πλὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι γῇ Σοδόμων ἀνεκτότερον ἔσται ἐν ἡμέρᾳ κρίσεως ἢ σοί.
24But I tell you that on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.”
The name of that is transliterated as “Sodom” in English means “flaming,” “burning,” “mystery.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )
Sodom and the story of its depravity, especially the attempted rape of the visitors to Lot, has come to refer to “sodomy” in many modern languages, including English, and many other European and non-European languages.
See also Onan.
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 Nepali translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and other people with the medium honorific pronoun timīlē (तिमीले) or timīlēharū (तिमीलेहरू). His disciples respond with a high honorific pronoun. (Source: Chitra Chhetri in The Bible Translator 2009, p. 73ff. )
In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 11:24:
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 second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.
In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
See also first person pronoun with low register and third person pronoun with low register.
But I tell you are the words that introduced verse 22. See verse 22 also for proposals regarding the translation of this verse.
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 .
11:24a
But: There is a contrast here. The contrast is between the Jews’ thinking and Jesus’ thinking. The Jews thought that the Gentile people of Sodom were evil, but Jesus indicated that the Jews in Capernaum were worse. The Greek indicates this contrast with a conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as But.
Here are some other ways to translate this conjunction:
But ⌊even though they were bad⌋
-or-
But ⌊even though they never repented⌋
-or-
⌊You may think that they were evil people⌋ but
I tell you that: This clause is exactly the same as the clause in 11:22a. You should translate it here as you did there.
11:24b
This verse should be translated in a similar way to 11:22b.
it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you: This clause compares the suffering of two groups of people. The Gentiles in and around the town of Sodom will suffer. And the Jews of the town of Capernaum will suffer. But the suffering of the Gentile people in Sodom will be more bearable than the suffering of the Jews in Capernaum. God will punish them less than he will punish the Jews of Capernaum.
Here are some other ways to translate this clause:
on the Judgment Day it will be better for Sodom than for you. (New Century Version)
-or-
on Judgment Day, ⌊God⌋ will punish ⌊the people of⌋ Sodom less than he will punish you
-or-
on Judgment Day, the punishment that ⌊God⌋ will give you will surpass the punishment of ⌊the people of⌋ Sodom
the day of judgment: This phrase refers to the time when God will judge all people for the things they have said and done on earth.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
the Judgment Day (Good News Translation)
-or-
the day that ⌊God⌋ judges ⌊all people⌋
-or-
at the time when ⌊God⌋ judges ⌊everyone⌋
This phrase also occurs in 10:15b and 11:22b. You should translate it the same in all places.
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