complete verse (Matthew 10:39)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 10:39:

  • Uma: “Whoever lets go of his own desires and follows me even if he is killed, he is the one who receives good life. But he who holds onto his own desires, he will not receive good life.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “If a person loves/values his life, he has no everlasting life. But if a person does not love/value his life and submits to dying because of his steadfastly following me, he has everlasting life.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “He who sets his heart on his life here in the world, it will, by contrast, be taken away from him. But he who obeys my commands even if they are the death of him, he will be given life forever.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Because the one who values himself, he will die just the same but the one who dies because of his faith in me, he has life that has no end.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For the one who really values his life, it will be lost to him, but the one who holds-fast-to me even if it will cause his life/breath to be severed, life which is far-from-ordinary really will be his.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The person who goes back, being afraid that he will be killed, is the person who will lose his soul. But the person who never goes back even though he be killed, this is the person who will save his soul.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

he who, whoever

The Greek that is typically translated with a generic expressions such as “he who,” “whoever,” or “if anyone” in English is translated with the plural form (“they”) in Daga. “A literal translation of these conveys the idea that one specific unnamed individual is being discussed. Thus, for instance, in John 5:24 ‘he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life’ meant in Daga that there was one fortunate individual to whom it applied.”

See also love your neighbor as yourself.

1st person pronoun referring to God (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 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.

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

See also pronoun for “God”.

Translation commentary on Matthew 10:39

A parallel to this verse occurs in Luke 17.33, with the exception that Luke does not include for my sake. On the meaning of for my sake, see comments on verse 18.

Finds, a literal rendering of the Greek verb, may also have the meaning indicated by Good News Translation: “tries to gain.” Certainly to translate finds literally can result in a wrong understanding. Nothing has been lost. “Tries to keep” or “tries to save” is better.

Life (so most modern translations) may also have the meaning of “soul” or “person”; in Luke 12.19-20, 22-23 there are four occurrences of the word which parallel its usage here. New English Bible has “by gaining his life a man will lose it,” Barclay “to find your life is to lose it,” New American Bible “he who seeks only himself brings himself to ruin.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “Whoever tries to hold on to his life will lose it,” and Malay common language version has “Whoever places supreme importance on his own life will never experience true life.”

This rendering in Malay common language version of lose it as “will never experience true life” is a very helpful model. Lose it does not mean “he will die” but rather “will not have true life.”

And he who loses his life for my sake will find it states the opposite of the first clause. As one commentator notes: “… to ‘lose one’s life’ could mean ‘to die a violent death’ because of one’s faithfulness in following Christ; but it seems more likely that it vividly denotes self-denial….” Malay common language version translates “but whoever denies himself because of me will experience true life,” and for the first part of the sentence INCL has “whoever loses his life because of faithfulness to me.” The idea of self-denial seen in loses his life sometimes has to be rendered as “does not consider himself important” or “does not consider his life of great value.”

Will find it may be translated “will gain eternal life” or “… true life.”

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Matthew 10:39

10:39a–b

This verse is similar to Luke 9:24 and Luke 17:33. If you have already translated Luke, you may want to look there for ideas in translating this verse.

10:39a

Whoever finds his life: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible literally translates as finds in this context means “tries to save” or “wants to protect/preserve.” It does not mean that something was lost and then found. This clause refers to someone who is not willing to suffer and die for Jesus (10:38). Instead, he wants to save/preserve his earthly life. He tries to escape persecution and being a martyr.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

The person who tries to preserve his life (God’s Word)
-or-
If you try to save your life (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
If you cling to your life (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
The person who tries to protect/guard his life ⌊instead of following me⌋

will lose it: The phrase lose it refers to losing true life, that is, life with God that lasts forever. The person will fail to experience that life either here on earth or in heaven after he dies. He will eventually lose his physical life because no one can live forever. He will also lose the opportunity to gain true life with God.

In some languages, a literal translation of lose may imply that a person misplaces something and is unable to find it. It may also imply that a person who already has eternal life will lose it. Be careful to avoid both these implications.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

will not get true life
-or-
will not receive eternal life

10:39b

and: There is a contrast here. The contrast is between losing one’s life (10:39a) and finding it (10:39b). Some versions indicate this contrast with the conjunction “but.” For example:

but (Good News Translation)

whoever loses his life for My sake will find it: This clause indicates that the person who is willing to suffer and die for Jesus will gain eternal life with God in heaven.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

but the person who loses his life for me will preserve it (God’s Word)

-or-

but if you die because of me, you will get eternal life

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