complete verse (John 9:10)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 9:10:

  • Uma: “So they asked him: ‘What happened with the result that you (sing.) can see?'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “‘How do you come to see?’ they said.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And the people said, ‘If it is you, then how were your eyes cured?'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Whereupon they inquired of him saying, ‘And now here you (sing.) are able-to-see?'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “‘Well how did you get to be able to see? Why are you no longer blind?’ said those people.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “He was asked, ‘How is it that your eyes were opened then?'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

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 9:10

In Greek the words they asked him (literally “therefore they were saying to him”) come first in the sentence. The verbs said in verse 9 and asked in this verse are in the imperfect tense in Greek, perhaps for the sake of making the action more vivid.

The Greek text has literally “How were your eyes opened?” Such an expression, however, may have little relation to the meaning of “being able to see,” since the opening of the eyes might be understood merely as the opening of the eyelids, rather than as the ability to see. How is it that you can now see? must be rendered in some languages by a causative expression, for example, “What is it that caused you now to see?” or “What happened to cause you to see?” or “… to be able to see?”

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 .