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.
brother (fellow believer)
The Greek that is translated in English as “brother” or “brother and sister” (in the sense of fellow believers), is translated with a specifically coined word in Kachin: “There are two terms for brother in Kachin. One is used to refer to a Christian brother. This term combines ‘older and younger brother.’ The other term is used specifically for addressing siblings. When one uses this term, one must specify if the older or younger person is involved. A parallel system exists for ‘sister’ as well. In [these verses], the term for ‘a Christian brother’ is used.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae)
In Matumbi is is translated as alongo aumini or “relative-believer.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
In Martu Wangka it is translated as “relative” (this is also the term that is used for “follower.”) (Source: Carl Gross)
In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) it is often translated as Mitchristen or “fellow Christians.”
See also brothers.
complete verse (Matthew 25:40)
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 25:40:
- Martu Wangka: “I am saying the truth to you all. My new relative was sitting hungry, and then you all gave food and meat to him, you satisfied him. Like that you all gave to my relative, and as a result of that I was happy because that one belongs to my family. If I contrary to fact would have been there hungry, you all would have felt sorry for me as well, and given to me contrary to fact.” (Source: Ken Hansen in Notes on Translation 1998/2, p. 11ff.
- Uma: “‘And I the King, I’ll answer them: ‘So that you know: what you did to help these relatives of mine here, even just one of my relatives whose life is small, it means it’s the same as you did it to me.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “Then I, the ruler, answer them, I say, ‘Truly I tell you, whenever you did this to my disciples of low status you did it really to me.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then I, the king, I will answer, ‘I tell you that if you did this even to one of these my siblings, which is to say, those who believe in me, even though he is very low in rank, you inadvertently did it to me.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “‘Then I who am king, I will say to them, ‘This that I tell you is true that when you were doing (things) like these to even one of the least-important (lit. lowest) of these who are my brothers, you have done it to me.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “And then I their King will say, ‘What I will say to you really is true. When you did these things to even the most insignificant/low-class who is like my sibling, of course I am the one to whom you did it.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “The ruler will then say to the people: ‘Truly I tell you that concerning what all you have done for my brethren here, even though they are not respected by people, with the help you have given them, you have helped me too.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
king
Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:
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- Piro: “a great one”
- Highland Totonac: “the big boss”
- Huichol: “the one who commanded” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
- Ekari: “the one who holds the country” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
- Una: weik sienyi: “big headman” (source: Kroneman 2004, p. 407)
- Pass Valley Yali: “Big Man” (source: Daud Soesilo)
- Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
- Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
- Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))
Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:
“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”
(Source: Faye Edgerton in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 25ff. )
See also king (Japanese honorifics).
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 25:40
Truly, I say to you is similar to “For truly, I say to you” of 5.18; see comment there.
Least is the same adjective used in 2.6; 5.19 (twice); 25.45. See comment at 5.19. For many languages the least of these my brethren will be insufficient, and one may be required to translate as Good News Translation‘s “the least important of these brothers of mine.” Another good way is “Whenever you did it for one of my brothers, even one of the least important ones.” Of course, although brethren is masculine, the text includes all people, whatever their sex. “Brothers and sisters” is acceptable.
At this point Matthew clearly identifies Jesus with those persons who are suffering for whatever reason. In the words of one scholar, “For Matthew anyone is Jesus’ brother [or sister] who obeys his word and does the will of the Father, but also anyone who suffers and is in need.” Therefore it is important that readers don’t think this means real blood brothers. It may be necessary to say “these people who are like brothers to me, even the least important ones.”
Good News Translation has rendered Revised Standard Version as by “whenever.” This can be restructured, if necessary: “You have done these things for others, and I consider that you have done them for me.”
You did it to me: this may be “it is as if you did it to me,” “… as valid as if…,” or “I consider that you did it to me.”
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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