Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 12:19:
Uma: “He does not argue/retort, he does not cry out, he does not make loud his speaking in the main-road.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “He will not quarrel/fight or shout and he will not speak loudly on the roads.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “He will not argue. He will not also talk loudly. He will never be heard making a speech on the streets of the town.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “He will not join-in-arguing and shout, nor will he raise (lit. make-strong/loud) his voice in the streets of the town.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “He really won’t quarrel. He’s not always raising his voice. He also will not be shouting loudly in the streets.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “This one is not one who wants fights. He will not shout when he talks. Nowhere will be heard that he talks loudly in the town.” (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 the closely related 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. ).
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®).
He will not wrangle or cry aloud (Good News Translation “He will not argue or shout”) is slightly different from the Hebrew text, which is “He will not shout or raise his voice.” This statement about the Messiah fits well in Matthew’s context. Jesus has been verbally attacked by the Pharisees, and they have even decided to kill him, but he withdraws and refuses to argue with them or shout about what he is doing.
Wrangle (also Moffatt and An American Translation) occurs only here in the New Testament. It is possible, as some commentators suggest, that the word may be intended as a legal technical term. The meaning would then be “defend one’s self” or “present one’s own case.” Translations, however, do not seem to reflect this interpretation. New Jerusalem Bible has “brawl,” New English Bible “strive,” Good News Translation “argue.” Barclay combines the two verbs, “He will not be a loud-mouthed man of strife.” Translators who understand wrangle as Good News Translation has will use words like “dispute,” or “quarrel,” or “disagree violently with people.” Note that in many languages one must argue with someone, “with people” in a context like this.
The word translated cry aloud may mean either “cry out for help” or “cry out with excitement.” Or it may assume a more neutral function, as with “shout” in English (so Good News Translation, Jerusalem Bible, Moffatt, New English Bible). Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition is similar to Good News Bible, but the translators evidently intend a play on words: streiten oder schreien. Cry aloud does not refer to just one event but rather to habitual action, as in “He won’t go about making a lot of noise,” “He won’t always be shouting loudly,” or “He won’t be a person who shouts a lot.”
Nor will any one hear his voice appears in a quite different form in Good News Translation (“make loud speeches”), though both structures have the same two kernel sentences: “he speaks” and “someone hears.” Most English translations maintain the form of the Greek text, though New English Bible and New American Bible shift to the passive “nor will his voice be heard….” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders “he will not make loud speeches.”
Translators can follow either model for hear his voice, the one with the emphasis on other people hearing, or the other with the emphasis on him speaking. The former will result in translations such as “people won’t be hearing him on every street corner” or “the public won’t be hearing him out in the streets.” The latter will result in “he won’t be out in the streets making speeches” or “he won’t be speaking loudly and publicly out in the towns all the time.”
In the streets identifies the place of speaking as being public rather than private. Many languages can express this idiomatically. Note that in the streets has been rendered in these examples as “on every street corner” and “in the towns,” as well as literally.
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 .
He will not quarrel: The word quarrel means “argue with some degree of anger.” Jesus certainly disagreed with the Pharisees and used strong words with them. But when they disagreed with him and wanted to kill him, he left them. He did not quarrel with them.
cry out: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as cry out means “shout” or “scream.” It means that he will not make a lot of noise. The word cry here in English does not mean “weep.”
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
shout (Good News Translation)
-or-
yell (Contemporary English Version)
12:19b
no one will hear His voice in the streets: This clause is a figure of speech. It means that Jesus will not speak loudly in public simply to attract attention to himself. It refers to the fact that he will be humble and gentle. He will be the opposite of the hypocrites in Matthew 6:5 who pray on the street corners to be seen by men.
It does not mean that he will never speak in public.
Here are some other ways to translate this expression:
he will not speak with a loud voice in public places
-or-
make loud speeches in the streets (Good News Translation)
-or-
he will not draw attention to himself in public
in the streets: This phrase means “in public.” In Jesus’ time, the streets were loud, noisy places. If the term you normally use for streets is not a busy place, you may need to use a term where lots of people often gather. For example:
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