29And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my name’s sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.
Lloyd Peckham explains the Mairasi translation: “In secret stories, not knowable to women nor children, there was a magical fruit of life. If referred to vaguely, without specifying the specific ‘fruit,’ it can be an expression for eternity.”
Some of the Hebrew and Greek phrases that are translated in English in association with “name,” including “in the name of,” “in my name,” “in your name,” “on the account of my name,” “on the account of your name” (according to a classification by Robert Bratcher in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 72ff. , phrases that belong to the categories of “Agency or instrumentality” and “Representation”) present a number of challenges in other languages.
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Eugene Nida (1947, p 178ff.) explains this way:
“The biblical attitudes toward human personality are of great theological importance. There is, however, only one word which produces any considerable difficulty in other languages. This is the word ‘name.’ The great difference attached to the significance of the name of a person in the Bible times in contrast with our own culture is very important. Note such phrases as ‘whatsoever ye shall ask in my name,’ John 14:13, ‘believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God,’ John 3:18, and ‘life through his name,’ John 20:31. These expressions are generally difficult for us to understand, for the word ‘name’ does not mean the same to us as it meant to those of Bible times. To them the name was the symbolization of the authority and personality of the individual who possessed the name. To us a name is far less important. It may be changed whenever one can convince a judge that another name might be more economically advantageous. The name is also a legal method of giving one’s written assent to certain business transactions, but to us it is not the symbol of the personality.”
The translation in Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl typically is “in someone’s authority” (for instance “I have come in my Father’s name” in John 5:43 becomes “I have come on my Father’s authority”) (source Nida 1947, p. 179), or in Highland Puebla Nahuatl with the more paraphrastic equivalent “as though on orders from you” or in Tzeltal as “by your authority, so he said” (both examples for Mark 9:38 and 39, see Bratcher / Nida).
In Guhu-Samane, Mark 11:9 (in English: “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord”) is translated as “Blessed is the Lord’s namesake who comes.” “In the name of the Lord” caused “puzzlement [because] “has he just assumed the name of the Lord, valid or otherwise? [But] with ‘blessed is the Lord’s namesake who comes’ the strong bond between the namesake and the important ancestor for whom named entitles the namesake to the deference due the ancestor. Thought very proper in this context.” (Source: Ernest L. Richert in Notes on Translation December 1963: p. 4-7; reprinted in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 198ff. )
Barclay Newman (see The Bible Translator 1974, pp, 432ff. ) reports on different solutions for the translation of the Today’s Malay Version (Alkitab Berita Baik, 1987):
In Malay “the phrase ‘in my name’ is problematic (…) since it sounds like the use of magic. For this reason [the English] Today’s English Version (Good News Bible) was followed at such passages as John 5:43 and 10:25, where ‘in the name of my Father’ is translated as ‘with my Father’s authority’ and ‘by my Father’s authority’ [respectively]. In John 12:13 ‘in the name of the Lord’ has become ‘in his (the Lord’s) behalf,’ following the common language German translation Die Gute Nachricht. In John 14:13, ‘because you are my followers’ is used, in John in 15:16, 16:23 and 24 ‘as my followers,’ in John 17:11 ‘by your own power, the power you gave me,’ and in John 14:26 ‘in my place.'”
Other translations for “in the name of Jesus Christ” include “in the authority of Jesus Christ” (Isthmus Mixe), “calling on Jesus Christ” (Teutila Cuicatec), “calling the name of Jesus Christ over you” (Ayutla Mixtec), “because of Jesus” (Tepeuxila Cuicatec), “by the power of the name of Jesus Christ” (Chichimeca-Jonaz), “the word of Jesus Christ is strong” (Lalana Chinantec) (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), and “mentioning the name of Jesus” (Elhomwe — source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext).
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 19:29:
Uma: “Whoever leaves behind his relatives, his father or his mother, his children or his home or his garden, because of following me, he will definitely receive a reward/return a hundred times, and he will also receive goodness of life forever.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “If a person leaves his house or his brothers and sisters or his mother and father or his children or his land (fields), if he leaves these because of his love for me, God will reward him richly (lit. cause-much), and he will be given life without end.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And whoever has left his house, his sibling, his father, his mother, his child, and his land because he follows me, he will reap a hundredfold multiplication of that which he has left. And besides that, he will be given life forever.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Whoever leaves his house, his siblings/cousins, his father and his mother, his children and his land because of his being joined to me, he will receive one hundred times more than the worth of what he left-behind and he will also join-in-inheriting life that has no end.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “And whoever is able to leave (implies leave when necessary, not total desertion) his household, his siblings, parents and his children, or his livelihood, just because of his serving me, he really will receive one hundred times as much (lit. one hundred doubles), and he will be given life without ending too.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Who all have left their homes, who have left their siblings, who have left their fathers, who have left their mothers, who have left their wives, who have left their children, who have left their lands in order to follow me, will a hundred times more like it find than what all they left. In the day which is to come they will be given lift forever.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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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 first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
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®).
In this verse Jesus’ promise of reward is extended beyond the circle of the twelve to encompass all who will ever be called upon to make a sacrifice for him.
Left (so most translations) here means “left behind” or even “given up.”
New English Bible very effectively combines houses … or lands as “land or houses” and places the phrase following the listing of relatives: “And anyone who has left brothers or sisters, father, mother, or children, land or houses.” Lands translates the same word used in 13.44. In the plural it can mean either “farm (or, farms)” or “village (or, villages).” It can be translated as “property” or “fields” (Good News Translation).
For my name’s sake appears as “for my sake” in a number of translations (Good News Translation, An American Translation, Phillips, New American Bible, New International Version, Barclay). It will be similar in meaning to the formulas used in 18.5, 20; see also comment at 10.22. One may translate “for the sake of following me” or “for the sake of being my disciple.”
A hundredfold or “a hundred times more” (see Moffatt, Barclay, New Jerusalem Bible, Luther 1984, New International Version) represents the wording of some Greek manuscripts; others have the equivalent of “many times as much” (New American Bible, New English Bible, An American Translation, Phillips, Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). The UBS Greek New Testament prefers the wording followed by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation (see Mark 10.30), though the other wording obviously has strong support (see Luke 18.30).
When translating a hundredfold as “a hundred times more,” it may be necessary to indicate what it is a hundred times more than. “A hundred times more than they gave up” will do this.
Translators may also have to specify from whom people will receive, as in “will receive from God” or “God will give those people.”
Inherit eternal life differs slightly from the phrase “have eternal life” of verse 16. Inherit is the traditional verb used in the Scriptures of God’s bestowal of blessings on his people. But to translate literally may imply to some readers that God has died. Therefore Good News Translation translates “will be given eternal life.” Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition expresses will receive … and inherit … by one verb: “will receive it all back many times over and in addition eternal life.” It is also possible to identify the “hidden agent” of the verb inherit as God: “God will give him eternal life as well.” For eternal life, see the discussion at verse 16.
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 .
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