accuse

The Greek that is translated as “accuse him” in English is translated in Seri as “accuse him of doing that which was not permitted,” since an object to “accuse” was required. (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)

Sabbath

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “Sabbath” in English is rendered as “day we rest” in Tzotzil, in Mairasi as “Jew’s Rest Day,” in Quiotepec Chinantec as “day when people of Israel rested,” in Shilluk as “day of God,” in Obolo as Usen Mbuban or “Holy Day,” and in Mandarin Chinese as ānxírì (安息日) or “rest day” (literally: “peace – rest – day”). (Sources: Tzotzil: Marion Cowan in Notes on Translation with Drill, p. 169ff; Mairasi: Enggavoter 2004; Quiotepec Chinantec: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.; Shilluk: Nida 1964, p. 237; Obolo: Enene Enene; Chinese: Jost Zetzsche)

In Matumbi it is translated as Sabato ya Ayahudi or “Sabbath of the Jews,” to distinguish it from the Islamic Sabbath (which is Friday) or the Christian Sabbath (which is Sunday). (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)

In the old Khmer version as well as in the first new translation this term was rendered as “day of rest” (Thngai Chhup Somrak / ​ថ្ងៃ​ឈប់​សំរាក). Considered inadequate to convey its religious meaning (not only about cessation of work, but also in honor of Yahweh as the Creator), the committee for the Today’s Khmer Version (publ. 2005) decided to keep the Hebrew word and use its transliterated form Thgnai Sabath (​ថ្ងៃ​សប្ប័ទ). “The Buddhist word Thngai Seil ‘day of merits’ used by some Catholics was once under consideration but was rejected because it did not receive unanimous support.” (Source: Joseph Hong in The Bible Translator 1996, p. 233ff. )

In Spanish, the translation is either día de reposo (“day of rest”) or sábado (usually: “Saturday,” derived from the Greek and Hebrew original). Nida (1947, p. 239f.) explains that problem for Spanish and other languages in its sphere of influence: “In translation ‘Sabbath’ into various aboriginal languages of Latin America, a considerable number of translators have used the Spanish sábado, ‘Saturday,’ because it is derived from the Hebrew sabbath and seems to correspond to English usage as well. The difficulty is that sábado means only ‘Saturday’ for most people. There is no religious significance about this word as the is with ‘Sabbath’ in English. Accordingly the [readers] cannot understand the significance of the persecution of Jesus because he worked on ‘Saturday.’ It has been found quite advantageous to use the translation ‘day of rest,’ for this accurately translated the Hebrew meaning of the term and resolves the problem in connection with the prohibitions placed upon some types of activities.”

In French Sign Language it is translated with a sign that depicts closing of the blinds of a store:


“Sabbath” in French Sign Language (source: La Bible en langue des signes française )

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Sabbath .

complete verse (Matthew 12:10)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 12:10:

  • Uma: “There, there was a person whose one hand was dead. Several people searched for a wrong/mistake of Yesus, maybe he would work on the day of worship. That’s why they asked Yesus, they said: ‘Teacher, is it allowed to heal a sick person on the day of worship?'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “There in the prayer-house was a man with a crippled/withered hand. There were also people there who wanted to find fault/sin in Isa in order to accuse him. Therefore they asked him, they said, ‘Is it breaking the law to heal on the day-of-no-work?'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And there inside the worshipping place, there was a person whose ligaments in one of his hands were dead. There were also there some people who were looking for a way that they might accuse Jesus of breaking the law. So they asked him, ‘On the Day of Rest if we treat a sick person so that he gets well, do we break the law?'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Now there was there a man whose one arm/hand was atrophied. There were also some people who were looking-for something-they -could-accuse Jesus of so they would have a basis-for-pressing-charges, therefore they said to him, ‘Does our law allow us to heal the sick on the day for-resting?'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “There was a man there who had a useless hand/arm. There were also there a few people who were looking for something which could be the grounds of their having something to hold against Jesus. Therefore they questioned him saying, ‘Is it not against the law to heal the sick on the Day of Rest?'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “There at the church was a man who had a crippled hand. But the people were waiting to find some word to accuse Jesus about, therefore a question was put to Jesus, they said: ‘Do you think that there is permission to heal a sick person on the day of rest?'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

pronoun for "God"

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 Kouya, Godié, Northern Grebo, Eastern Krahn, Western Krahn, and Guiberoua Béte, all languages of the Kru family in Western Africa, a different kind of systems of pronouns is used (click or tap here to read more):

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. ).

See also first person pronoun referring to God.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Gender of God .

Translation: Chinese

在现代汉语中，第三人称单数代词的读音都是一样的（tā），但是写法并不一样，取决于性别以及是否有生命，即男性为“他”，女性为“她”，动物、植物和无生命事物为“它”（在香港和台湾的汉语使用，动物则为“牠”）。这些字的部首偏旁表明了性别（男人、女人、动物、无生命事物），而另一偏旁通常旁提示发音。

到1930年为止，基督教新教《圣经》经过整整一百年的翻译已经拥有了十几个译本，当时的一位圣经翻译者王元德新造了一个“神圣的”代词“祂”，偏旁“礻”表示神明。一般汉语读者会立即知道这字的发音是tā，而这个偏旁表示属灵的事物，因此他们明白这个字指出，三位一体的所有位格都没有性别之分，而单单是上帝。

然而，最重要的新教圣经译本（1919年的《和合本》）和天主教圣经译本（1968年的《思高圣经》）都没有采用“祂”；虽然如此，许多其他的圣经译本采用了这个字，另外还广泛出现在赞美诗和其他基督信仰的书刊中。（资料来源：Zetzsche）

《吕振中译本》的几个早期版本也使用“祂”来指称“上帝”；这个译本的《新约》于1946年译成，整部《圣经》于1970年完成。克拉默斯（Kramers）指出：“‘他’的这种新写法（即‘祂’）产生了一个小问题，就是在指称耶稣的时候，是否一律使用这个敬语代词？《吕振中译本》遵循的原则是，在称呼耶稣这个人的时候，用一般的‘他’，而在称呼耶稣神性的时候，特别是升天之后的耶稣，则用尊称‘祂’。”

Translator: Simon Wong

Translation commentary on Matthew 12:10

And behold: see comments on 1.20. The formula here functions to call attention to the man who had a paralyzed hand. Some translators will use a phrase like “And it happened that there…” or “There was a man there” (Barclay). Others will make verse 10 a continuation of the sentence begun in verse 9. Good News Translation is an example, and another possibility is “… he went into their synagogue, and there he saw a man….”

A man with a withered hand: withered (so also New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, Barclay) is a literal meaning of the word, as is “dried up.” However, when used of diseased body parts, the meaning is more naturally expressed in English as “paralyzed” or “crippled.” It is possible to say either “a man with a paralyzed hand” or “a man whose hand was paralyzed.”

The word translated hand generally has that meaning, though it may also mean “arm” (New English Bible).

Since the text does not specify who they refers to, instead of “Pharisees” (as in Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), some translators use a general term like “Some people” (Good News Translation) or “the people there.”

Is it lawful (Good News Translation “Is it against our Law”) has reference to the Jewish Law. Is it lawful has been rendered as “Is it allowed by our Law” or “Does the Law of Moses permit.”

Heal may require an object, as in “heal people” or “cure people of their diseases.”

And they asked him … so that they might accuse him: Good News Translation both changes the order of the two clauses and alters the dependent clause to an independent clause: “Some people were there who wanted to accuse Jesus of doing wrong, so they asked him.” New English Bible, though retaining the order of the two clauses, does transform the dependent clause to an independent one: “They wanted to frame a charge against him.”

Might accuse (Good News Translation “wanted to accuse … of doing wrong”) translates a legal technical term meaning “bring charges (against someone in court).” As Good News Translation and New English Bible have restructured the verb in English, it requires an object, which will probably be necessary also for other languages. Barclay does noteworthy restructuring: “In an attempt to find something which they could use as a charge against him, they asked him….” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch identifies the unidentified they and translates “The Pharisees had watched Jesus closely and so they questioned him….”

These people, or Pharisees, asked Jesus a question that they hoped would produce an answer from him that would contradict the teachings of the Law. Then they could accuse him of doing or saying something wrong. This is why the purpose clause is used in the text, so that they might accuse him. Good News Translation, New English Bible, and Barclay cited above have all attempted to convey this meaning. Other ways are “Some people were there who wanted to be able to accuse Jesus of breaking the Law (of Moses), so they asked him…” or “Some people there asked Jesus, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?’ They asked him that because they wanted to have reason to accuse him of doing wrong.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .