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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.
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).
Illustration by Horst Lemke (1922-1985) for the GermanGute Nachricht für Sie – NT68, one of the first editions of the Good News Bible in German of 1968. Lemke was a well-known illustrator who illustrated books by Erich Kästner , Astrid Lindgren and many others.
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 28:16-20:
After Jesus had been raised from death,
he instructed eleven of his leading followers
to meet him on a mountain in Galilee.
Jesus appeared to them and said:
I have been given absolute authority
in heaven and on earth.
Now I am sending you to make followers
of people in nations everywhere.
Baptize them in the name
of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have taught you.
Remember, I will always be with you, no matter what.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
Teaching is best interpreted as the equivalent of an imperative (see comment at verse 19).
Some translations render them to include only those who have been baptized, and others make it refer to the people of all nations. Probably a reference to all people is more natural, since the command of Jesus does not say to baptize only some, and translators should not be specific in this verse in a way the text is not.
Observe is used of commandments in 19.17 and of instructions in 23.3; it is also the same verb translated “keep watch” in 27.36, 54, and the participle “guards” (28.4) is also derived from this same verb. Here translators can say “to do all the things I have commanded you” or “to live according to my commandments to you.”
Commanded is first used in 4.6 (translated “give … charge of”); it is found elsewhere in 15.4; 17.9; 19.7. Commentators note that the construction all that I have commanded is similar to one that is frequently employed in the Septuagint of God’s commands to Israel (for example, Exo 7.2; 23.22; 29.35; 31.11; Deut 1.41; 4.2; 6.6). Translators can have either “everything I have commanded you” or “all the commands I have given you” (so Barclay).
The expression and lo is not natural in contemporary English, so most translators drop it. But sometimes it is rendered as “And it will be” or “It will happen that.”
I am with you always also has its roots in the Old Testament (see Exo 3.12; Josh 1.5, 9; Isa 41.10; 43.5). It is often more natural to say “I will be with you always (or, at all times).”
The close of the age is the same expression used in 13.39. The period indicated here is that which extends from the time of Christ’s resurrection-exaltation to the end of the world. Translators can have “until the end of the world (or, the end of time).”
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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