The Greek that is typically translated with a generic expressions such as “he who,” “whoever,” or “if anyone” in English is translated with the plural form (“they”) in Daga. “A literal translation of these conveys the idea that one specific unnamed individual is being discussed. Thus, for instance, in John 5:24 ‘he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life’ meant in Daga that there was one fortunate individual to whom it applied.”
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 23:11:
Uma: “Who of you wants to have a big life [i.e., be important], he must become the ordered-one of others.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Whoever of you wants to be made really great he shall be your servant.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And the one you consider to be greatest among you, it is necessary that he be like the servant of all of you.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “The most-important among you is the one who is serving his companions.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “As for the most-important of you, he must be like your servant.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “The one who works to help his fellowmen is the one who is greater than all of you.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.
As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.
Here, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.
In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.
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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 formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
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®).
This and the following verse make it absolutely clear that Christian discipleship involves more than the renunciation of honorific titles. Above all else it demands self-denial and service to one’s brothers (see 20.26-27).
The exegetical and translational problems of this verse are similar to those of 20.26; see comments there. The verse can be rendered “The person who is the most important among you shall be the one to serve the others” or “The person who is your leader will be the one to serve you.”
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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