The Unforgiving Servant

Following is a 1973 painting of the JESUS MAFA project, a response to New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings was selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made, and these were then transcribed to paintings:

From Art in the Christian Tradition , a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. Image retrieved March 23, 2026. Original source: librairie-emmanuel.fr.

complete verse (Matthew 18:32)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 18:32:

  • Uma: “Hearing that earlier, the king became angry. He ordered people to go call that slave whose behavior was evil. When he arrived, he said to him: ‘You (sing.) are very evil! Your (sing.) debt I wiped our of my books, because you (sing.) pleaded-for-mercy to me.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Therefore the sultan commanded the servant who had the great debt to come to him again. ‘You are really wicked/a fool,’ he said. ‘I told you, surprise, you need not pay your debt because you asked me to have pity.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And the king called that servant, and he said, ‘You are a wicked slave. I forgave you, and I removed from you the debt just because you begged me.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘Whereupon the king had-that official of his -called and he said to him, ‘Your (sing.) behavior is bad (strong rebuke)! I canceled (lit. set-aside) your (sing.) debt because you (sing.) entreated me.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “When that king knew, he at once sent for (him). On arriving, he said, ‘You, your nature/ways are really evil! I just wrote-off-as-paid the whole of your debt because you begged me for mercy.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The boss then ordered for that one to be called again and he said to him: ‘You evil man. Here I forgave you all the money you owed me to do you the favor you asked.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

self-referencing pronoun for king or queen

In Malay, the pronoun beta for the royal “I” (or “my” or “me”) that is used by royals when speaking to people of lower rank, subordinates or commoners to refer to themselves in these verses. This reflects the “language of the court because the monarchy and sultanate in Malaysia are still alive and well. All oral and printed literature (including newspapers and magazines) preserve and glorify the language of the court. Considering that the language of the court is part of the Malaysian language, court language is used sparingly where appropriate, specifically with texts relating to palace life.” (Source: Daud Soesilo in The Bible Translator 2025, p. 263ff.)

2nd person pronoun with low register (Japanese)

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 choice of a second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.

In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also first person pronoun with low register and third person pronoun with low register.

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Matthew 18:21-35)

Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Matthew 18:21-35:

“Forgiveness times seven is surely enough
       to offer anyone who offends me,” said Peter.

“Try seven times that amount!” answered Jesus,
“and listen to this story about the Ultimate Kingdom.”

       The CEO of a big corporation called in his employees
              to account for their use of the company funds.
       One of them came up fifty million dollars short,
              and he was broke.

       “His wife and children are just as guilty,” said the CEO.
       “Lock all of them up and throw away the key,
               until he pays back every cent he owes.”

       But the man begged for mercy
       and swore he’d repay every cent.
              So the soft-hearted CEO forgave his debt.

       On the way out of the office, the man happened to meet
              an office boy who owed him a measly fifty bucks.
       With his hands around the throat of he boy, he shouted,
              “Pay me every cent you owe!”

       The boy begged for mercy and swore to repay every cent.
       But there was no mercy, and the boy was thrown into jail
              until he could repay the full amount.

       Some other employees found out what had happened,
       and they reported the matter to the CEO,
              who called the man in and said, “You’re evil!
       When you begged for mercy, I forgave every penny.
              Isn’t that what you should have done for this boy?
       I’ll have your hide for this!
       You, your wife, and your family of four
              will perish impoverished in prison.”

“Listen up!” exclaimed Jesus.
“If you don’t forgive others with all your heart,
       my Father above will treat you like this.”

Translation commentary on Matthew 18:32

Summoned is translated “called … in” by Good News Translation (New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible “sent for”) and him is identified as “the servant.” It may be necessary to render “called in the servant who had owed him so much money” or “… whose debt he had canceled.”

In the context wicked probably means something like “worthless” (Good News Translation) or “good for nothing.” New English Bible renders “You scoundrel!” and Barclay has “You utter scoundrel!” In translation it is suggested that a strong, though not vulgar, expression be used.

In Greek all that debt (Good News Translation “the whole amount you owed me”) is given a position of emphasis. In some languages it may be more logical to invert the order of the two clauses: “You begged me to forgive you, and so I canceled your entire debt.” Some translators have made the expression even stronger by saying “all that huge debt.”

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 .