The Greek and Hebrew that are often translated as “miracles” or “miraculous powers” into English are translated as “thing which no one has ever seen before” (San Blas Kuna), “thing marveled at” (Tepeuxila Cuicatec), “breathtaking thing” (Ngäbere), “long-necked thing” (referring to the onlookers who stretch their necks to see) (Huautla Mazatec), “sign done by God’s power” (Mossi), “supernatural power” (Javanese), “thing that has heaven-strength” (Highland Totonac) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida), “amazing thing” (Muna) (source: René van den Berg), “sign no one else could do” (Tenango Otomi) (source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125), or “impossible thing” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter 2004).
The Greek, Ge’ez, Latin and Hebrew that is often translated as “repent” or “repentance” is (back-) translated in various ways (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight):
Embu: “change heart” (“2 Cor. 7:10 says ‘For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.’ In ordinary speech the terms ‘repent’ and ‘regret’ are used interchangeably in Embu, so that this verse comes out as: ‘godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no repentance,’ which is contradictory. The problem was solved by using ‘changing heart’ in the first, and ‘sadness’ in the second.”) (source: Jan Sterk)
Muna: dofetompa’ao dhosa bhe dodoli ne Lahata’ala: “radically-end sin and to turn to God” (source: René van den Berg)
Bacama: por-njiya: “fetch sand” (“Before the coming of Christianity 100 years ago, when the elders went to pray to the gods, they would take sand and throw it over each shoulder and down their backs while confessing their sins. Covering themselves with sand was a ritual to show that they were sorry for what they had done wrong, sort of like covering oneself with sackcloth and ashes. Now idol worship for the most part is abandoned in Bacama culture, but the Christian church has retained the phrase por-njiya to mean ‘repent, doing something to show sorrow for one’s sins’” — source: David Frank in this blog post .)
Enlhet “exchange innermosts.” “Innermost” or valhoc is a term that is frequently used in Enlhet to describe a large variety of emotions or states of mind (for other examples see here). (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )
Isthmus Zapotec: “heart becomes soft” (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Cherokee: “change one’s thinking” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 23)
Sabaot: “give one’s neck” — relating to traditional legal proceedings where someone who is convicted of a crime kneels before the aggrieved person who can either behead the accused or completely forgive (source Danny Foster in this recording )
Kâte: maŋ bârisiezo or “turn the insides around” (source: Renck 1990, p. 108)
Merina Malagasy: fifonana, deriving from mifona “meaning ‘to completely uproot so that something new can grow’ (a term also used for the loss of a baby tooth)” (source: Brigitte Rabarijaona)
“In Tzotzil two reflexive verbs to communicate the biblical concept of repentance are used. Xca’i jba means to know or to reflect inwardly on one’s self. This self inquiry or self examination is similar to the attitude of the prodigal son where Luke 15:17 records that ‘he came to his senses.’ Broke, starving, and slopping hogs, the prodigal admitted to himself that he was in the wrong place. The second reflexive verb ‘jsutes jba’ means turning away from what one is and turning to something else. In a sense, it is deciding against one’s self and toward someone else. It is similar to the attitude of the prodigal son when he said, ‘I will get up and go to my father’ (Luke 15:18).” (source: Aeilts 2009, p. 118)
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 11:20:
Uma: “From there, Yesus admonished/told-off the Yahudi people who lived in the towns in the land of Galilea, because even through he frequently did miracles [lit., astonishing things] in their towns, they still did not repent from their evil character.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then Isa began to scold the people of the towns where he had done many of his miracles/wonder-causing works, because they did not change their livers.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Then Jesus criticized the people in the towns where he had shown many miracles because they didn’t have done with their sins.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Then Jesus scolded those who resided in the towns where he had done most of the amazing-things, because they did not repent of their sins.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “And then Jesus rebuked the people in the towns where he had done many amazing things. He rebuked them because they hadn’t repented and dropped/given-up their sins.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Jesus began to reprimand the manner of living of the people who lived in the towns where he had done many miracles. Because the people did not want to separate from the evil in which they lived. He said:” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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. ).
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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, hajime-rare-ru (始められる) or “start” is used.
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®).
Notice that, since this does begin a new paragraph, the pronoun he is usually replaced by “Jesus.”
Upbraid (Good News Translation “reproached”) translates the verb rendered “revile” by Revised Standard Version and “insult” by Good News Translation in 5.11. Here it can be expressed as “say they were wrong,” “condemn,” or “accuse of being wrong.” In some languages it is possible to say Jesus is condemning the cities, but often “people of the cities” will be better.
Cities, as in the other places we have seen, is more naturally “towns,” to contrast them with the really large places like Jerusalem.
Where most of his mighty works had been done is altered to an active by Good News Translation: “where Jesus had performed most of his miracles.” For comments on mighty works, see 7.22.
The cities … because they did not repent: in many languages it will not be possible to speak of cities repenting; instead one must say “the people of the cities.” Repent here means “turn from their sins” or “turn to God” (see comments on 3.2). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates this part of the verse “Then Jesus began to say harsh things about the places … and still the people there had not changed.”
Then marks a transition and may be rendered “At that time” or “After that.” However, since there is a clause introduced by because at the end of the verse, translators must find a good way to handle Then and because naturally in the same sentence. One way is “At that time, Jesus began to condemn the people in the cities where he had performed most of his miracles. He did that because those people refused to turn from their sins.” However, many languages find it more natural to reverse the order of the verse in a manner similar to Good News Translation; for example, “In the towns where Jesus had performed most of his mighty actions, people did not change their lives. So Jesus began at that time to accuse those people of being wrong.”
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 this section, Jesus rebuked the Jews of certain towns. They had heard him preach and had seen him do miracles, but still they refused to repent and believe in him. Jesus stated that many Gentiles were more likely to trust him than the Jews were. As a result, God will judge these Jews more harshly than he will judge the Gentiles. Jesus said these things because he hoped that some of them would be shamed into repenting and believing him.
Here are some other possible headings for this section:
Jesus warns the Jews of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum
-or-
Judgment for the Unbelievers (New Living Translation (2004))
Paragraph 11:20–24
11:20a
Then: This verse is the beginning of a new story/section. The events in this section probably happened immediately after the events in the preceding section. The Greek text introduces this story with the conjunction normally translated as Then.
Here are some other ways to translate this:
Immediately after that
-or-
After that
In some languages, a time word or phrase is not necessary. Introduce this story in a natural way in your language.
Jesus began to denounce: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as denounce means “say that someone/something is evil” or “say that someone has done something wrong.” The people of these cities saw Jesus’ miracles, but they did not repent. So he reprimanded them.
Here are some other ways to translate this verb:
rebuke
-or-
criticized (New Century Version)
-or-
scold
the cities: The phrase the cities is a figure of speech. It refers to the people of the cities. For example:
The people in the towns (Good News Translation)
This phrase refers to either towns or cities. They are larger and more important than villages, which is a different Greek word. The Jewish towns of Galilee most likely had less than three thousand people in each town. Do not use a word that refers only to large, modern cities of today.
11:20b
in which most of His miracles had been performed: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as miracles can also be translated as “mighty works” (as in the English Standard Version). These are unusual events which can only be explained as a special action by God.
Here is another way to translate this clause:
in which he had done many of his miracles (NET Bible)
11:20c
they did not repent: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as repent refers in a general way to changing one’s mind. In this context, it refers to changing one’s mind about sin and God. It means to stop sinning and begin to obey God.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
they hadn’t turned from their sins and turned to God (New Living Translation (1996))
-or-
the people refused to turn to God (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
the people did not change their lives and stop sinning (New Century Version)
-or-
they did not leave/abandon the ways of sin and follow the ways of God
This word also occurs in 3:2a and 4:17b. You should translate it here as you did there.
General Comment on 11:20a–c
It may be clearer in your translation to have the clause with “denounce” near the words he used to denounce them (in 11:21–24). For example:
bThe people of the cities where Jesus had done most of his miracles cdid not repent, aso he began to denounce them ⌊saying⌋:
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