Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Matthew 25:31-46:
On the day of judgment, God’s Appointed One
will appear in all his glory with his angels
and assume his place of authority as Judge.
Everyone of every nation will be there,
and he will separate them
as a shepherd separates sheep from goats.
“Sheep to my right! Goats to my left!”
the King will announce,
before pronouncing final judgment:
“To you on my right, my Father now gives his blessing.
So, come and enter the kingdom prepared for you
before the world was created or even conceived.
I was hungry, and you gave me food;
I was thirsty, and you gave me water.
I was a stranger, and you welcomed me;
I was naked and you gave me clothes;
I was sick, and you cared for me;
I was in jail, and you came to visit me.”
Though you’ve pleased me, still you’ll ask,
“When were you hungry, and I gave you food?
When were you thirsty, and I gave you water?
When were you a stranger, and I welcomed you?
When were you naked, and I gave you clothes?
When were you sick, and I cared for you?
When were you in jail, and I came to visit you?”
Then I will remind you —
Whenever you did any of these things for any one
of those who seemed so insignificant,
you did it fo rme.
Now for those of you on my left — Get away from me!
Go into the eternal fire God has prepared
for the devil and his angels.
I was hungry, and you gave me no food;
I was thirsty, and you gave me no water.
I was a stranger, and you didn’t welcome me;
I was naked and you gave me no clothes;
I was sick, and you didn’t care for me;
I was in jail, and you didn’t come to visit me.
Though you’ve displeased me, still you’ll ask,
“When did I fail to do any of these things for you?”
Then I will remind you —
Whenever you turned your back on any one
of those who seemed so insignificant,
you turned your back on me.
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system, one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and others for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are Twents as well as Indonesian and Malay. In the latter two languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
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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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) can be used, as in mi-mae (御前) or “before (God)” in the referenced verses. In some cases in can also be used in reference to being before a king, such as in 1 Samuel 16:16.
Before him means “in front of him” and does not refer to before him in time.
Will be gathered may imply an agent, as in “They will gather all the nations before him,” but it may also have the meaning “will come together” or “will gather themselves together” (see, for example, 22.41; 26.3; 27.17). Several commentators believe that the verb refers primarily to the action of a shepherd gathering his sheep, and that is the symbolism intended here. But Matthew uses this verb twenty-four times in his Gospel, and in all of the New Testament it appears some fifty-nine times, but never with “sheep” as its object. Since it is unlikely, therefore, that sheep are implied, there is also little basis for assuming the shepherd as agent. So it is not very likely that Matthew intends that the verb be understood in a sense of someone actually gathering the people for this judgment scene. Thus “will gather together” will be the better rendering.
In place of all the nations, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “all the people of the earth.” New Jerusalem Bible‘s footnote indicates that the meaning is “Every human being of every period of history.” This is important because the translation should not give the impression that the judge will separate righteous nations from others; it is the righteous people as individuals who will be separated from the others.
As a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats reflects Palestinian life. During the day the sheep and goats graze together, but at night they are separated, because goats must be kept warm at night, while sheep prefer to sleep in the open air. Good News Translation and Barclay have rendered separate them one from another as “divide (or, separate) them into two groups.”
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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