naked

The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated as “naked” in English is translated in Enlhet with a figure of speech: “(one’s) smoothness.” (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )

In Elhomwe the word for “naked” is “shameful to use, and would never be used by a preacher in church.” Therefore “without clothes” is used. (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

The Works of Mercy

The following is a stained glass window showing some of the works of mercy by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, 1884 for the All Saints’ church, Mountfield, England:

Photo by Julian P Guffogg, hosted by Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license 2.0 license

Stained glass is not just highly decorative, it’s a medium which has been used to express important religious messages for centuries. Literacy was not widespread in the medieval and Renaissance periods and the Church used stained glass and other artworks to teach the central beliefs of Christianity. In Gothic churches, the windows were filled with extensive narrative scenes in stained glass — like huge and colorful picture storybooks — in which worshipers could ‘read’ the stories of Christ and the saints and learn what was required for their religious salvation. (Source: Victoria and Albert Museum )

complete verse (Matthew 25:43)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 25:43:

  • Uma: “I passed by your house, you didn’t have-me-stop-in. I didn’t have any clothes, you didn’t give me clothes. I was sick, I was in prison, you didn’t visit me.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “I was a stranger but you did not treat-me-according-to-custom, I had no clothes but you did not give to me, I was sick and in prison but you did not visit me.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “I had no place to go up into, and you did not receive me into your house. I needed clothing, but you didn’t give it to me. I was sick and I was in the prison, but you didn’t visit me.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “I was a visitor/stranger but you didn’t show-me-hospitality. I also had no clothes but you didn’t clothe me. I was sick and in-prison but you refused to take-care-of-me.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “When I was a stranger, you didn’t welcome me. When I was without-clothes, you didn’t clothe me. I got sick and was in prison, and you didn’t check up on me.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “I was a stranger in the land but you did not give me a resting place. There was the time I was without clothing to wear, but you did not give me clothes to wear. There was the time I was sick and I was in jail, but you did not go to greet me.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

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”.

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Matthew 25:31-46)

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.

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.