sow

The Greek that is translated as “sow” in English is translated in Teutila Cuicatec as “sow wheat.” Unless a specific seed is mentioned, the Teutila Cuicatec reader assumes that it was chili pepper, since this is the only seed that they plant by broadcast sowing. However, since birds do not eat chili seed, nor does it produce such high yields, it was necessary to specify that wheat was sown. (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)

The Parable of the Sower

The parable of The Parable of the Sower is illustrated for use in Bible translations in West Africa by Wycliffe Cameroon like this:

Illustration 1999 Mbaji Bawe Ernest, © Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. Used with permission.

The following artwork is part of a series of 56 paintings on biblical themes by Kazakh artist Nelly Bube (born 1949):

Copyright by Norwegian Bible Society , used with permission.

For other images of Nelly Bube in TIPs, see here.

parable

Click here to view graphically

The Greek that is usually translated as “parable” in English is translated in other languages in a number of ways:

In British Sign Language it is translated with a sign that combines the signs for “tell-a-story” and “compare.” (Source: Anna Smith)


“Parable” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)

Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023) translates it into English as analogy because “the Greek word has the sense of tossing down something alongside something else. Hence an analogy.”

See also image and figures of speech.

complete verse (Matthew 13:3)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 13:3:

  • Uma: “He taught them many kinds of parables, he said: ‘There was a sower who went to sow [lit., scatter].” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “He preached to/taught the people and much (of it) he preached/taught in parables. He said, ‘There was a man who went to his field to broadcast seed.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And by means of parables he taught them many things. He said, ‘There was a person who went to his field because he will plant.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “He taught many things to them parabling. He said, ‘Once, there was a person who went to broadcast-(plant) seed in his swidden/garden.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Jesus again began to teach many things using only illustrations. In beginning, he said, ‘There was a farmer who scattered his planting-seeds.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “He taught the people many words, seeking to make comparisons in the words he spoke. This is how he made comparisons, he said to the people: ‘A man went to sow wheat.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Honorary "rare" construct denoting God ("speak")

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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, kata-rare-ru (語られる) or “speak” is used.

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

pronoun for "God"

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 Kouya, Godié, Northern Grebo, Eastern Krahn, Western Krahn, and Guiberoua Béte, all languages of the Kru family in Western Africa, a different kind of system of pronouns is used (click or tap here to read more):

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. ).

See also first person pronoun referring to God.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Gender of God .

Translation: Chinese

在现代汉语中，第三人称单数代词的读音都是一样的（tā），但是写法并不一样，取决于性别以及是否有生命，即男性为“他”，女性为“她”，动物、植物和无生命事物为“它”（在香港和台湾的汉语使用，动物则为“牠”）。这些字的部首偏旁表明了性别（男人、女人、动物、无生命事物），而另一偏旁通常旁提示发音。

到1930年为止，基督教新教《圣经》经过整整一百年的翻译已经拥有了十几个译本，当时的一位圣经翻译者王元德新造了一个“神圣的”代词“祂”，偏旁“礻”表示神明。一般汉语读者会立即知道这字的发音是tā，而这个偏旁表示属灵的事物，因此他们明白这个字指出，三位一体的所有位格都没有性别之分，而单单是上帝。

然而，最重要的新教圣经译本（1919年的《和合本》）和天主教圣经译本（1968年的《思高圣经》）都没有采用“祂”；虽然如此，许多其他的圣经译本采用了这个字，另外还广泛出现在赞美诗和其他基督信仰的书刊中。（资料来源：Zetzsche）

《吕振中译本》的几个早期版本也使用“祂”来指称“上帝”；这个译本的《新约》于1946年译成，整部《圣经》于1970年完成。克拉默斯（Kramers）指出：“‘他’的这种新写法（即‘祂’）产生了一个小问题，就是在指称耶稣的时候，是否一律使用这个敬语代词？《吕振中译本》遵循的原则是，在称呼耶稣这个人的时候，用一般的‘他’，而在称呼耶稣神性的时候，特别是升天之后的耶稣，则用尊称‘祂’。”

Translator: Simon Wong

Translation commentary on Matthew 13:3

As above in Matthew 13.2, And shows continuity. “Then” or “At that time” will serve just as well. Some languages do not need any word at all.

He told them many things in parables (Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition “He explained to them his message with the help of parables”): the Greek word translated parable literally means “comparison,” but its meaning is best derived from the Hebrew word which it translates in the Septuagint. Except in five instances, it always translates the same Hebrew word, which has a wide range of meanings: proverb, byword, allegory, fable, comparison, riddle, and parable. In recent years much scholarly research has been done on parables, and it is now the consensus that each parable is intended to convey only one point which concerns some aspect of the Kingdom of God. Jesus was not alone in the use of parables. Jewish teachers often used them, but as a rule they place parable and interpretation side by side. But Jesus did not provide the explanation along with the parable; instead he demanded of his hearers that they discern the truth of what he was saying, and that they respond accordingly.

A major problem in the interpretation of the parables is the realization that they reflect both the context in which Jesus lived and the contexts in which the authors of the Gospels wrote. Jesus’ parables were so powerful, and the forms made them so easily remembered, that they were readily taken over by the authors of the Gospels and applied to their own life situations in much the same way that happens in pulpits today. This makes it extremely difficult to uncover the “original” meaning that a parable may have had before the time that it was placed in a particular Gospel. Moreover, since the circumstances that gave rise to one Gospel differ from those which produced another Gospel, the meaning of a parable will vary according to the context in which it is placed by the author of the Gospel. Therefore a significant clue to the interpretation of the parables of this chapter is the arrangement which they have in relation to one another and to the total Gospel of Matthew.

Many languages have stories that teach, and translators should note how their language refers to these when rendering parables. Sometimes one word covers both “parables” and “proverbs.” In other cases a short phrase such as “stories that teach” or “stories with lessons” conveys the meaning.

This sentence can be restructured if necessary; for example, “He told them many parables to teach them things” and “He used parables to teach them his message” are examples. Instead of saying, most languages will more naturally have “he said.”

A sower went out to sow begins in Greek with “Behold” (see comments on 1.20), which reflects a natural way to introduce a story in Semitic Greek. Good News Translation shifts to a more acceptable introductory formula in English: “Once there was a man….” In other cases “There was a man” or “It happened once that a man” will serve to introduce the man. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, New American Bible, New International Version correctly define the sower as a “farmer.” This is helpful, too, in areas of the world where farmers plant seeds rather than sow them by scattering them. The sentence can begin “There was a farmer who….”

Went out can be rendered “went out to his fields” or “… to his farm.”

The matter of sowing has to be dealt with, since the farmer did sow. This is a way of planting seeds by scattering them over soil that has been hoed or otherwise turned and made ready for growing crops. A common rendering is “to plant crops by scattering (or, throwing) seeds on the field.” After the first occurrence in a narrative, this can be shortened to “scatter seed” or “throw seed.”

The Greek text does not explicitly define what it was the man went out to sow, but on the basis of the following verses it was obviously some sort of grain, and Good News Translation has made this information explicit: “to sow grain.” It is possible that a language which has no term for “grain” in general may also require an object for the verb sow. In the Palestinian situation the grain would have been either wheat or barley. Wheat was the favorite of the two grains, but barley was also grown, especially for animals, and it was quite frequently the grain of the poor. If wheat or barley are not known, then “seed” or “food crops” are common general words that languages use.

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 .