complete verse (John 7:47)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 7:47:

  • Uma: “Those Parisi people answered back/argued: ‘Ei! Has he deceived you too?” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “The Pariseo answered them, they said, ‘Has he fooled you too?” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And the Pharisee people said to them, ‘Have you also believed his lies?” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Then the Pharisees mocked/downgraded them saying, ‘Has he also deceived you?” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “‘Really you too apparently have now been misled also!’ said those Pariseo.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The Pharisees then said to the police, ‘You also are deceived.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Pharisee

The Greek that is a transliteration of the Hebrew Pərūšīm and is typically transliterated into English as “Pharisee” is transliterated in Mandarin Chinese as Fǎlìsài (法利賽 / 法利赛) (Protestant) or Fǎlìsāi (法利塞) (Catholic). In Chinese, transliterations can typically be done with a great number of different and identical-sounding characters. Often the meaning of the characters are not relevant, unless they are chosen carefully as in these cases. The Protestant Fǎlìsài can mean something like “Competition for the profit of the law” and the Catholic Fǎlìsāi “Stuffed by/with the profit of the law.” (Source: Zetzsche 1996, p. 51)

In Finnish Sign Language it is translated with the sign signifying “prayer shawl”. (Source: Tarja Sandholm)


“Pharisee” in Finnish Sign Language (source )

In British Sign Language it is translated with a sign that depicts “pointing out the law.” (Source: Anna Smith)


“Pharisee” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)

In French Sign Language it is translated with a sign that depicts the box of the phylacteries attached to the forehead:


“Pharisees” in French Sign Language (source: La Bible en langue des signes française )

Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023) translates it into English as Observant. He explains (p. 302): “Pharisee has become a public, universal pejorative term for a hypocrite. Pharisees were observant of the interpretation of the Covenant Code called the ‘tradition of the elders.’ They conformed their behaviors to the interpretation. Among the various groups of Jews at the time of Jesus, they were perhaps closest to Jesus in their overall concern to make a radical commitment to the will of God (as they understood it).”

See also Nicodemus.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Pharisees .

2nd person pronoun with low 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 second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.

In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also first person pronoun with low register and third person pronoun with low register.

Translation commentary on John 7:47

In the question of the Pharisees, you is emphatic. Revised Standard Version therefore translates the question “Are you led astray, you also?”

Did he fool you, too? is actually a passive construction in Greek, which is more literally “were you also led astray?” The implied agent of the passive verb “were led astray” is Jesus (he). Good News Translation changes the passive construction into an active one, and makes the agent he the subject. The questions raised by the Pharisees here and in verse 48 are so formed as to expect the answer “No.” In order to indicate the negative response to this question, it is possible to translate in some languages “We hope he did not fool you” or “… deceive you” or “… lead you 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 .