formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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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.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

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

Translation commentary on John 7:23

The argument of this verse must be understood in the light of the preceding verse. Among the Jews, if two laws conflicted, it was necessary to decide which law had priority. The Jews had already decided that the law of circumcision had priority over the law of the Sabbath day. Jesus now argues that the law of mercy likewise overrides the law of the Sabbath day. From the Jewish point of view, however, this was not true. They would argue that if a person’s life was in immediate danger, then the law of life would have priority over the Sabbath day. But in this situation the man’s life was not in immediate danger. He had been lame for 38 years and Jesus could have waited one more day to heal him, so as not to break the law of the Sabbath day. Jesus argues once again from the lesser to the greater: the law of circumcision, which has priority over the law of the Sabbath, concerns only a part of a man’s body. How much more, then, does the law of mercy have priority over the Sabbath day, since it concerns a man’s whole body!

The passive verbs is circumcised and is not broken may be expressed as active, for example, “If you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath in order not to break Moses’ Law” or “… in order that you may keep the law of Moses” or “… abide by the Law given by Moses.”

Make a man completely well is literally “make a whole man well.” It is translated by Revised Standard Version “made a man’s whole body well.” New English Bible has the same meaning, though with a rather high level of language, “for giving health on the Sabbath to the whole of a man’s body.” Moffatt sees implicit here a contrast between the act of circumcision and Jesus’ deed of healing a man, and so translates “for curing, not cutting, the entire body of a man”; but it is doubtful that one should attempt in this particular passage to bring out such a contrast.

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 .