The following is a representation of the story of Jesus calming the sea in Shor with traditional throat singing. The singers are Lubov Arbachakova (with no instrument) and Irena Kiskurova:
A translation of the Russian subtitles into English:
0:11 Once Jesus was at the sea with his disciples.
0:24 A multitude of people gathered, and he began to teach them.
0:36 When evening came, He said to His disciples:
0:45 “Let’s move to the other side.”
0:48 The disciples asked the people to leave,
0:56 they were all in the boat together in Jesus and set out on the other side of the sea.
1:22 Suddenly there was a strong storm.
1:30 The waves beat the boat so that it was filled with water.
1:42 And Jesus at this time slept in the stern of the boat, laying his head on the steersman’s seat.
1:58 The disciples woke him up and said:
2:08 “Teacher! Do you really care that we are dying?”
2:11 Jesus stood up, calmed the wind, and said to the sea:
2:20 «Hush, shut up!»
2:23 The wind died down, and there was a complete calm on the sea.
2:35 And Jesus rebuked the disciples:
2:46 “Why are you so timid? Do you have absolutely no faith?”
2:52 They continued sailing, and the disciples spoke to each other with fear:
3:11 “Who is He, that even the wind and the sea listen to Him?”
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 8:27:
Uma: “When they saw that, they were amazed at it, they said: ‘Who really is this person? That the wind and the lake are quiet [emphatic] following his command!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “They wondered very much. ‘What (kind of) person is this?’ they said, ‘even the wind and the waves follow his command.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “All of his companions were amazed. ‘What kind of a person is this?’ they said, ‘because even the wind and the waves, they obey him.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “They were all extremely surprised and they said, ‘What kind-of-person is this? Unexpectedly even the wind and waves, they obey what he says!'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Those companions of his were amazed. They were saying, ‘What is this person? For even the wind and lake obey him.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “The learners then were amazed at what happened. They said to each other: ‘Who can this man be? Even the wind and the water obey when he calls to them,’ they said.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The various Greek, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains in the following way: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are Twents as well as the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
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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 third person singular and plural pronoun (“he,” “she,” “it” and their various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. While it’s not uncommon to avoid pronouns altogether in Japanese, there are is a range of third person pronouns that can be used. In these verses a number of them are used that pay particularly much respect to the referred person (or, in fact, God, as in Exodus 15:2), including kono kata (この方), sono kata (その方), and ano kata (あの方), meaning “this person,” “that person,” and “that person over there.”
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®).
In place of the men Mark has the pronoun “they”; Mark also has the verb construction “were terribly afraid,” for which Matthew has substituted marveled (Good News Translation “Everyone was amazed”). The men is best taken as a reference to the men in the boat with Jesus, that is, his disciples. The rendering of Anchor Bible (“Men wondered…”) broadens the reference too much. It is possible to translate impersonally, as Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition has done: “The astonishment was great.” However, most translations will have the men or “the men with him.”
Marveled, as in verse 10, can be translated as “were surprised” or “were amazed,” or even “spoke to each other in awe (or, amazement).”
The question of the disciples, What sort of man is this…? is an expression of amazement. In Greek the last clause of this verse is a part of their question, as in Revised Standard Version, What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him? However, most modern English translations find it more effective to divide the response of the disciples into a question followed by a statement. Barclay, on the other hand, handles the text in a slightly different but effective manner: “ ‘What kind of man is this,’ they said, ‘for even the winds and the waters obey him?’ ” In some languages it may even be more natural to invert the order of the clauses; for example, “Even the winds and the waves obey this man! What kind of man must he be?”
By the omission of the definite article before winds and waves, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch includes all winds and waves within the scope of Jesus’ power: “So that even winds and waves obey him.”
The disciples do not ask who Jesus is, but ask what sort of man he is, thus indicating that they think he is somehow quite special. The translation should reflect that. Further, the use of a question here probably shows the extent of their wonder more than a statement or exclamation would, so it should be retained. Besides, the disciples do not yet know what type of man Jesus is.
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 .
The men: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible literally translates as The men refers to the men in the boat. In other words, it refers to the disciples.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
The men in the boat (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
The disciples (New Living Translation (2004))
were amazed: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as were amazed also means “marveled.” The disciples were genuinely surprised that Jesus had this kind of authority.
Here are some other ways to translate this clause:
were amazed (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
were astonished at what had happened (Revised English Bible)
This same word occurs in 8:10a.
asked: The disciples were speaking to one another, not to Jesus. For example:
saying ⌊to one another⌋
-or-
and said ⌊to each other⌋
8:27b–c
What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey Him!: This is a rhetorical question. It expresses surprise and amazement. The disciples expressed amazement that Jesus had such great power.
There are several ways to translate this amazement:
• As a rhetorical question. For example:
What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him? (New Revised Standard Version)
• As a question and an exclamation. For example:
What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him! (New International Version)
-or-
Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him. (Contemporary English Version)
• As one or two exclamations:
This man is amazing! Even the wind and water obey him!
obey Him!: The verb obey indicates that the winds and the seas did as Jesus commanded. In some languages, the verb obey can only be used with people or animals, not wind and water. So another verb must be used. For example:
He even controls the wind and the waves
-or-
He has power over even the wind and the waves.
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