Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 9:31:
Uma: “But instead they just went out and spread the news to all the villages that were near.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “But they left and told about Isa in all the places there.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “However, when they left there, they spread the word about Jesus in all the surrounding towns.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “But they left and went to repeatedly-relate concerning Jesus in all the nearby towns.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “But as they went, they told all over that place what Jesus had done for them.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “But these men who had been blind no sooner left Jesus when they told one and all what Jesus had done to them.” (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®).
But they went away translates a participial construction in Greek which may be understood in a temporal sense, “But when they had gone” (Jerusalem Bible). It is possible to interpret the construction as having a cause-and-effect relation with the healing deed that Jesus had just performed, but this does not seem to be what the author intends. The problem with both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation is that they leave open this possibility and even hint in that direction.
To keep the temporal sense as Jerusalem Bible does, translators can also say “But after they had left” or “But later when they had gone away from there.”
Spread … fame translates a Greek verb which appears in Good News Translation and An American Translation as “spread the news about.” The verb comes from the same root as the noun rendered “report” by Revised Standard Version in verse 26; it is found elsewhere in the New Testament only in 28.14 and Mark 1.45. Either “spread the news about” or “make known” may be considered the root meaning of the verb. Both New Jerusalem Bible and New English Bible translate “they talked about him,” while Phillips and Barclay each translate “they spread the story.” It is logical to assume that the main topic of conversation was the healing of their eyes. Barclay and Phillips intimate that what they told was limited to what they had experienced, while other translations imply that they told other things as well. If this interpretation is followed, then one may translate “they spread the news of what Jesus had done for them” or “… of how he had restored their sight.” If the broader interpretation is accepted, then one may translate “… of what Jesus had done for them and for others” or “how Jesus had restored their sight and had also healed other people of their diseases.” Other expressions for spread … fame that translators can use include “they told many people about” or “they reported to everyone.”
Through all that district once again assumes that the author is not living there at the time that the story is written (see verse 26). District (so also Phillips, Barclay) is too specialized in that it implies a governmental division, while “countryside” (New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible) would possibly exclude the villages and towns of that area. The rendering of An American Translation (followed by Good News Translation) and Moffatt (“all over that country”) appears to be a better solution. Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition renders “in the entire country.”
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 .
But: There is a contrast here. The contrast is between Jesus’ warning not to tell anyone, and what the men actually did. Make sure that it is understood that the men did not do what Jesus told them to do. The Berean Standard Bible indicates this with the conjunction But. In other languages, this is indicated in some other way. For example:
But ⌊they did not listen/obey⌋
-or-
Instead/However
they went out: This clause refers to the blind men going out of the house and going to the surrounding area.
In some languages, this idea will be translated with two verbs. For example:
they left ⌊the house⌋ and went
-or-
they exited ⌊the house⌋ and went
-or-
the healed men departed from there and went
9:31b
and spread the news about Him: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as spread the news about Him means “make known the news.” The two men told many people that Jesus healed them.
Here are some other ways to translate this expression:
spread his fame (English Standard Version)
-or-
talked about him (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
told everyone what he ⌊had done⌋
throughout the land: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as land also means “district, region, or area.” This phrase is almost identical to the phrase in 9:26. You can translate it in a similar way.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
through all that region (New International Version)
-or-
all around that area (New Century Version)
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