complete verse (Matthew 13:58)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 13:58:

  • Uma: “That is why Yesus did not do many miracles there, because they did not believe.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Isa did not do many wonder-causing deeds in his place because the people there did not believe in him.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “That’s why the miracles which he showed there were not very many, because they had no belief in him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “And due to their not believing in him, he did not do many amazing-things there.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well since it was like that, Jesus didn’t do many amazing things there, for they didn’t believe in him.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “So he didn’t do many miracles in the town, because his fellow townsmen didn’t believe the words he spoke.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

respectful form of "do" (nasaru)

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 to do this is through the usage of lexical honorific forms, i.e., completely different words, as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.

In these verses, nasaru (なさる), the respectful form of suru (する) or “do” is used. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Matthew 13:58

Did not do is slightly different from the Marcan parallel (6.5), “could not do.”

Mighty works: the same word is used in verse 54; in both instances the meaning is “miracles.”

The noun phrase because of their unbelief may be translated “because they did not believe in him” (Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition “because they rejected him”).

In some languages it will be necessary to reverse the order of the sentence: “They did not believe in him, and for this reason Jesus did not do many miracles there” or “Since they did not believe in him, Jesus did not perform many mighty acts there.”

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 .