The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “fringe” or “tzitzit” in many English translations is translated in Uma as “the decorations [lit.: “fruit”] of clothes” (source: Uma Back Translation), in Tenango Otomi as “clothing that reaches the ground” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation) and in Mairasi as “wings of the garments” (source: Enggavoter 2004).
In Bura-Pabir a term is used that is traditionally used for the tassels worn on clothes by hunters. (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
In Paasaal it is translated as “cloth mouth.” (Source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
The Greek that is translated as “touch” in English is translated in the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) as “(touch and) hold on to” (festhalten).
The Greek that is translated in English as “hemorrhages” or “flow of blood” or similar is translated in Highland Oaxaca Chontal as “she saw her month many times in one month.” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 9:20:
Uma: “On the way, a woman came getting close to him from behind. That woman had bled continually for twelve years, there was not its stopping. She said in her heart: ‘Even if I just touch his shirt/clothes, I will definitely get well.’ From there she touched/held the bottom of Yesus’ shirt/clothes.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then there was a sick woman, blood was always flowing. She had this sickness already for twelve years. She approached Isa from behind and went and touched the edge of Isa’s robe/shirt.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Now there was a woman whose flowing-out blood had not dried-up for twelve years. She approached behind Jesus and touched the hem of his clothes.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Included among those who followed was a woman who for twelve years had been bleeding/menstruating abnormally. She persevered to get close behind Jesus. She brushed her hand/arm against what was attached to the hem of the cloak of Jesus.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “While Jesus was walking along, a woman who was sick approached him from the rear in order to touch the edge of his clothing. It was now twelve years she had suffered from menstrual bleeding.” (Source: Tenango Otomi 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 others 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: “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 the latter two 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. ).
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®).
And behold here also serves to draw attention to a new participant in the narrative (see verse 18).
A hemorrhage may be spoken of in less technical language as a “severe bleeding” (Good News Translation). New English Bible is good because it suggests habitual but not constant bleeding: “had suffered from haemorrhages.” If her hemorrhaging was from her womb, as seems quite likely to many scholars, then according to Leviticus 15.25-30 she was ritually unclean during those twelve years.
One way to translate this sentence is to say “during twelve years she had a frequent problem because of bleeding” or “very often she would suffer from bleeding. This had been going on for twelve years.”
Touched is the meaning given the Greek verb by most translations. However, in other contexts the verb may mean “take hold of.” It would not be correct to use a word that meant she accidentally brushed past Jesus. Her action was deliberate.
Fringe (so New Jerusalem Bible) or “edge” (Good News Translation, New English Bible) may be understood as a specific reference to the “tassel” (New American Bible, Barclay) which Jewish men were obligated to wear on the four corners of their outer garments (see Num 15.37-41; Deut 22.12). The problem of interpretation is complicated by two factors. First, we do not know how precisely Jesus followed the ceremonial rules of his religion. And second, we cannot determine with any degree of certainty the way that the writer of the Gospel and the original readers may have understood the term. In light of these complications, it appears best not to give the term too specific a meaning, and it is probably best translated as “edge.”
Garment is the same word used in verse 16; it may refer to a piece of clothing in general, or more specifically to an outer garment. Many translations use “cloak,” and in verse 16 Good News Bible had “coat.” One should not follow the example of Anchor Bible (“the hem of his himation”), which is a transliteration of the Greek. If in a culture men wear some type of outer cloak as part of their clothing, that can certainly be used for garment here. But many translators will use a very general term like “clothing.”
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 .
Suddenly: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Suddenly indicates that something extraordinary will happen. Here, what is unexpected is that while they were going to the ruler’s house, a woman came and touched Jesus’ robe.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
And behold (English Standard Version)
-or-
unexpectedly
-or-
Just then (New International Version)
a woman: In some languages, it is necessary to introduce a new main participant in a certain way. In that case the woman should be introduced in a way that is natural in the language. For example:
⌊There was⌋ a ⌊certain⌋ woman. She had a bleeding sickness for twelve years. ⌊While Jesus was on his way⌋, she suddenly…
who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as suffered from bleeding is more literally “bleeding.” The word suffered is not in Greek.
The Greek does not indicate where the woman was bleeding from. She was probably bleeding from the womb at times that were not normal. For politeness sake, the Greek term is general. She had started bleeding twelve years prior to this time and probably bled most of the twelve years.
In some languages, there is a term for this kind of bleeding. In other languages, it is more natural to use a polite form (euphemism). Here is an example of each:
who had been bleeding for twelve years (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
who had continual menstrual bleeding for twelve years
General Comment on 9:20a
The clause “who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years” is information about the woman. In English, such information is often put in a relative clause, as it is here. In some languages, it may be more natural to give this information in a separate sentence. Notice how the following examples give the information about the woman:
Then a woman came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his clothes. She had been suffering from chronic bleeding for twelve years. (God’s Word)
-or-
There was a certain woman. She had been bleeding for twelve years. She approached Jesus from behind and touched the edge of his clothes.
9:20b
came up behind Him: This expression indicates that the woman approached Jesus from behind. She had probably been following Jesus, and she walked quickly so she could get close enough to him to touch his clothes.
Here are some other ways to translate these words:
came close to him from the rear
-or-
approached him from behind (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
Tassels on a Jewish man’s prayer shawl
touched the fringe of His cloak: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as fringe probably refers to one of the “tassels” that were attached to Jesus’ clothes. The Jews made these tassels by tying strings together, and they attached these tassels to the four corners of their outer clothes. When they saw these tassels, they were supposed to remember to follow God’s commandments. (Num. 15:37–38; Deut. 22:12).
Like any male Jew, Jesus probably wore tassels. The woman probably touched this part of Jesus’ clothing so he would not feel the touch.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
• Translate it with a word or phrase that refers specifically to tassels. For example:
touched the strings/threads on the hem of his clothes
• Translate it with a word or phrase that refers generally to the hem or edge of his clothes. For example:
touched the edge of his clothes (God’s Word)
-or-
touched the hem/border of his robe
cloak: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as cloak is a general word that means clothing. In this context, this word refers to the outer layer of clothing.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
garment (English Standard Version)
-or-
clothes (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
robe (New Living Translation (2004))
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