pronoun for "God"

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 Kouya, Godié, Northern Grebo, Eastern Krahn, Western Krahn, and Guiberoua Béte, all languages of the Kru family in Western Africa, a different kind of system of pronouns is used (click or tap here to read more):

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. ).

See also first person pronoun referring to God.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Gender of God .

Translation: Chinese

在现代汉语中，第三人称单数代词的读音都是一样的（tā），但是写法并不一样，取决于性别以及是否有生命，即男性为“他”，女性为“她”，动物、植物和无生命事物为“它”（在香港和台湾的汉语使用，动物则为“牠”）。这些字的部首偏旁表明了性别（男人、女人、动物、无生命事物），而另一偏旁通常旁提示发音。

到1930年为止，基督教新教《圣经》经过整整一百年的翻译已经拥有了十几个译本，当时的一位圣经翻译者王元德新造了一个“神圣的”代词“祂”，偏旁“礻”表示神明。一般汉语读者会立即知道这字的发音是tā，而这个偏旁表示属灵的事物，因此他们明白这个字指出，三位一体的所有位格都没有性别之分，而单单是上帝。

然而，最重要的新教圣经译本（1919年的《和合本》）和天主教圣经译本（1968年的《思高圣经》）都没有采用“祂”；虽然如此，许多其他的圣经译本采用了这个字，另外还广泛出现在赞美诗和其他基督信仰的书刊中。（资料来源：Zetzsche）

《吕振中译本》的几个早期版本也使用“祂”来指称“上帝”；这个译本的《新约》于1946年译成，整部《圣经》于1970年完成。克拉默斯（Kramers）指出：“‘他’的这种新写法（即‘祂’）产生了一个小问题，就是在指称耶稣的时候，是否一律使用这个敬语代词？《吕振中译本》遵循的原则是，在称呼耶稣这个人的时候，用一般的‘他’，而在称呼耶稣神性的时候，特别是升天之后的耶稣，则用尊称‘祂’。”

Translator: Simon Wong

respectful form of "say/speak" (ossharu )

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 to do this is through the usage of lexical honorific forms, i.e., completely different words, as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, ossharu (おっしゃる), the respectful form of iu (言う) or “say / speak” is used.

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

Translation commentary on Mark 5:30 – 5:31

Exegesis:

epignous en heautō (cf. 2.8 epignous … tō pneumati autou) ‘perceiving in himself,’ ‘sensing in himself.’

tēn ex autou dunamin exelthousan ‘the power from him which had gone out’: the meaning here, clearly, is ‘sensing that (the) power had gone out from him.’ Taylor, however, following Swete, argues that ex autou ‘from him’ is an additional statement concerning the power that resided in Jesus, and defends the American Standard Version rendition ‘the power proceeding from him had gone forth.’ As Field points out, however, what is said is not that Jesus was conscious of his power: he was conscious that it had gone forth. This is the meaning that practically all modern translations give to the phrase.

dunamis ‘power,’ ‘strength’ is used in Mark in three ways: (1) in the sense of ‘power’ as such, 5.30; 9.1; 12.24; 13.26; (2) with the meaning ‘miracle’: in the sg. 6.5; 9.39, in the pl. 6.2, 14 (3) personalized, 13.25 (‘the powers in the heavens’) and 14.62 (‘the Power,’ i.e. God).

epistrapheis (cf. 4.12) ‘turning,’ ‘turning around’ – here in a physical sense.

sunthlibonta (v. 24) ‘pressing,’ ‘crowding,’ ‘jostling.’

Translation:

Power must be translated with care, since a literal rendering may result in bad distortion of the meaning of the passage. For example, in Loma (Liberia) a literal rendering would denote that Jesus had lost his strength, i.e. had become helpless. In another language, this expression about ‘power going out of a person’ is a euphemistic, but common, way of speaking about the male function in sexual intercourse. In some languages, therefore, certain adaptations must be made, e.g. ‘person-heal-power’ (Loma (Liberia)) and ‘medicinal power,’ in which ‘medicinal’ means essentially ‘healing’ (Tabasco Chontal), and ‘know-how’ (Highland Oaxaca Chontal) in which one must use ‘know-how’ rather than literally ‘power’ or ‘strength,’ for the latter would be equivalent to saying that having lost his strength, he could do nothing in the future, until this was magically recovered – a parallel to common practices in witchcraft. Pamona renders ‘a miracle-power had gone out from Him,’ a precise and accurate expression.

It is not easy to render the obvious irony in the voice of the disciples who exclaim and yet you say…. This may be approximated in some languages by employing a double question, e.g. ‘You see the crowd pressing around you; then how can you say, Who touched me?’ Cf. Toraja-Sa’dan ‘But you see that the crowd is pressing round you, and then you say….’

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 .

SIL Translator's Notes on Mark 5:31

5:31a

His disciples answered: Some translations place the phrase his disciples answered after what they said. In the Greek text, it comes before the speech begins. Place it where it is most natural in your language.

disciples: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as disciples means “learners” who are in a relationship with a teacher. The learners commit themselves to their teacher in order to learn from him and live according to his teaching and example. In the New Testament disciples often lived with their teacher and followed him wherever he went.

Here are some other ways to translate disciples:

• Use a term that refers to people who learn from a teacher or an expert. It is helpful if the term also implies that the learners are often with their teacher. For example:

learners/students
-or-
apprentices

Be careful not to use a term that would refer only to a student in a school or classroom.

• Use a term that refers to people who follow a teacher or leader by obeying his teaching. It is helpful if this term also implies learning from the teacher and actually following the teacher wherever he goes. For example:

followers
-or-
those who are committed/faithful (to a teacher/leader)

See how you translated this term in 2:15b. See also disciple in the Glossary.

answered: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as answered is literally “said.” In some languages a word like “said” may be more natural than “answered” because the disciples did not really answer the question “Who touched me?”

pressing in on You: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as pressing in on is the same one that was translated “pressed around” in 5:24b. See how you translated it there.

5:31b

and yet You ask, ‘Who touched Me?’: In 5:31b the disciples asked a rhetorical question about Jesus’ real question in 5:30b. In their question the disciples repeated what Jesus had asked (but changed the words “my clothes” to the word Me).

The disciples used this rhetorical question to express their surprise at what Jesus had asked. There were so many people crowding around Jesus that his question seemed strange or unnecessary.

There are at least two ways to translate this rhetorical question.

• As a rhetorical question. For example:

And yet do you ask, “Who touched me?”
-or-
Why do you ask, “Who touched me?”
-or-
How can it be that you ask such a question as “Who touched me?”

• As a statement. For example:

It is very strange that you should ask “Who touched me?”
-or-
We do not understand why you ask “Who touched me?”

Use whichever form is most natural in your language for this kind of restatement.

In some languages it may be more natural to make 5:31b into an indirect question. For example, the Contemporary English Version says:

How can you ask who touched you?

In some languages, “touching” a man or woman is a euphemism for sex. If this is true in your language, you may rephrase the disciples’ words to repeat the words that Jesus used in his question. For example:

…touched my clothes?

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