Honorary "rare" construct denoting God (“order/command”)

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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 morphemes rare (られ) or are (され) are 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, meiji-rare-ru (命じられる) or “order/command” is used.

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

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Matthew 4:1-11)

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 Matthew 4:1-11:

The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert,
where he was tested by the devil and ate nothing
       for forty days and forty nights.

When Jesus was about starved, the devil came up and said:
“You claim to be God’s Son,
       so turn these stones into bread!”

“Read the Bible,” said Jesus,
“Nourishment from God’s Word
       is all anyone really needs’.”

Now on the pinnacle of the Jerusalem temple,
       the devil challenged Jesus, “Jump off! —
Like the Bible says, ‘God will send angels
       to protect your feet from the stones’.”

“Read it again,” replied Jesus. “It says,
Don’t ever try to put God to the test!”

Finally, from the top of a high mountain,
the devil pointed out the authority of all earthly kingdoms,
       “They’re yours.’ Just kneel and worship me.”

“Enough of you!” answered Jesus,
       “The Bible teaches us to worship only God.”

So the devil departed,
       and angels descended to wait on Jesus.

Translation commentary on Matthew 4:6

The narration continues from verse 5, so that and said to him is part of the same sentence. However, many translators begin a new sentence at this point.

The use of If in the clause If you are the Son of God is like that in Matthew 4.3: “Since you are God’s Son” or “Seeing that you are God’s Son,” as well as “If you are God’s Son,” are acceptable models.

Throw yourself down means “Jump down” or “Fling yourself,” or possibly “Let yourself fall.” In some languages it may be necessary to add “to the ground” or “to the bottom.”

The relation shown by for is usually indicated by a similar word in the translation; for example, “because.” However, there are languages where it is better to make more explicit the connection between what the Devil suggests Jesus should do and the scriptural justification for it. For example, translations may have “You can do that because of what it says in the scripture. It says….”

For the expression it is written, see comments on Matthew 4.4.

The quotation from Psalm 91.11-12 closely follows the Septuagint, except that here the second line of verse 11 (“to guard you in all your ways”) is omitted, since it has no relevance for the context. Quite possibly this psalm was chosen because verse 11 tells how God appointed his angels to protect the faithful believer, and verse 13 tells how the believer will triumph over wild animals.

He: in the quotation from the psalm, both Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch specifically identify the subject He as “God.”

The phrase give his angels charge of you can be “God will have his angels be responsible for you” or “God will tell his angels to take care of you.”

On their hands they will bear you up expresses the idea that the angels would actually hold Jesus on his way down, as in “They will hold you (in their hands) on your way down” or “They will hold you safe as you fall.”

They will do that lest you strike your foot against a stone, that is, “so that you won’t be hurt at all, you won’t even hurt your foot on the stones,” or simply “so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.” Good News Translation does only slight restructuring: “so that not even your feet will be hurt on the stones.” Although the text mentions the foot, here the foot probably represents the whole body, and the idea is that he will escape all injury. But translators should try to retain the image of the foot, so that this quotation will be close to an eventual translation of the psalm.

As we pointed out above, this quotation is from Psalm 91.11-12, but part of verse 11 has been left out. For this reason, Revised Standard Version has treated it as two quotations, separated by and. Translations that follow this lead may even introduce the second part of the citation with “It is also written” or “And it also says.” Other translations, among them Good News Translation, feel that it is better to show this as one quotation. These translations drop the and altogether, with a transition such as “so that”; for example, “God will tell his angels to take care of you so that they will hold you in their hands….”

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 .