Honorary "are" construct denoting God (“say”)

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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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) 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, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.

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

Translation commentary on John 8:28

As in verse 22, so translates the Greek particle oun.

It is difficult to know how to translate the verb lift up. In many translations it sounds as though the Son of Man had fallen down and the people were helping him up. This same verb is used of the Son of Man in 3.14. Generally, if not always, it has a double connotation: Jesus’ crucifixion and his ascension to the Father. Both in 3.14 and here the primary focus seems to be on his crucifixion, and so it may be best to translate “when you lift up the Son of Man on a cross.” By making explicit the mention of the cross, the reader may miss the further implication of Jesus’ exaltation to the Father. However, to translate merely lift up may leave the reader totally ignorant of either of these two meanings. Since in the context the focus is upon the cross rather than the exaltation, it is better to make that meaning explicit, for example, “to be put up on a cross,” rather than for the reader to be left completely ignorant by a translation such as “lift up” or “put up.”

Son of Man was discussed in 1.51.

I Am Who I Am again translates the absolute use of “I Am” in John’s Gospel (see 4.26). As in verse 14, it may be necessary to translate I Am Who I Am as “I am the one who I really am” or “I am the one who I have said I am.”

Jesus’ words I do nothing on my own authority complements what he said in verse 26: I tell the world only what I have heard from him.

On my own authority is the same expression used in 5.30, which, along with 6.38, is parallel in meaning to this verse. It may be necessary to render it differently in some languages, for example, “whatever I do is not just because I myself want to do it” or “if I do something, it is not merely because I myself have determined to do it.”

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 .