complete verse (Matthew 24:9)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 24:9:

  • Uma: “‘At that time, you will be captured/grabbed and handed-over to people who will torture and kill you. People all over the world will hate you because you follow me.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “‘Then the people will seize/arrest you and will hand you over to be punished and killed. You will be hated by all mankind because you follow me.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “All mankind will be against you because you are my disciples. People will catch you and turn you over to those who will torment you, and they will kill some of you.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘In-the-future they will arrest you to hardship and kill you. All people also, they will hate you because of your faith in me.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “You really will be hated by everyone/the-crowd because of your belief-in/obeying-of me. You will have court-cases brought against you so that you can be made to suffer and be killed.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “You will be delivered over to be punished, and they will kill you. Everywhere the people will be against you because you believe in me.” (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.

1st person pronoun referring to God (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 first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

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

See also pronoun for “God”.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (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 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. )

Translation commentary on Matthew 24:9

Then may be “At that time” or “When that happens.”

Deliver … up (Good News Translation “arrested and handed over”) translates the same verb rendered “arrested” in 4.12; see comment there.

The they does not refer to anyone in particular, but this construction is simply a way of saying that this will all happen to the disciples but without specifying who will do it. Good News Translation uses a passive construction (“you will be arrested and handed over to be punished and be put to death”), but in many languages this will not be natural at all, and translators will instead say something like “your enemies (or, people) will arrest you and hand you over to those who will punish you and kill you” or “the authorities will arrest you and make you suffer. They will put you to death.”

To tribulation (New English Bible “for punishment”) is restructured as a verb phrase by Good News Translation: (“to be punished”) and New Jerusalem Bible (“to be tortured”).

You … you … you may be understood in a distributive sense: “they will torture some of you, they will put some of you to death, and others of you will be hated….” But the meaning may also be “they will torture you and then put you to death. You will be hated….”

You will be hated by all nations may be transformed into an active construction: “the entire world will hate you” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) and “All mankind will hate you” (Good News Translation).

For my name’s sake is somewhat improved in Good News Translation: (“because of me”), though others come closer to expressing the meaning more clearly: “for your allegiance to me” (New English Bible), “because of your connection with me” (Barclay), and “because you acknowledge me” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). One may also translate “because you are my followers.”

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 .