humble (verb)

The Greek that is translated as “humbled” in English is rendered in Gumuz as “become small” (source: Loren Bliese) and in Uma as “make hearts low” (“proud,” the opposite is translated as proud “make hearts high”) (source: Uma Back Translation).

complete verse (Matthew 23:12)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 23:12:

  • Uma: “The people who make-high their hearts, the Lord God will lower them. And the people who make-low their hearts, the Lord God will make them high.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Whoever makes himself great will be put down/humbled, and whoever puts himself down will be made great.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And he who makes himself great, God will make him lower than all. And he who considers that any one of you is greater than he, God will make him to be greater than any one of you.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The one who makes himself high/great, he will be put-low, but the one who humbles himself, he will be made-great.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For the one who exalts himself, he will be made low by God. And as for the humble, he will be made important.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Because the person who tries to make himself go higher is the one who will go to the ground. But the person who says in his heart that he will put himself down to the ground, that is the person who will go high.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Matthew 23:12

In many languages will be humbled and will be exalted are better translated as active forms with God as the expressed subject (so Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). In English a shift from the indefinite relative pronoun whoever to the second person pronoun “you” will probably sound more natural; for example, “If (any of) you make yourself great, God will humble you. If (any of) you humble yourself, God will make you great.” For some languages a first person plural inclusive form will be more natural: “If we … God will … us.”

Will be humbled and humbles himself are two forms of the same verb, but by virtue of their grammatical role, they do in fact mean slightly different things. Humbles himself can be expressed as “puts himself in a low position” but also “keeps a humble attitude.” Will be humbled, on the other hand, does not involve an attitude of humility so much as it means to be made unimportant or brought to a low position, in this case by God, as seen in the examples in the previous paragraph.

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 .