not one stone will be left here upon another

The now commonly-used German idiom es wird nicht ein Stein auf dem anderen bleiben (literally “not one stone will be left upon another”), which today is primarily used with the meaning of an upcoming complete destruction or overhaul of something was made popular in the 1522 German New Testament translation by Martin Luther. (Source: Redewendungen aus der Bibel )

For other idioms or terms in German that were coined by Bible translation, see here.

truly truly - I tell you

The Greek that is often translated in English as “truly, truly, I tell you” or similar is translated in the Russian BTI translation (publ. 2015) as Поверьте Мне (Pover’te Mne) or “trust me.” (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

See also Amen.

complete verse (Matthew 24:2)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 24:2:

  • Uma: “Yesus said to them: ‘Do you see all this? So that you know: there will not be one stone left in place. All of it will be destroyed.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Isa said to them, ‘Yes, look at it, for I truly tell you, there is a day in the future when there will be no stone left on top of the other, but all will be scattered.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus said to them, ‘Look at all of this, because I tell you that the stones they used to build this here, in the future there will not be even one sitting on top of another, because all of this will be scattered.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Jesus said, ‘You see all these beautiful things, isn’t it so? But this that I tell you is true that in-the-future they will all be scattered, because not even one stone will remain in its place.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But he said, ‘Those buildings that you are looking at, they will all be destroyed. Think about this, the day will come when no stone/rock will be left on the rock it is stacked-on. All will be caused to collapse.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Jesus said to them: ‘You see how the church is here. But I tell you something true. Concerning this church here, there will come the day it will be razed by the people. It will be flattened, there won’t be any sign of the church left.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing his disciples and common people

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 Translator 2002, 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.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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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).

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

Honorary "are" construct denoting God (“say”)

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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.

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

Translation commentary on Matthew 24:2

Since the previous verse does not really report on what the disciples said to Jesus, answered may not be the most natural thing to say in the translation. Good News Translation has “said,” for example.

You see all these, do you not? is a difficult negative rhetorical question which expects a positive response. Both Good News Translation: (“Yes … you may well look at all these”) and New English Bible (“Yes, look at it all”) simplify by shifting to a positive statement. Others retain the question form, though in a less complex construction: “Does all this astound you?” (Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition) and “Do you see all these buildings?” (New American Bible).

Truly, I say to you translates the same formula discussed at 5.18.

There will not be left here one stone upon another may also be expressed “every stone here will be removed from its place” or “… from its proper place in the building.” A shift may be made to an active: “The time will come when your enemies will remove (or, tear down) every stone from its proper place in the building.”

That will not be thrown down may also be expressed by a positive statement: “all will be scattered on the ground” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) and “everything will be destroyed” (Jerusalem Bible). Barclay rather effectively translates the clause as “There is not a building here which will not be utterly demolished.”

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 .