The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is usually translated in English as “truth” is translated in Luchazi with vusunga: “the quality of being straight” (source: E. Pearson in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 160ff. ), in Obolo as atikọ or “good/correct talk” (source: Enene Enene), and in Ekari as maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (esp. in John 14:6 and 17; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
The translation committee of the Malay “Good News Bible” (Alkitab Berita Baik, see here ) wrestled with the translation of “truth” in the Gospel of John (for more information click or tap here):
“Our Malay Committee also concluded that ‘truth’ as used in the Gospel of John was used either of God himself, or of God’s revelation of himself, or in an extended sense as a reference to those who had responded to God’s self-disclosure. In John 8:32 the New Malay translation reads ‘You will know the truth about God, and the truth about God will make you free.’ In John 8:44 this meaning is brought out by translating, ‘He has never been on the side of God, because there is no truth in him.’ Accordingly Jesus ‘tells the truth about God’ in 8:45, 46 (see also 16:7 and 8:37a). Then, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ becomes ‘I am the one who leads men to God, the one who reveals who and what God is, and the one who gives men life.” At 3:21 the translation reads ” … whoever obeys the truth, that is God himself, comes to the light …’; 16:13a appears as ‘he will lead you into the full truth about God’; and in 18:37 Jesus affirms ‘I came into the world to reveal the truth about God, and whoever obeys God listens to me.’ On this basis also 1:14 was translated ‘we saw his glory, the glory which he had as the Father’s only Son. Through him God has completely revealed himself (truth) and his love for us (grace)’; and 1:17 appears as ‘God gave the law through Moses; but through Jesus Christ he has completely revealed himself (truth) and his love for us (grace).'” (Source: Barclay Newman in The Bible Translator 1974, p. 432ff. )
Helen Evans (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) tells of the translation into Kui which usually is “true-thing.” In some instances however, such as in the second part of John 17:17 (“your word is truth” in English), the use of “true-thing” indicated that there might be other occasions when it’s not true, so here the translation was a a form of “pure, holy.”
The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated in English as “joy” or “happiness” is translated in the HausaCommon Language Bible idiomatically as farin ciki or “white stomach.” In some cases, such as in Genesis 29:11, it is also added for emphatic purposes.
Other languages that use the same expression include Southern Birifor (pʋpɛl), Dera (popolok awo), Reshe (ɾipo ɾipuhã). (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, translators typically select the inclusive form (including the addressee).
Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.
Following are a number of back-translations of 2 John 1:4:
Uma: “My heart was very happy to meet with several of your (sing.) children here. For their behavior follows the true teaching, like God the Father taught us.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “I was really glad when I heard that some of your children follow/obey the true teaching as we (dual) have been commanded by our (incl.) Father God.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “I am very happy for there are children of yours which obey the true doctrine as it was commanded to us (incl.) by our Father God.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Extreme was my happiness upon finding-out that some of your (sing.) children are following the true teaching that our Father who is God commanded.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “I really am very happy, because I have observed that as for some of your (sing.) children, they are living in harmony with the truth, like God the Father commanded us.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “I am very happy because I found certainly that some of your sons follow the true word just like God our Father ordered us to do.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Yatzachi Zapotec: “I rejoiced very much when I found out that some of your children are doing what our father God commanded us to do, they are heeding what is true.”
Eastern Highland Otomi: “I was very happy when I heard in regard to some of your children, that they follow the Word, as the Father tells us.”
Isthmus Zapotec: “Very much I was happy to see some of your children walking well as our Father told us to do.” (Source for this and two above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)
The Greek that is translated with the capitalized “Father” in English when referring to God is translated in Highland Totonac with the regular word for (biological) father to which a suffix is added to indicate respect. The same also is used for “Lord” when referring to Jesus. (Source: Hermann Aschmann in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 171ff. )
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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. In the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017, God the Father is addressed with mi-chichi (御父). This form has the “divine” honorific prefix mi– preceding the archaic honorific form chichi for “father.”
If, however, Jesus addresses his Father, he is using chichi-o (父を) which is also highly respectful but does not have the “divine” honorific. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
I rejoiced greatly, or ‘I felt very joyful,’ ‘I had great joy’ (for the noun “joy” see comments on 1 John 1.4). The verb is in the aorist tense, referring to a specific event in the past. Some idioms used here are ‘my heart is very glad (literally smiling),’ ‘my inner-being is expanding.’
To find some of your children following the truth is more literally “that (hoti in Greek) I find some … the truth.” The relationship between ‘to rejoice’ and the situation or fact in which one rejoices is viewed in various ways by receptor languages. Some of them do as the Greek, and take the clause as stating the contents of the joy. Others use a causal construction such as ‘because I have found….’ Such a construction may require a further shift resulting in a rendering of the sentence like ‘the fact that I have found some … makes great joy.’ Still other languages take the clause as referring to accompanying circumstances: ‘when I found….’
To find is in the perfect tense, which here, however, has practically the same meaning as the preceding aorist. It occurs in the Greek with a participle that refers to the state of being or the action in which the persons in question are involved. This clause structure may have to be changed; for example, ‘to find some of your children who are (or while they are) following….’ The verb to find can usually be rendered by ‘to (come to) know,’ ‘to hear,’ ‘to perceive,’ or by verbs suggesting an actual encounter, such as ‘to see,’ ‘to meet,’ ‘to come across.’
Some of your children refers to a part of the congregation addressed. The expression implies dissension, since there is apparently another part of the congregation which does not give reason for rejoicing. This partitive function of some of is rendered in some languages by first mentioning the whole, then the part, for example, ‘your children, there are those who….’ The Greek itself uses a comparable construction here.
Following the truth or, closer to the Greek wording, “walking in truth,” means to live in the sphere of truth and to do what is in accordance with it. This has been expressed in various ways; for example, “to be guided by truth” (Goodspeed), “to live the life of truth” (Phillips), ‘to act in accordance with the truth,’ ‘to heed what is true.’ For “to walk” and “truth” compare comments on 1 John 1.6.
This rendering assumes that “to walk in truth” (without the article, here and in 3 John 3c) has the same meaning as “to walk in the truth” (with the article 3 John 4; compare also “to live according to the truth,” 1 John 1.6). A few translators, however, prefer to interpret “in truth” as an adverbial phrase, rendered ‘really,’ ‘truly’ (compare 2 John 1.1), and to take ‘walking truly’ with the following clause. This leads to a rendering of verse 4b like ‘to walk truly as we have been commanded…,’ ‘to act/behave really as we have been commanded….’ This interpretation, though possible, is not recommended.
Just as we have been commanded by the Father is in the Greek literally “just as we received commandment from the Father.” The unit “to receive commandment from” has been rendered in Revised Standard Version and some other versions by the passive form of “to command.” If idiom requires it, one may shift to the active form, “just as the Father commanded us” (Good News Translation), but where an active and a passive construction are both possible, the passive is preferable here; compare the note on “just as he has commanded us” in 1 John 3.23. Another possible rendering of the Greek is “in accordance with the commandment we received from the Father.”
The Greek text uses the aorist tense here. This is to show that the reference is to a historic event. The writer may have had in mind an occasion like the one described in John 13.34, where God’s commandment to love is given through the mouth of Jesus.
The pronoun we has inclusive force here, similar to its use in verses 5-6. For “commandment” and the force of the singular, see comments on 1 John 2.3.
Quoted with permission from Haas, C., de Jonge, M. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on The Second Letter of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Section Theme: This section contains the main purpose of the letter. John reminds his readers of the importance of obeying God’s commands. He therefore warns them not to have anything to do with false teachers who reject the truth about Christ.
Paragraph 4–6
Read 4–6 in both Berean Standard Bible and Good News Translation. Compare the two versions.
Paragraph Theme: John expresses his approval of his readers’ Christian lives and urges them to obey God’s commands, especially the command to love one another.
4b
to find:(Alternative Interpretations) There are different views about which sense the Greek verb is being used in here:
(1) It is probably being used in the sense of finding out or hearing that something is true.
(2) Some think it is used in the sense of meeting someone or discovering something.
some of your children:(Meaning) John is not contrasting some who are living by the truth and some who are not. He is saying that he has only heard about some of them and this is what he has heard.
your children:(Discourse Feature) The same term should be used here as in verse 1.
4c
walking in the truth:(Metaphor) This is a Greek metaphor meaning, “putting into practice in their lives the truth which God has revealed about how he wants them to live.”
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.
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®).
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