righteous, righteousness

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The Greek, Hebrew, and Latin terms that are translated in English mostly as “righteous” as an adjective or personified noun or “righteousness” (also as “upright(ness)” and “just(ice)”) are most commonly expressed with concept of “straightness,” though this may be expressed in a number of ways. (Click or tap here to see the details)

Following is a list of (back-) translations of various languages:

  • Bambara, Southern Bobo Madaré, Chokwe (ululi), Amganad Ifugao, Chol, Eastern Maninkakan, Toraja-Sa’dan, Pamona, Batak Toba, Bilua, Tiv: “be straight”
  • Laka: “follow the straight way” or “to straight-straight” (a reduplicated form for emphasis)
  • Sayula Popoluca: “walk straight”
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl, Kekchí, Muna: “have a straight heart”
  • Kipsigis: “do the truth”
  • Mezquital Otomi: “do according to the truth”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “have truth”
  • Yine: “fulfill what one should do”
  • Indonesian: “be true”
  • Navajo (Dinė): “do just so”
  • Anuak: “do as it should be”
  • Mossi: “have a white stomach” (see also happiness / joy)
  • Paasaal: “white heart” (source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
  • (San Mateo del Mar Huave: “completely good” (the translation does not imply sinless perfection)
  • Nuer: “way of right” (“there is a complex concept of “right” vs. ‘left’ in Nuer where ‘right’ indicates that which is masculine, strong, good, and moral, and ‘left’ denotes what is feminine, weak, and sinful (a strictly masculine viewpoint!) The ‘way of right’ is therefore righteousness, but of course women may also attain this way, for the opposition is more classificatory than descriptive.”) (This and all above from Bratcher / Nida except for Bilua: Carl Gross; Tiv: Rob Koops; Muna: René van den Berg)
  • Central Subanen: “wise-good” (source: Robert Brichoux in OPTAT 1988/2, p. 80ff. )
  • Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac: “live well”
  • Mezquital Otomi: “goodness before the face of God” (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl: “the result of heart-straightening” (source: Nida 1947, p. 224)
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “entirely good” (when referred to God), “do good” or “not be a debtor as God sees one” (when referred to people)
  • Carib: “level”
  • Tzotzil: “straight-hearted”
  • Ojitlán Chinantec: “right and straight”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “walk straight” (source for this and four previous: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22)
  • Makonde: “doing what God wants” (in a context of us doing) and “be good in God’s eyes” (in the context of being made righteous by God) (note that justify / justification is translated as “to be made good in the eyes of God.” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Aari: The Pauline word for “righteous” is generally rendered by “makes one without sin” in the Aari, sometimes “before God” is added for clarity. (Source: Loren Bliese)
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “having sin taken away” (Source: Nida 1952, p. 144)
  • Nyamwezi: wa lole: “just” or “someone who follows the law of God” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Venda: “nothing wrong, OK” (Source: J.A. van Roy in The Bible Translator 1972, p. 418ff. )
  • Ekari: maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (the same word that is also used for “truth“; 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. ).
  • Guhu-Samane: pobi or “right” (also: “right (side),” “(legal) right,” “straightness,” “correction,” “south,” “possession,” “pertinence,” “kingdom,” “fame,” “information,” or “speech” — “According to [Guhu-Samane] thinking there is a common core of meaning among all these glosses. Even from an English point of view the first five can be seen to be closely related, simply because of their similarity in English. However, from that point the nuances of meaning are not so apparent. They relate in some such a fashion as this: As one faces the morning sun, south lies to the right hand (as north lies to the left); then at one’s right hand are his possessions and whatever pertains to him; thus, a rich man’s many possessions and scope of power and influence is his kingdom; so, the rich and other important people encounter fame; and all of this spreads as information and forms most of the framework of the people’s speech.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in Notes on Translation 1964, p. 11ff.)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): Gerechtheit, a neologism to differentiate it from the commonly-used Gerechtigkeit which can mean “righteousness” but is more often used in modern German as “fairness” (Berger / Nord especially use Gerechtheit in Letter to the Romans) or Gerechtestun, also a neologism, meaning “righteous deeds” (especially in Letter to the Ephesians)
  • “did what he should” (Eastern Highland Otomi)
  • “a clear man, good [man]” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter 2004)

See also respectable, righteous, righteous (person), devout, and She is more in the right(eous) than I.

complete verse (Isaiah 53:11)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Isaiah 53:11:

  • Kupsabiny: “He shall rejoice when that suffering is over.
    It is fitting/right that he did not suffer for nothing.
    The servant of God who is righteous shall make
    many people become righteous.
    He shall carry their sins.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “After he has eaten great trouble with his soul,
    he will experience the light of life and will be satisfied.
    Because of his knowledge my righteous servant will enable many to be made righteous.
    He will bear their unrighteousness.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “When he will-see the fruit/[lit. had-done] of his sufferings, he will-be-happy. The LORD said, ‘By the wisdom of my righteous servant he will-make- many -righteous; he will-suffer for their sins.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

pronoun for "God"

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 Kouya, Godié, Northern Grebo, Eastern Krahn, Western Krahn, and Guiberoua Béte, all languages of the Kru family in Western Africa, a different kind of systems of pronouns is used (click or tap here to read more):

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 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. ).

See also first person pronoun referring to God.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Gender of God .

Translation: Chinese

在现代汉语中，第三人称单数代词的读音都是一样的（tā），但是写法并不一样，取决于性别以及是否有生命，即男性为“他”，女性为“她”，动物、植物和无生命事物为“它”（在香港和台湾的汉语使用，动物则为“牠”）。这些字的部首偏旁表明了性别（男人、女人、动物、无生命事物），而另一偏旁通常旁提示发音。

到1930年为止，基督教新教《圣经》经过整整一百年的翻译已经拥有了十几个译本，当时的一位圣经翻译者王元德新造了一个“神圣的”代词“祂”，偏旁“礻”表示神明。一般汉语读者会立即知道这字的发音是tā，而这个偏旁表示属灵的事物，因此他们明白这个字指出，三位一体的所有位格都没有性别之分，而单单是上帝。

然而，最重要的新教圣经译本（1919年的《和合本》）和天主教圣经译本（1968年的《思高圣经》）都没有采用“祂”；虽然如此，许多其他的圣经译本采用了这个字，另外还广泛出现在赞美诗和其他基督信仰的书刊中。（资料来源：Zetzsche）

《吕振中译本》的几个早期版本也使用“祂”来指称“上帝”；这个译本的《新约》于1946年译成，整部《圣经》于1970年完成。克拉默斯（Kramers）指出：“‘他’的这种新写法（即‘祂’）产生了一个小问题，就是在指称耶稣的时候，是否一律使用这个敬语代词？《吕振中译本》遵循的原则是，在称呼耶稣这个人的时候，用一般的‘他’，而在称呼耶稣神性的时候，特别是升天之后的耶稣，则用尊称‘祂’。”

Translator: Simon Wong

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also pronoun for “God”.

Translation commentary on Isaiah 53:11

This first line of verse 11 concludes the speech of the servant’s disciples, while verses 11b-12 are words of the LORD (see the introductory comments on this section [52.13–53.12]).

He shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul is literally “from the labor of his self he will see.” In the Hebrew text of Masoretic Text there is no object for the verb see. However, the word “light” is the object of this verb in Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint, so it seems this term was mistakenly omitted from Masoretic Text. Since the verb see in Hebrew always requires an object, Revised Standard Version suggests fruit, referring to the outcome or results of an action. Most modern versions follow Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint by adding “light,” which Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends. According to Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, “to see the light” means “to live.” New International Version expresses this by saying “he will see the light of life” (similarly Bible en français courant [1997]). However, the Hebrew text is vague about what God’s servant will see, even if “the light of life” is added. The travail of his soul (nephesh in Hebrew) refers to the inner turmoil and anguish of the servant. New Revised Standard Version says “Out of his anguish,” which expresses the sense well. Other helpful renderings are “After a life of suffering” (Good News Translation), “After having undergone so much suffering” (Bible en français courant), “After the ordeal he has endured” (New Jerusalem Bible), and “after his suffering” (Revised English Bible).

And be satisfied is the servant’s reaction to what he “sees.” He will feel his work is complete. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “and be satisfied with what he sees,” and New Jerusalem Bible has “and be content.” Good News Translation combines this clause with the verb see, saying “he will again have joy.”

Several versions have a different understanding of the first line of verse 11 than that in Revised Standard Version. They take the Hebrew word rendered “by his knowledge” in verse 11b to be the object of the verb be satisfied; for example New Revised Standard Version says “he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.” Other versions also link the Hebrew word for “by his knowledge” to the verb be satisfied, but they give it a different sense. They see it as referring to the servant’s experience or devotion; for example, Bible en français courant has “he will have a perfect experience of it [the light of life],” and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “He shall enjoy it to the full through his devotion.” Since there is no consensus on whether “by his knowledge” goes with the preceding verb be satisfied or with the following verb “make … to be accounted righteous,” translators may link it with either verb.

Translation examples for verse 11a are:

• Out of his anguish he will come to see light,
and find satisfaction.

• He will see the light of life,
and be satisfied [through his knowledge].

Since there is a change in speakers here from the servant’s disciples to Yahweh, this change should be marked in some manner, for example by placing a blank line between verse 11a and 11b. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch adds the quote frame “About him the LORD says.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh makes verses 11b-12 a separate stanza and places quote marks around it.

By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous: As noted in the comments on verse 11a, some versions link by his knowledge with the previous verb “be satisfied.” However, most link it with the following verb phrase, make many to be accounted righteous. So it will be by means of his knowledge that the servant will either find satisfaction or make others righteous. Just how knowledge can achieve either of these results is difficult to say. In this context his knowledge does not refer to the servant’s intellectual understanding, but to the painful experiences he endured, so Revised English Bible says “his humiliation,” and New American Bible has “his suffering.”

The righteous one, my servant is a hendiadys, meaning “my righteous servant.” For the righteous one, see comments on 3.10. Many commentators omit this phrase as being a scribal error, but there is no textual evidence to support this. My servant forms an inclusio for the fourth Servant Song since it also occurs in 52.13. Good News Translation renders the hendiadys as “My devoted servant, with whom I am pleased.”

Make many to be accounted righteous is literally “make the many righteous.” New Revised Standard Version is closer to the Hebrew with “make many righteous.” New International Version, Revised English Bible, and New Jerusalem Bible are similar to Revised Standard Version by saying “justify many.” Throughout Second Isaiah the Hebrew root (tsdq) for the verb rendered make … to be accounted righteous has the sense of rescue or deliverance. It is quite probable that here it means the suffering of the servant will lead to the rescue from exile of the Judeans in Babylonia. So this verb may have a physical sense, rather than a purely “spiritual” one. In English the verb “save” allows for both senses (see the examples below). The adjective many refers generally to all those who observed what was happening to the servant (see the comments on 52.14).

And he shall bear their iniquities indicates again that the servant suffered for the sake of others. He will carry the burden of the sins of the many. He was not guilty of the sins for which he suffered. The Hebrew term for bear is the same one rendered “carried” in verse 4, and the word for iniquities occurred earlier in verses 5-6. Revised English Bible and New Jerusalem Bible render their iniquities as “their guilt,” and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “their punishment.” Both these models are acceptable here (compare verse 6).

Good News Translation reverses the last two lines of verse 11, probably for the sake of logic and clarity: “will bear the punishment of many and for his sake I will forgive them.” However, this model is too free, so we do not recommend it.

Translation examples for verse 11b-d are:

• The experience of the righteous one, my servant, will save many,
and he will bear the burden of their sin.

• By his suffering the righteous one, my servant, will make many righteous,
and bear the burden of their sin.

• Because of his knowledge my servant, the righteous one, will save many,
and bear the burden of their guilt.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .