complete verse (Matthew 7:20)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 7:20:

  • Uma: “A tree that does not bear well is definitely chopped down and burned up. So also God will certainly punish those false/lying prophets. We (incl.) know that they are lying/liars if we look at the fruit of their work.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Like that also will you recognise by their deeds the prophets who are not true ones.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “In the same way, those who say they are inspired of God and whose teaching is a lie, God will punish them. And you can tell that they are deceitful because of their bad ways of doing.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “That then is how-you -can-distinguish deceitful prophets by what they are doing.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “That’s why by their doings, you can recognize those who are only false-prophets.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Therefore I tell you that according to how the lying teachers live, thus you will know who they are.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Matthew 7:13-20)

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 7:13-20:

The road to the not-so-narrow gate leads to destruction,
       but it’s wide, and many follow that road.

The road to the narrow gate leads to life,
but it’s hard to follow, and is found by only a few.
       Struggle to enter this gate, no matter what!

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.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (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 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 7:20

The conclusion drawn in this verse refers back to verses 15-18. In the same way that trees are recognized by the fruit that they produce, so false prophets are recognized by the things they do. Revised Standard Version represents a literal rendering of the Greek text (Thus you will know them by their fruits), and most translations follow the tradition of Revised Standard Version by failing to make explicit the pronominal reference of them. However, Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Bible en français courant, and Bijbel in Gewone Taal all make this information explicit, “false prophets”; Barclay renders “As with trees, so with men—you can tell what kind of men they are by the conduct they produce.”

This verse means exactly the same as the first part of verse 16. Even if translators do not want to do exactly what Barclay has done, they can profit from his translation. Thus really indicates that as trees are recognized by their fruit, so are men. In particular, here the false prophets are being referred to. Therefore to translate Thus, it is possible to say “It is like that with men too” or “The false prophets are like those trees.”

Know again means “recognize for what they are.”

In many languages it will be necessary to replace them with “false prophets.” Otherwise, the word will only be understood to refer to the trees.

As before, fruits means actions, behavior, or conduct.

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 .