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. )

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Mark 12:13-17)

Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Mark 12:13-17:

Some theologians and politicians got together
and sent a committee to trick Jesus
       into making a false statement.

“Teacher,” they said, “you’re absolutely honest,
you don’t show favoritism,
       and you’re straight forward about God’s demands.
One small matter: Should we pay taxes to the government?”

Jesus knew what they were up to, so he replied
“Don’t try to play power politics with me!
       Show me a coin of the state.”

They handed him a coin, and he asked,
“Whose face is on this coin?
       What are these buildings?”
“It’s the face of our ruler,” they answered,
       “and our national headquarters.”

“Then pay the government what you owe,” said Jesus,
       “and give God what belongs to God.”

The entire committee stood there amazed.

Translation commentary on Mark 12:17

Exegesis:

ta Kaisaros ‘the things that are Caesar’s’; ‘what belongs to the emperor.’

apodote (only here in Mark) ‘give back,’ ‘return,’ ‘pay,’ ‘render.’

exethaumazon ep’ autō ‘they marvelled greatly at him.’

ekthaumazō (only here in N.T.: cf. thaumazō 5.20) ‘to wonder greatly,’ ‘to marvel much.’

epi ‘at’: for this use the preposition cf. 1.22.

Translation:

Render to is equivalent in many languages to ‘pay to’ or ‘give back to,’ in the sense that the coin had been minted by Caesar’s government. Accordingly, one can translate this passage as ‘pay back to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar and pay back to God the things that belong to God.’

For amazed see 1.22, 27. However, at him may require adaptation in the form of a causal statement, e.g. ‘because of him’ or ‘because of what he said,’ in instances in which one cannot say ‘amazed at a person,’ but only ‘amazed at what a person does’ or ‘because of a person.’

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .