glorify (reveal God's glory to people)

For the translation of the Greek that is translated into English as “glory” or “glorify” into Waama, five categories were found that were all translated differently. (See also raised to glory, glorify (God’s name), glory (honor, raise, approval), glory (of God or Jesus).)

“One group relates to the Greek verb that means ‘to show, make known or reveal God’s glory to people.’ The word ‘glory’ here retains the same sense described in the first group. (See glory (of God or Jesus))

“[Here] we used the expressions ‘show (the Father’s) greatness,’ ’cause the people to recognize that God is great,” “make his greatness obvious, apparent.’

“John 14:13, for example, ‘that the Father may be glorified,’ is rendered as ‘so that I can show the people the greatness of my Father.’ On one occasion (John 17:10 ‘I am glorified in them’), we used ‘because of them people saw my greatness.’

  • John 14:13 ‘Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified.’
  • John 17:1 ‘Father, … glorify thy Son that the Son may glorify thee.’

“Other occurrences: John 11:4, 12:23, 13:31-32 (5), 15:8, 17:4-5 (2), 17:10.”

(Source: Kathrin Brückner in Notes on Translation 2/1988, p. 41-46).

world (Chinese)

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “world” in English is translated in Mandarin Chinese with shìjiè (世界). While shìjiè is now the commonly used term for “world” in Chinese, it was popularized as such by Chinese Bible translations. (Source: Mak 2017, p. 241ff.)

See also world.

form of address between the persons of the Trinity

In Hindi a differentiation is made between the way that the different persons of the Trinity are addressed by a regular person or by another person of the Trinity. When Jesus addresses God the Father or when God the Father addresses Jesus, a familiar form of address is used, unlike the way that any of them would be addressed with a honorific (pl.) form by anyone else.

Source: C.S. Thoburn in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 180ff.

complete verse (John 17:5)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 17:5:

  • Uma: “That is why I ask that you show the bigness of my life with you, Father, like the bigness of our life together before this world was created.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “O, Father, make me great/honor me there in your presence as I was honored/was great before at the time when the world was not yet created.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And now, Father, return to me in your presence that former very great highness of mine which was my highness long ago when I was with you before the world was created.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Now, Father, I will please return to you (sing.) in order that you (sing.) will again show my godhood which was my godhood when I was with you (sing.) before the world was made.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Therefore now, Father, when I am there again with you, give to me again the glory which was mine already, when I was still there with you, before this world was created.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Now, my Father, cause me to be the greatest there with you like it was with us before the world was.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on John 17:5

Father was the word by which Jesus addressed God at the beginning of this prayer (verse 1). In Greek, this entire verse reads literally “and now glorify me, Father, in your presence with the glory which I had with you before the world was created.” The phrase “and now” (Good News Translation now) is used to strengthen the request made in verse 1. This conclusion is supported by the observation that the pronouns you and me are emphatic in the Greek sentence structure (“You” is not expressed explicitly in Good News Translation, though it is implicit in the verb Give). Here again Goodspeed makes explicit the idea of doing honor (“Now, Father, do such honor to me in your presence as I had done me there before the world existed”). Barclay reads “And now, Father, give me in your own presence the glory which I had with you before the world came into existence” and New American Bible has “Do you now, Father, give me glory at your side, a glory I had with you before the world began.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch telescopes by not repeating the word glory and by seeing essentially the same meaning in the verse: “Father, give me now again the glory which I had with you before the world was created.”

In this context it is not possible to treat Give me glory in the same way as in contexts where the focus is upon the revelation of Christ’s glory to the people of the world. The emphasis here is upon the glorious state which Christ had before the incarnation, and thus quite a different type of rendering must be employed. Moreover, a literal rendering of “giving glory” is usually impossible. The more common type of expression would be causative, for example, “cause me to be glorious” or “cause me to be honored” or “show honor to me” or even “honor me.”

In your presence may be rendered “where you are” or “there where you are.”

Since, in some languages, glory cannot be used as a noun, the explanatory clause, the same glory I had with you before the world was made, may be restructured to read “honor me in the same way you did before the world was made” or “… before you made the world.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .