interest

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “interest” (as in payments for a loan) in English is translated in the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) as chiwongoladzanja which literary means something that stretches the hand. The understanding is that an interest is paid to thank the hand that was stretched out in the process of giving a loan. Since a person gets a loan to be helped from their problems, thanking the hand that has given (stretched out in giving) is considered to be an important way of expressing one’s gratitude. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

complete verse (Matthew 25:27)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 25:27:

  • Uma: “why-in-the-world didn’t you (sing.) at least put my money in the bank so that when I got back I could get it with an increase [lit., its children]!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Na, why didn’t you put my money in a bank so it would gain interest? So-then when I returned I could have got my money including the interest.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Why didn’t you lend my money so that it might be percented so that its value might increase so that I might receive more when I return?'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “then why didn’t you (sing.) bank my money so that when I came-home, there would have been even a little interest (lit. its child) that I would have been able to get?'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well, why didn’t you deposit (lit. drop) it with the money-lenders? If you had deposited it, isn’t it so that today I could have gotten a profit on it?'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Well couldn’t you have put my money in a bank? Then when I had arrived you could have given me the wages of my money,’ he said.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Parable of the Talents

The following artwork is part of a series of 56 paintings on biblical themes by Kazakh artist Nelly Bube (born 1949):

Copyright by Norwegian Bible Society , used with permission.

For other images of Nelly Bube in TIPs, see here.

Following is a 1973 painting of the JESUS MAFA project, a response to New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings was selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made, and these were then transcribed to paintings:

From Art in the Christian Tradition , a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. Image retrieved March 23, 2026. Original source: librairie-emmanuel.fr.

2nd person pronoun with low register (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 second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.

In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also first person pronoun with low register and third person pronoun with low register.

Translation commentary on Matthew 25:27

Then translates a particle which draws a conclusion from something previously said. Good News Translation and New Jerusalem Bible each have “Well, then,” New American Bible “All the more reason,” and Barclay “That is all the more reason why.” “Therefore” or “So” are also possible.

You ought to have (Good News Translation “you should have”) represents an impersonal construction in Greek (“it was necessary for you to have”), which will require a second-person form in many languages.

Invested my money with the bankers is “deposited my money in the bank” in Good News Translation. Not all translators will feel that their readers are familiar enough with banks to translate in this way, nor even with the idea of investing to make more money. They can then say “loan the money to people who need it then, and who after some time will give you back more.”

At my coming may require a shift such as one finds in Good News Translation: “when I returned.” Good News Bible also inverts the order of events (“I would have received it all back … when I returned”), but most languages will probably prefer the chronological order of the Greek text, which is retained in Revised Standard Version (at my coming I should have received).

The translation of interest will depend also on the knowledge of banking. Where many readers are not familiar with it, translators can have “with some more (or, extra) money as well.”

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 .