complete verse (John 5:21)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 5:21:

  • Uma: “Like my Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also I give life to whomever I choose.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “My Father God causes dead people to be alive. Likewise also I, the Son of God, I am able to make alive whoever I wish.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “As for my father, he raised the dead and he gives them life. And I, his child, life also is what I will give anyone whom I choose.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Because my Father, he makes-alive the dead, and that also is what I his Child will do, because I make-alive whomever I want to make-alive.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For in the way in which the Father raises-to-life those who have died, like that indeed the Son will raise-to-life as many as he wants to raise-to-life.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The Father causes to be resurrected those who died. Also the Son of God will cause to be all who he wants to.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Father (address for God)

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. )

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. 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. )

See also Lord and my / our Father.

Honorary "rare" construct denoting God (“give”)

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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, atae-rare-ru (与えられる) or “give” is used.

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

Translation commentary on John 5:21

The phrase Just as … in the same way translate particles in Greek which help to convey the exact parallelism between the activity of the Father and the Son. The same particles occur again in verse 26.

Raises the dead and gives them life expresses a constant activity of the Father.

In languages requiring an identification of the relation between kinship terms, verse 21 may be rendered “In the same way that my Father raises the dead and causes them to live, in just that same way I, his Son, give life to those that I want to.” It is also possible to translate “… in just that same way I give life to those I want to” or “… to those I choose to give life to.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .