12And there was considerable complaining about him among the crowds. While some were saying, “He is a good man,” others were saying, “No, he is deceiving the crowd.”
Following are a number of back-translations of John 7:12:
Uma: “And the people, they murmured about him. There were some who said: ‘He is a good person.’ There were also some who said: ‘No! He is a deceiver!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Many people were whispering about Isa there in the crowds. Some said, ‘Isa is a good person.’ Others also said, ‘Not so, he is fooling the people.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And the many people who gathered there in the village of Jerusalem argued. Some said, ‘He is a good person.’ And others also answered, ‘No, he teaches lies to the people.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “As for the gathered people, they kept-whispering arguing about him. Some said, ‘His character/custom is really (appreciation particle) good,’ while others for-their-part said, ‘Come-on-now, certainly not, because he deceives the people.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “There were now numerous under-cover discussions by the people concerning him. There were some who said, ‘Expl., he’s a good person.’ But those others, they said, ‘Expl., certainly not! What he’s doing is misleading everyone.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “There where the people were, many talked about Jesus. Some said, ‘He is a good man.’ But others said, ‘What good does he do? He just is deceiving the people.'” (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 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. ).
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®).
Much whispering is also the reading of New English Bible. New American Bible (“there was much guarded debate”) and Phillips (“there was an undercurrent of discussion”) paint too formal a picture. Whispering comes from the same root as the verb used in 6.41 and 61. In the two earlier passages it was translated grumbling.
In some languages one cannot speak of much whispering. Rather, it is necessary to indicate that the people were whispering about Jesus, for example, “Many people in the crowd were whispering with one another about Jesus” or “… talking in quiet ways” or “… speaking with one another so that others would not overhear them.”
Some Greek manuscripts read “crowds” (New English Bible, Goodspeed, Phillips) in the place of crowd, and the plural is evidently the basis for Jerusalem Bible, “People stood in groups whispering about him,” but Jerusalem Bible does give as an alternative rendering “there was whispering about him in the crowds.” The singular crowd is more in keeping with the usage in John’s Gospel (the plural “crowds” occurs nowhere else in this Gospel). However, the plural “crowds” has better textual support. Once again the UBS Committee on the Greek text evaluates their choice as “D,” because of the high degree of doubt regarding the reading selected for the text.
To indicate the opposition or differences of opinion concerning Jesus, it may be necessary to say “some people contended … but others objected, saying….”
He fools the people may be rendered in some languages “he lies to the people” or “he is leading the people astray” or “he is leading the people off in the wrong way.”
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 .
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