“The word ‘offend’ as a translation of the Greek skandalizó seems to cause all sorts of trouble for translators. The difficulty is that the meaning of this word covers such a wide area. The basic meaning of the Greek is ‘to cause to stumble by putting some impediment in the way.’ The present central meaning of English ‘offend’ is often quite different. In some languages there is no metaphorical value in a translation ‘to cause someone to stumble.’ If the language permits no such metaphor, the translator should not attempt to force it. In Highland Totonac, the metaphor ‘to show the wrong road to’ is used in a manner almost exactly parallel to the Greek idiom.” (Source: Nida 1947)
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 11:6:
Uma: “Blessed are the people who are not uncertain about Me.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “And glad/happy is whoever does not doubt me (lit. does not magduwe-duwe (has two thoughts) towards me).'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus answered, ‘Go back to John and tell him what you’ve seen that I have done and what you’ve heard that I have spoken. What you should tell him is that because of me the blind can already see, the lame can already walk, lepers are cured, and deaf people are now able to hear. I have raised the dead, and I have caused the Good News to be understood by poor people. Far better off is the person who does not doubt that I am the one God sent.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Tell him also that fortunate is the person who has no doubts concerning me.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “The person really can be very happy who isn’t of two minds about me.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “The good fortune will be met by the person whose heart doesn’t turn back from believing in me.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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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.
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®).
Blessed: see comments on 5.3. As we suggest there, a common way to render this is “The man who … is blessed” or “… is in a good position.”
He who takes no offense at me: Jerusalem Bible has “the man who does not lose faith in me,” and New English Bible “the man who does not find me a stumbling block.” Good News Translation, on the other hand, employs a plural: “those who have no doubts about me!” The choice of a singular or plural form for the saying will depend entirely on what is felt natural in the receptor language. The Greek verb form is the same for middle and passive, and so it may mean either “take offense at someone” or “be led into sin (by refusing to believe in someone).”
Following the first meaning of offense may result in a rendering such as “the person who is not offended by me,” “… by who I am,” or “… by what I do.” Following the second meaning would result in translations such as “the person who does not lose faith in me,” “… whose faith in me is not destroyed,” or “… who doesn’t do wrong by refusing to believe in me.” For occurrences of this verb with similar meanings see 13.57; 26.31, 33; Mark 6.3; Luke 7.23.
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 .
In 11:6, Jesus encouraged John and his disciples to continue to believe that he was the Messiah/Christ.
Blessed is the one: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Blessed refers to the good situation/condition that a person is in when a superior person does something good to him. When God does something good to a human being and is kind to him, that person is in a good situation. He is “blessed,” “fortunate,” and “favored.”
Here are some other ways to translate Blessed:
Favored/fortunate
-or-
⌊God⌋ favors/approves
-or-
Joyful/desirable is the situation of
-or-
How good it is for
This word does not primarily refer to a feeling. However, a person in this good situation will frequently have good feelings like happiness and joy. Do not use a word that only refers to material prosperity or physical health. Do not use a word that refers only to being lucky. See also bless, Meaning 2, in the Glossary.
does not fall away on account of Me: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as does not fall away on account of Me means “does not doubt me” or “does not stop believing me.”
Jesus did some things that people did not expect the Messiah to do. And he did not do some things that they expected the Messiah to do. This caused some people to be offended by him. As a result, they began to doubt whether Jesus was the Messiah. Some people rejected and deserted him and refused to believe that he was the Messiah.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
have no doubts about me (Good News Translation)
-or-
doesn’t reject me because of what I do (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
turn away because of me (New Living Translation (2004))
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