inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (2John 1:5)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, translators typically select the inclusive form (including the addressee).

Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.

complete verse (2 John 1:5)

Following are a number of back-translations of 2 John 1:5:

  • Uma: “So, I request to you (sing.), mother/woman, that we love one another. What I write here, it is not a new command. This command is a command that we have heard all along from the first.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Na, now I have to ask/request something of you, Woman: we (incl.) should love each other. This command is not new now but it has been here with us (incl.) since we (incl.) first trusted in Isa Almasi.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And because of that, sister, I beg you that we (incl.) might love each other. This is not a new command which I write to you, for this was given a long time ago when we first believed.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But there is nonetheless that which I want to tell you: it is necessary that we love-one-another. This is not a new command, because we have been hearing it since the first.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well now, Friend, there’s something I’d hopefully like to ask you (sing.) to do. As for this, it’s not a new command which I am writing, but rather that original command which was here with us from long ago, this that we value one another.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Now, my dear sister, I want to say a word to you now. And this word I will tell you is not a new word, rather it is like the word you at first were ordered to do. Just the same is what I tell you now, that each of us must love all our fellow-believers.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “And what we must do, woman, is to love our fellows each of us the other, because God commanded us to do that. As for this which I am saying we should do, it is not a new commandment, but something which we have known since we first believed.”
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “And now, you woman, chosen of God, I have something I want to tell you. And it isn’t new what I will tell you, but just like was told us at the beginning, that we love one another.”
  • Isthmus Zapotec: “Now, Señora, that which I am writing to you that you should do is not new, but that which you already knew from time past, where it says we should love one another. I ask you(sg) that you do as this says.” (Source for this and two above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)

Translation commentary on 2 John 1:5

And now I beg you, lady: the words now I beg you are a common formula in letter writing, used when the writer comes to the subject matter of his letter. For And now see comments on 1 John 2.28.

I beg you implies an exhortation. This exhortative force may be expressed in the dependent clause instead of in the verb; for example, ‘And now I say to you, lady, … that we ought to love one another,’ or ‘And now, lady, … let us (or please, let us) love each other.’

The rest of verse 5 is composed of two parts, (a) not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning, and (b) that we love one another. Part (a) qualifies the preceding exhortation. Except for a few minor differences it repeats 1 John 2.7, which see. Part (b) gives the contents of the exhortation.

Since (b) is directly dependent on “I beg you,” (a) has the character of a parenthetical statement, and a rather long one at that. If this is stylistically undesirable, clause (a) may be transposed to the head of the verse (as in New English Bible and Translators’ Translation) or to its end; compare Good News Translation‘s “and so I ask you, dear Lady: let us love one another. This is no new command I write you; it is a command which we have from the beginning.” Or again, one may divide the verse into two sentences; for example, ‘Lady, I have to make a request of you. No, it is not a new commandment I am writing you, but I point to a commandment we have had from the beginning: let us love one another.’

For that we love one another, compare comments on 1 John 3.11.

Quoted with permission from Haas, C., de Jonge, M. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on The Second Letter of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .