He deliberately took time to draw near to social outcasts (image)

“Jesus is dressed in a different style of clothing than the style of the woman who is shown as a Lanna Thai northerner. It is unusual for him to talk to a person from a different region, especially a woman. The clothes, the roof of the house in the background, and the dipper for water all indicate that this is in northern Thailand.”

Drawing by Sawai Chinnawong who employs northern and central Thailand’s popular distinctive artistic style originally used to depict Buddhist moral principles and other religious themes; explanation by Paul DeNeui. From That Man Who Came to Save Us by Sawai Chinnawong and Paul H. DeNeui, William Carey Library, 2010.

For more images by Sawai Chinnatong in TIPs see here.

John as a first-person evangelist (John 4:32)

In the Yatzachi Zapotec translation of the Gospel of John, any reference to the evangelist and presumed narrator is done in the first person.

The translator Inez Butler explains (in: Notes on Translation, September 1967, pp. 10ff.):

“In revising the Gospel of John in Yatzachi Zapotec we realized from the start that the third person references of Jesus to himself as Son of Man had to be converted into first person references, but only more recently have we decided that similar change is necessary in John’s references to himself as ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved.’ As I worked on those changes and questioned the informant about his understanding of other passages in the Gospel, I discovered that the reader misses the whole focus of the book as an eyewitness account unless every reference to the disciples indicates the writer’s membership in the group. In view of that we went back through the entire book looking for ways to cue in the reader to the fact that John was an eyewitness and a participant in a many of the events, as well as the historian.

“When the disciples were participants in events along with Jesus, it was necessary to make explicit the fact that they accompanied him, although in the source language that is left implicit, since otherwise our rendering would imply that they were not present.”

In this verse, the Yatzachi Zapotec says: “And Jesus said to us . . .”

complete verse (John 4:32)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 4:32:

  • Uma: “But Yesus said: ‘I have food that you do not know about.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But Isa answered them, he said, ‘I have food that you don’t know.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus answered, ‘I have food that you don’t know about.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But he said, ‘It’s enough, because I have eaten something that you don’t know-about.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But his reply was, ‘Oh, I have food which you don’t know about.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Jesus said, ‘I have something to eat. That thing is something you don’t know.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing his disciples and common people

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff.), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

Here, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.

In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.

Translation commentary on John 4:32

The pronouns I and you are emphatic in Greek.

The Greek word for food in the verse (brōsis) is different from the word used in verse 34 (Greek brōma), but the two words are used synonymously here.

In some languages it is essential to be more specific about the relation of “eating” and “food,” that is, one must distinguish between “I have food which I will eat” and “I have food which I have eaten.” Since the disciples immediately began to ask among themselves whether someone had brought him food, it may be necessary to use an expression in verse 32 meaning “I have eaten food that you know nothing about.”

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 .