Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 19:36:
Noongar: “As Jesus was sitting on the donkey, people put their clothes on the road in front of him.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “When Yesus passed by riding that donkey, the people spread out their shirts/clothes in the middle of the road, as a sign of their honor.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “While they were on their way, the people spread their clothes on the road he was passing.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then, because people wanted to show their great respect for Jesus, they spread out on his way their cloaks.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “When he was then riding, there were others who spread [diff. word] their outer clothes on the road to thereby-praise him.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Jesus continued on to Jerusalem riding now. What the people did was, they were spreading out their cloaks on the trail, as a sign of their respecting/honoring and welcoming Jesus.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Bariai: “He walked and went, and the crowd arranged their long clothing on the road.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Kupsabiny: “As Jesus was moving/riding, some people removed their outer clothes and spread them on the road as they went along.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Mairasi: “He Himself rode on the donkey then passed by then the people spread out their garments on the path to magnify His Name.” (Source: Enggavoter 2004)
Hiligaynon: “As he is-riding going to Jerusalem, the people spread-out their cloaks/clothes on the road as honor to him.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains in the following way: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
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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, ik-are-ru (行かれる) or “go” is used.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
poreuomenou de autou ‘as he went on,’ or, in a more specialized meaning, ‘as he rode on.’
hupestrōnnuon ta himatia autōn en tē hodō ‘they spread their clothes on the road.’ The subject of hupestrōnnuon is best understood as referring to the people that were present.
hupostrōnnumi ‘to spread out under.’
Translation:
They spread their garments on the road i.e. in token of reverence. If it would not be understood as such, an explanatory note will be necessary. — They, having indefinite force here, is often better rendered ‘people’ (Ekari, Kituba), ‘there were some who’ (Tzeltal). On the road, or, “before him on the road” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation), ‘on the road he went/rode over’ (Javanese).
Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.
As He rode along: The Greek clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as As He rode along refers to Jesus riding along on the donkey. He was still traveling on the road to Jerusalem.
19:36b
the people spread: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the people spread is literally “they-spread.” Here “they” probably refers to Jesus’ disciples and the large crowd of disciples mentioned in 19:37b. Matthew 21:8 calls this “a very large crowd.”
Most English versions use a general subject here like “they” or people. It is also possible to translate more specifically to fit with 19:37. For example:
many followers of Jesus
spread their cloaks on the road: People spread their cloaks on the road in front of Jesus so that he would ride over them as the donkey walked along. The people did this to show great honor to him. In many languages, it may be necessary to indicate the meaning of this action. For example:
spread their cloaks on the road ⌊to honor him⌋
It may also be helpful to include a footnote to explain the meaning. For example:
The people spread their cloaks on the road in front of Jesus to show that he was worthy of great honor. They were probably showing that they were ready to submit to him as king. See 2 Kings 9:13.
spread their cloaks: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as spread implies that the action was repeated. The people kept putting their coats out in front of Jesus so the donkey would walk on them. Some ways to translate this repeated action are:
people kept spreading their cloaks (New Revised Standard Version) -or-
they were spreading their coats (New American Standard Bible)
cloaks: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as cloaks is the same word as in 19:35a–b.
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