complete verse (Matthew 12:13)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 12:13:

  • Uma: “After that, Yesus said to the person whose one hand was dead: ‘Extend your (sing.) hand.’ He extended his hand, it immediately got well, it was strong again like his other hand.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “So-then he said to the person with a crippled hand, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ Na, he stretched it out, so-then his hand was well like his other hand.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Then Jesus said to the man whose ligaments in one of his arms were dead, he said, ‘Stretch your hand out here.’ And the person stretched out his hand, and immediately his hand was healed. And there was no difference; it was like his other arm.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Then he said to the one with the atrophied arm/hand, ‘Stretch-out your (sing.) arm/hand.’ He stretched-it-out and it was totally well like his other arm/hand.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “And then Jesus said to that man with the useless (hand/arm), ‘Raise-and-stretch-out your arm.’ He truly did raise-and-stretch it, at the same time the uselessness got completely better, so it was just like his other hand/arm.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Jesus said to the man with the crippled hand: ‘Stretch out your hand now,’ he said. The man then stretched out his hand, and at once the hand was healed, becoming like his other hand.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Honorary "are" construct denoting God ("say")

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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 are (され) 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, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.

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

Translation commentary on Matthew 12:13

Then he said to the man is significantly shorter than the parallel in Mark 3.5, which begins “Jesus was angry as he looked around at them, but at the same time he felt sorry for them, because they were so stubborn and wrong.”

The man is identified by Good News Translation as “the man with the paralyzed hand” because he has not been mentioned since verse 10.

Stretch out your hand is the rendering of most translations; New English Bible has “Stretch out your arm.” Stretch out can also be “Reach out” or “Extend.” As indicated in verse 10, the Greek word may mean either hand or “arm.”

This can also be put in indirect speech, as in “Then he ordered the man to stretch out his hand (that was paralyzed).”

And the man stretched it out translates one word in Greek, a participle which mentions neither the subject (the man) nor the object (it). Many languages will demand that the object be specified as either “it” or “the hand,” though they will allow for the identification of the man by a pronoun (“he”).

And it was restored represents the root meaning of the Greek verb. However, the verb may also be used as a medical term meaning “cure,” which is much more satisfactory in the context; see New English Bible (“and it was made sound again”) and Good News Translation: (“and it became well again”).

Matthew uses and twice in this verse as a marker of continuity. It relates events that are happening one after the other. In many languages the first occurrence here will be best rendered by “so” or perhaps will be dropped, but the second will in all likelihood be retained.

Whole like the other is made into a complete statement by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch: “and it became as sound as the other.”

Whole does not mean “complete,” as if it were not all there before. Rather, in this context it means “healthy” or “well,” or even “strong.”

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 12:13

12:13a–b

Stretch out your hand: With this clause, Jesus commanded the man to extend his arm so that his hand was out in front of him.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

Extend your hand
-or-
Reach out your hand
-or-
Hold out your hand (Contemporary English Version)

12:13c

restored: This word means “brought back to the original good condition.” The man’s hand became completely healthy again.

Here are some other ways to translate this word:

healed/cured
-or-
well again (New Century Version)
-or-
normal again (God’s Word)

just like the other: The Greek has a word before this phrase that the Berean Standard Bible leaves untranslated because its meaning is similar to “restored.” Some other English translations translate the word, which means “well” or “healthy.” For example:

healthy like the other (English Standard Version)

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