formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

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

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

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 2:1-12)

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 2:1-12:

When Jesus returned home to Capernaum,
such a mob crowded around the door
       that no standing room was left.

Jesus was teaching when four people arrived,
       carrying a disabled man on a mat.
Unable to squeeze through the mob,
they dug through the mud roof and let the man down
       in the middle of the room.

“Such faith!” thought Jesus. Then he said to the man,
       “My friend, your sins are forgiven.”

Some biblical scholars were there and started wondering,
“Does this guy think he’s God
       with the power to forgive sins?”

Jesus realized what was going on, so he said,
       “Is it easier to forgive this man or to heal him?
I’ll show you who has the power
       to forgive sins here and now.”

So Jesus said to the man,
       “Take your mat and head home!”

At this, the man rose to his feet, picked up his mat,
and headed home, while everyone stood there stunned.
       “Praise God!” they shouted,
       “We’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Translation commentary on Mark 2:8

Exegesis:

epignous (5.30; 6.33, 54) ‘perceiving,’ ‘recognizing.’ Some think that the preposition epi ‘upon’ has what is called the perfective force, and that the verb would therefore mean ‘to know thoroughly,’ ‘to be fully aware.’ J. A. Robinson, however, has convincingly demonstrated that the verb denotes knowledge reached by directing attention epi ‘upon,’ ‘toward’ a particular person or object. Moulton & Milligan quote examples from the papyri which bear out this sense.

tō pneumati autou ‘in his spirit,’ i.e. ‘in himself’ (not ‘in his (Holy) Spirit’). Taylor calls this phrase the ‘dative of sphere’; Manson and Translator’s New Testament translate ‘by his spirit.’

pneuma ‘spirit’: this is the third meaning given the word in Mark (cf. 1.8 and reff. for ‘Holy Spirit’; 1.23 and reff. for ‘unclean spirit’). The meaning here (and in 8.12 and 14.38) is, as Arndt & Gingrich define it, “the source and seat of insight, feeling, and will, generally as the representative part of the inner life of man.” In 14.38 it is opposed to the outer life, the physical.

ti ‘why?’: Black takes this to be another example of a rhetorical question, expressing dismayed surprise (cf. previous verse).

Translation:

It is often difficult to use for spirit in this verse the same term which may be employed for Holy Spirit, and it is especially important to avoid a word for spirit which will imply a demon or a familiar spirit. That is to say, one must not give the impression that Jesus was using a familiar spirit to ferret out the thoughts of the scribes (the technique ascribed often to mediums) or that he had some magic power to send out his spirit to pry into the thought of others (a not infrequent idea of the activity of shaman). On the other hand, this spirit was not the Holy Spirit, but the spirit of Jesus as a focus of intellectual activity and discernment. The equivalent of this aspect of personality is, however, in many other languages spoken of as distinct from any word for spirit. For example, in South Bolivian Quechua, Southern Bobo Madaré, and Chol one must use ‘heart’ and in Conob one must employ a term which identifies the ‘viscera.’

In some languages one cannot ‘question within oneself,’ for the word ‘to question’ means to ask another. Hence, in this verse, as well as verse 6, one must use a verb such as ‘to think’ or ‘to wonder’ (Amganad Ifugao).

Because of the shift in subjects, i.e. Jesus as the subject of the perceiving and the scribes as the subject of the questioning, it is often advisable to break the sentence and to begin the latter half as a new sentence, e.g. ‘he said to them…’ (Shilluk).

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 .

SIL Translator's Notes on Mark 2:8

2:8–11

Jesus was comparing two ideas in these verses: forgiving sins and healing a paralyzed man. He used the form of a question to make the people think. He was not saying that either one of these things was easy. They are both impossible for a person to do by himself. Only someone with God’s power and authority can do either one of them. In these verses Jesus showed that he had that power and authority.

Many Jews believed that when a person was sick, it was because he or someone in his family had sinned (see John 5:8; 5:14; 9:1–2). They believed that he could not become well until God forgave his sins.

2:8a

At once: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as At once indicates that 2:8a happened as soon as 2:7 had happened. Jesus perceived what the teachers of the law were thinking as soon as they had the thoughts.

Here are some other ways that English versions translate this idea:

Immediately (New International Version)
-or-
Right away (Contemporary English Version)

knew in His spirit: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as knew in His spirit is an idiom. It means that he “perceived” or “realized.” In some languages there may be a different idiom to express this meaning. For example:

knew in his mind/heart

In other languages it may not be natural to specify a location for knowing. In that case, the phrase in His spirit can be left implicit. For example, both the Contemporary English Version and Good News Bible have:

Jesus knew what they were thinking

His spirit: The phrase His spirit refers to Jesus’ own mind, not to the Holy Spirit.

2:8b

they: The pronoun they refers to the teachers of the law.

thinking this way within themselves: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as thinking this way within themselvesis the same idiom as in 2:6b. See the note there.

2:8c

Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?”: This is a rhetorical question. It functions as a rebuke. Jesus was telling the religious leaders that they were wrong to think that he was blaspheming.

There are at least two ways to translate this rebuke:

• As a rhetorical question. For example, the Good News Bible says:

Why do you think such things?

• As a statement or command. For example:

You are mistaken/wrong in what you are thinking.
-or-
Do not think like that!

Use whichever form is most natural to express a rebuke in your language.

these things: The words these things refer to the teachers’ thoughts in 2:7a, 2:7b, and 2:7c.

© 2008 by SIL International®

Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.