Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 12:46:
Uma: “While Yesus was still speaking to the many people, his mother arrived with his siblings. They stood outside the house wanting to speak to him.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “While Isa was still speaking to the people, his mother and his brothers arrived outside (the house). They wanted to speak with Isa.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And while Jesus was still talking to the people, his mother and younger brothers arrived. They were waiting for him outside because they had something to say to him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Jesus was still talking to the people when his mother and his siblings/cousins arrived at the house where he was and they had-him -called.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Jesus was still speaking to the crowd when his mother and younger-siblings arrived. They stayed outside, waiting for Jesus because they wanted to talk with him.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Jesus was still speaking with the people when his mother, along with his brothers, arrived. They stood outside, wanting that Jesus be called to speak with them.” (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 ta (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential ta (祂) is used.”
In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one 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 in the following way: “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 the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both 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, hanashiteo-rare-ru (話しておられる) or “speaking” is used.
While he was still speaking: both Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch identify he as Jesus, since a new section begins with this verse.
The verb phrase was still speaking connects this narrative closely to that which precedes it (compare “While he was thus speaking to them” of 9.18); as noted above, this linking formula does not occur in the Marcan parallel (3.31).
Some translations (for example, Barclay) render people with “crowds” or “the crowd.”
Behold (see comments on 1.20) is not represented by any specific word in Good News Translation, Jerusalem Bible, or New English Bible. Other translations have “at that time” or “it happened that.”
Roman Catholic scholars generally interpret Jesus’ brothers to be either “cousins” or “half-brothers” (that is, sons of Joseph by a previous marriage). New American Bible does not provide a note, but Jerusalem Bible does: “Not Mary’s children but near relations, cousins perhaps….” Jerusalem Bible bases its exegesis upon the influence of Hebrew or Aramaic on Matthew’s Greek, since in these two languages “brother” has a wider meaning than in Greek. But, as other scholars observe, the word “brother” is used in John, Acts, and Paul’s letters to refer to Jesus’ relatives, and in each case these writings are addressed to non-Jews who would not understand the word to mean “cousin.” Thus brothers should be retained in the translation, but possibly with an accompanying note if translators want it. Some languages have a word “sibling” that covers males and females. That will perhaps be acceptable, although the Greek word means male sibling. There are a number of languages where the normal way to say brothers is “sons of my (or, his) mother” or “sons of my (or, his) father.” Either is acceptable here.
Stood outside is translated “arrived. They stood outside” by Good News Translation. In English the inclusion of this additional verb is helpful; in other languages it may be obligatory. New English Bible, Jerusalem Bible, and New American Bible each have “appeared,” which somewhat relieves the difficulty. But unless something is done translationally, the reader will conclude either that Jesus’ mother and brothers had been with him during the conflict with the Pharisees, or that they had suddenly made a miraculous appearance out of nowhere. Matthew himself has altered the first part of the verse to make a smoother transition, but he has not resolved the problem of the unannounced appearance of Jesus’ family. “Arrived and were standing outside” is thus a common rendering.
The adverb outside is as ambiguous in Greek as it is in English. One is forced to ask “Outside of what?” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch assumes that Jesus is in a house, and translates “in front of the house,” while An American Translation renders “outside the crowd.” The basis for An American Translation is the mention of the crowds in the earlier part of the verse. On the other hand Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch finds support in 13.1, “That same day Jesus left the house….” The translator must assume either that Jesus is now in the house, and that in 13.1 he first leaves it, or that he is now outside the house but later enters the house, and then later (13.1) leaves it. This is in all probability a question that did not concern Matthew, but if one must be explicit, the simplest solution is that of Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch.
Asking translates a verb which does not necessarily imply verbal action, though it may be used in this sense. The basic meaning of the verb is “seek, look for”; it is translated “wanting” by New English Bible and “anxious” by New Jerusalem Bible. New American Bible leaves the meaning implicit: “appeared outside to speak with him.”
To make the translation of asking smooth and natural, translators can say “they wanted to speak to Jesus,” “they were looking for Jesus so they could speak to him,” or “they were asking to speak to Jesus.” This latter can be in direct speech also: “They asked, ‘We would like to speak with Jesus.’ ”
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 .
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