truly truly - I tell you

The Greek that is often translated in English as “truly, truly, I tell you” or similar is translated in the Russian BTI translation (publ. 2015) as Поверьте Мне (Pover’te Mne) or “trust me.” (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

See also Amen.

Gomorrah

The Hebrew, Greek and Latin that is transliterated as “Gomorrah” in English is transliterated in Mandarin Chinese as émólā (蛾摩拉) in the Protestant tradition. This is an interesting transliteration because the first character é (蛾) has a negative connotation with the meaning of “moth.” This character is only used here in the Protestant Chinese Bible. For many other transliterations the more neutral character 俄 with the same pronunciation is used. (Source: Zetzsche)

complete verse (Matthew 10:15)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 10:15:

  • Uma: “Consider this: at the Kiama Day, the punishment of God punishing those people will surpass his punishment on the villagers of Sodom and Gomora long ago.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Truly I tell you that when the day is reached when God judges mankind, the judgment for the people of that town will be heavier than the judgment for the places Sodom and Gomora, the places well known for the sin of their people.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Don’t you forget this, that in the future on the day of God’s punishing, the punishment on that town will be greater than his punishment long ago on the wicked people who lived in the town of Sodom and the town of Gomorrah.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “This that I say to you is true that when the time-that-God -judges people arrives, the punishment of those who live there will be heavier than the punishment of those-from Sodoma and those-from Gomora.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “This which I will say to you is really true that at the day of judging, much heavier will be the punishment of those people in that town, far more than that experienced by the taga Sodoma and taga Gomorra.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Truly I tell you that on the day when God judges people, these people who pay no attention to you will go through more suffering of punishment than will be suffered by the people who lived in the city of Sodom and the city of Gomorrah.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing his disciples and common people

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

Here, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.

In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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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 choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

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

Translation commentary on Matthew 10:15

Truly, I say to you: see comments on 5.18.

The use of the passive it shall be more tolerable is a typical Jewish way of referring to the action of God without mentioning his sacred name, and so Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch makes the same restructuring as Good News Translation. The phrase be more tolerable can be translated “God will be less harsh in his punishment” or, similar to Good News Bible, “God will be more merciful towards.”

The use of land as a marker for the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah is confusing for the modern reader. It may be necessary to translate “the people of the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah.” (Similarly, that town may be “the people of that town.”) In the Old Testament (Gen 19; see also Isa 1.9), and frequently in the New Testament (Matt 11.22, 24; Luke 17.29; Rom 9.29; 2 Peter 2.6; Jude 7), the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah are depicted as examples of the most sinful towns. But here the rejection of Jesus’ message is described as even more terrible than the sins committed by the people of those towns.

Matthew’s readers were completely familiar with the reputation of Sodom and Gomorrah, but many modern readers will not be, particularly in languages where there is no Old Testament. For this reason some translators say “the wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah” or “those wicked towns of Sodom and Gomorrah.” Some have said “towns of Sodom and Gomorrah that God destroyed because the people were so wicked.”

The day of judgment is clearly a reference to the final judgment; INCL employs a technical term, originally from Islam, but now in everyday usage, which means the final judgment. The day of judgment is usually translated as “the Day when God will judge the world (or, the people of the world”) or “the Day of God’s final judgment of all people.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .