5While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”
Following is a Ukrainian Orthodox icon of the Transfiguration by Ivan Rutkovych (c. 1650 – c. 1708) (for the Church of Christ’s Nativity in Zhovkva, Ukraine, today in the Lviv National Museum).
Orthodox Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 17:5:
Uma: “While Petrus was still speaking, suddenly a shining cloud came down overshadowing them, and from in that cloud they heard a speaker who said: ‘This is my Child whom I love. He makes-glad my heart. Listen to his words!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then while Petros was still speaking there appeared a light/bright cloud above them and they were overshadowed and there was a voice from the cloud saying, ‘This is my Son whom I really love. I am very pleased with him. Listen to him.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “While he was still speaking, they were covered by a shining cloud, and coming from the cloud they heard someone suddenly speaking, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son. I am very pleased with him. Listen to him.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “While he was still talking, a blinding-bright cloud suddenly-arrived and blocked-them all -from-view. Then there was a voice from the cloud that said, ‘This-one is my child whom I love, who always-satisfies me. Listen to what he says!'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “As Pedro was still speaking, they were overshaddowed by a glistening cloud. That cloud is from-where-seemed-to-come speech which said, ‘This one he is my very-dear Son, who really is my joy/satisfaction. Listen well to him.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Peter was still talking when a cloud covered where they were. The cloud really shone. There was heard then there in the cloud that God was speaking. He said: ‘This one here is my Son whom I love. With him I am pleased. Concerning the words this one will speak, pay attention to them,’ he said.” (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 choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
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®).
There are two problems with pronouns in this verse. Translators have to be sure that the He who is still speaking is Peter, and they also have to decide who them refers to. It seems clear here that all six people were enveloped in the cloud, not just Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. Some translators start the verse with “While Peter was still speaking, a bright cloud came over (all) of them.”
Bright translates the same Greek word used in 6.22 (“full of light”). The bright cloud is a symbol of God’s presence (Exo 13.21-22; 16.10; 19.9). According to 2 Maccabees 2.8, it was expected to reappear in the Messianic Age. Although to speak of a bright cloud may not be normal for some people, the expression can usually be translated easily. “Brilliant cloud,” “very white cloud,” or “white and dazzling cloud” are phrases translators can consider.
Overshadowed: most English translations retain this literal meaning, though Barclay and New International Version have “enveloped,” and Good News Translation has “came over.” Since the cloud is full of light, it seems quite possible that the contextual meaning of the verb should be “covered them with its brightness” rather than “covered them with its shadow.” Elsewhere in the New Testament the verb appears in the parallels of Mark (9.7) and Luke (9.34), and in Luke 1.35; Acts 5.15. Only in the Acts passage does it seem to have its original meaning of “overshadow.” Commentators note that the experience recalls that of Exodus 40.34: “Then the cloud covered the Tent and the dazzling light of the LORD’s presence filled it” (Good News Translation).
The last half of this verse is word-for-word the same as 3.17, except that here from the cloud replaces “from heaven.” See comment at 3.17.
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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