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”.

Honorary "are" construct denoting God ("say")

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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.

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

Translation commentary on Matthew 26:26

Now as they were eating is almost word-for-word the same as “and as they were eating” of verse 21.

In the Greek text Jesus is specified as the subject of the verb took, since both he and Judas participated in the dialogue of verse 25.

Took … blessed … broke … gave translate the same series of four verbs used in 14.19 (see comment there) and 15.36.

Bread (so also New English Bible, New American Bible, New International Version) is translated “a loaf” by several major English translations (Moffatt, An American Translation, Phillips, Barclay); Good News Translation has “a piece of bread,” and “some bread” is the reading of Jerusalem Bible. See comment at 14.17. If Good News Bible‘s “a piece of bread” implies that the bread was already broken, then Good News Bible should not be used as a model.

The sentence Take, eat does not have an explicit direct object, but translators often say “Take this (bread) and eat it.”

The equational formula of the Greek text (this is my body) is followed by most translations. Moffatt (“it means my body”) and Barclay (“This means my body”) are the exception. Because of the ways that different churches have interpreted this clause, however, these solutions are not advisable. It is better to retain the formula of the text, that is, to say “is” here and leave it to the readers to interpret.

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 .