test, trap

The term that is translated as “test” or “trap” in English is rendered in Santa Cruz (Natügu) with the phrase “catch him in a net.” (Source: David Clark)

In Noongar it is translated with a derivative of “fish trap” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) it is often translate idiomatically as einen Strick drehen or “give him enough rope so he will hang himself.”

See also trap him by what he said / catch him in some statement.

divorce

In Ghari different words are used for a husband divorcing a wife and a wife divorcing a husband. (Source: David Clark)

In Mairasi the term that is used means “discard.” (Source: Enggavoter 2004)

complete verse (Matthew 19:3)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 19:3:

  • Uma: “Several Parisi people came to tempt Yesus. They asked him: ‘According to the laws of our (incl.) religion, may a man divorce his wife, even for an unimportant reason?'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Some Pariseo came close to/approached him in order to trap him, they asked him, ‘In the law is it possible for a man to divorce his wife for whatever reason?'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “There were some Pharisees who went to him because they were looking for a way to accuse him. They asked him, ‘Does the law allow us (dual) to divorce our wives even though we don’t have any reason?'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “There were also some Pharisees who went to Jesus so that they would try to deceive-him -with-a-verbal-argument. They said, ‘Does our law allow a man to divorce his wife on just-any grounds?'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “There were Pariseo who went there to Jesus, because the motive in their minds was to test him with this question of theirs, which said, ‘Is is in harmony with the law for a man to divorce his wife for whatever cause?'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Some Pharisees approached Jesus hunting how to bring it about that Jesus would speak something wrong. They said to him: ‘Is there permission for a man to divorce his wife for whatever reason he may have?'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Pharisee

The Greek that is a transliteration of the Hebrew Pərūšīm and is typically transliterated into English as “Pharisee” is transliterated in Mandarin Chinese as Fǎlìsài (法利賽 / 法利赛) (Protestant) or Fǎlìsāi (法利塞) (Catholic). In Chinese, transliterations can typically be done with a great number of different and identical-sounding characters. Often the meaning of the characters are not relevant, unless they are chosen carefully as in these cases. The Protestant Fǎlìsài can mean something like “Competition for the profit of the law” and the Catholic Fǎlìsāi “Stuffed by/with the profit of the law.” (Source: Zetzsche 1996, p. 51)

In Finnish Sign Language it is translated with the sign signifying “prayer shawl”. (Source: Tarja Sandholm)


“Pharisee” in Finnish Sign Language (source )

In British Sign Language it is translated with a sign that depicts “pointing out the law.” (Source: Anna Smith)


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

In French Sign Language it is translated with a sign that depicts the box of the phylacteries attached to the forehead:


“Pharisees” in French Sign Language (source: La Bible en langue des signes française )

Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023) translates it into English as Observant. He explains (p. 302): “Pharisee has become a public, universal pejorative term for a hypocrite. Pharisees were observant of the interpretation of the Covenant Code called the ‘tradition of the elders.’ They conformed their behaviors to the interpretation. Among the various groups of Jews at the time of Jesus, they were perhaps closest to Jesus in their overall concern to make a radical commitment to the will of God (as they understood it).”

See also Nicodemus.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Pharisees .

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 ta (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential ta (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 systems 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 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. ).

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

location (of God) (Japanese honorifics)

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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) can be used, as in mi-moto (みもと) referring to the location (of God) in the referenced verses.

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

Translation commentary on Matthew 19:3

Pharisees or “Some Pharisees” (Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, New International Version) may be said to represent the Greek text. Other Greek manuscripts have “The Pharisees” (see King James Version), but TC-GNT believes that the definite article “the” was supplied by later scribes, as was also done in some manuscripts in the parallel at Mark 10.2. If translators have translated Pharisees in a way that indicates they were a sect or some kind of group, then it will be natural here to say “some members of the Pharisees group.” See discussion at 3.7.

Came up to him may be “approached him” or “went up to him.” The text does not indicate whether the Pharisees had traveled far to talk to Jesus or were already there in the area.

Tested (Good News Translation “tried to trap”) translates a verb which is used in the same sense in 16.1 (see also 22.18, 35); it is also used in the temptation narrative (4.1, 3). As we indicated at 16.1, the use of tested in this kind of context shows that the Pharisees were trying to discredit Jesus. “Tried to trap” of Good News Translation indicates that, as does “came to him with what they intended to be a test question” of Barclay. “Tried to catch Jesus out” or “asked Jesus a trick question” may also convey the meaning, if these expressions are not too colloquial or considered slang in the receptor language.

Tested him by asking is more literally “tested him and saying.” But this is a typical Semitic expression in which “and” is deceptive. Here “and” is not used to link equal parts; rather it is used as a means of indicating that the first part of the construction (“tested”) is explained by the second part (“saying”). Fortunately the majority of modern translations are consistent in making this meaning evident.

Is it lawful (so also New English Bible) has the Mosaic Law as the point of reference; Good News Translation translates “Does our Law allow,” and New Jerusalem Bible is similar (“Is it against the Law”).

Divorce was previously discussed in the Sermon on the Mount (5.31-32); it is now brought up in the context of debate. Among the Jewish teachers of religion, this was a frequent matter of debate, and the focal point of discussion was always the phrase “something unbecoming” of Deuteronomy 24.1.

The formulation of the question, to divorce one’s wife, reflects accurately the historical situation, since among the Jews a woman could not divorce her husband. Many translators will find it more natural to use “a man … his wife” as Good News Translation does instead of one’s of the Revised Standard Version text.

For any cause (so also An American Translation) is translated “for whatever reason he wishes” by Good News Translation, an interpretation which is accepted by most other translations (Barclay “for any reason he likes,” New Jerusalem Bible “on any pretext whatever,” New English Bible “on any and every ground”). According to this interpretation, the legitimacy of divorce is assumed, and so the question deals with the grounds on which it may be carried out. However, the phrase may be understood as a question regarding the legitimacy of divorce, an interpretation represented by Phillips (“on any grounds whatever”) and by New English Bible‘s alternative wording (“Is there any ground on which it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”). If this second interpretation is accepted, then Matthew is not considerably different from Mark.

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 .