complete verse (John 7:46)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 7:46:

  • Uma: “They answered: ‘Because we (excl.) have never before heard a person who speaks like he does!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “The guards answered, they said, ‘Nobody has ever taught like the teaching of that person.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And the guards answered, ‘The reason we weren’t able to seize him is because his preaching was very good. There has never been a man who could preach like his preaching.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘Emphatically no person can-equal his way of speaking,’ answered the police.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “They replied, saying, ‘Very respectfully to you, all this time, there’s been no man whose sayings were as wonderful.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The police said, ‘Never any where have we heard a person speak like this man does.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

3rd person pronoun with high register (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 third person singular and plural pronoun (“he,” “she,” “it” and their various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. While it’s not uncommon to avoid pronouns altogether in Japanese, there are is a range of third person pronouns that can be used.

In these verses a number of them are used that pay particularly much respect to the referred person (or, in fact, God, as in Exodus 15:2), including kono kata (この方), sono kata (その方), and ano kata (あの方), meaning “this person,” “that person,” and “that person over there.” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also third person pronoun with exalted register.

Translation commentary on John 7:46

In the reply of the guards this man seems to be emphatic.

Their response must be understood as a reference to the content of what Jesus had said. It would be wrong to suggest that there was something unusual about Jesus’ manner of speech or his accent or pronunciation. One may say in some languages “No one has ever said the things this man has said” or “What this man has said is different from what all other men have said.”

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 .