisters. For example, the New Revised Standard Version says:
Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside (New Revised Standard Version)
(Good News Bible, Contemporary English Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New Living Translation, 1996 edition, New Revised Standard Version).
It is recommended that you follow option (1), as do the majority of English versions, because it has the best manuscript support.
However, if the national language version follows option (2), you may want to consider following it instead. (The UBS4 (page 130) does follow option (2) but gives it a C rating, indicating considerable doubt.)
Your: The pronoun Your refers to Jesus.
mother and brothers: This is the same phrase as in 3:31a. Translate it here in the same way you did there.
outside: The word outside refers to outside the house where Jesus was. See how you translated this in 3:31b.
3:32d
asking for You: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as asking for You indicates here that Jesus’ family wanted him to come outside of the house and talk with them. In some languages an expression like asking for You might wrongly not clearly communicate their request to see him.
Here are some other ways to express the meaning:
they want you (Good News Bible) -or-
and want to see you (Contemporary English Version) -or-
asking for you (Revised Standard Version)
General Comment on 3:32b–d
The Berean Standard Bible uses a direct quote for 3:32. In some languages it may be more natural to use indirect speech here. If this is true in your language, you could say:
and they told him that his mother and brothers were outside looking for him -or-
word was brought that his mother and brothers were outside asking for him (Revised English Bible)
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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.
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