crops are white

The phrase that is translated as “the crops white (or: ripe) for harvest” in English is translated in Hiri Motu as “the crops are ripe and big and ready to eat.” The word for “ripe” hints at bananas and the word for “big” hints at sweet potatoes.

In Chokwe the white seed “mystified the reader (…) Ripe harvest-ready grains is ‘red,’ which in this land of few colour distinction is about the equivalent of ‘golden.’ To make send for the passage we felt justification in changing ‘white’ to ‘red.'” (Source: D. B. Long in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 87ff.)

rhetorical questions (John 4:35)

During the translation of the New Testament into Huixtán Tzotzil, translation consultant Marion Cowan found that questions where the answer is obvious, affirmative rhetorical questions, as well questions raising objections tended to cause confusion among the readers. So these are rendered as simple or emphatic statements.

Accordingly, John 4:35a reads “Thus you say: It still lacks four months to reach the time of harvest, you say.”

Source: Marion Cowan in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 123ff.

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.

complete verse (John 4:35)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 4:35:

  • Uma: “You usually say this saying [lit., golden word]: Four more months and then we will harvest. But I say to you: Look, over there [at a distance, in sight, diffuse location] is a field whose rice is gleaming so and is all ready to be harvested.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Don’t you have a saying, you say, ‘It is yet four months to the harvest?’ But I tell you,’ said Isa, ‘the harvest has already come. Look at the people who are coming here. If compared to rice, they are ripe already and ready to be harvested. It means they will soon believe in me.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “‘You say that four more months from now and then is the harvest. But if I am the one who speaks, it is already harvest now. Because look at these many people. They are like a plant that is ready for harvesting because this now is the time for them to believe in me.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “There is a saying of yours which says, ‘There are still four months, then harvest-time will arrive.’ Look (strong command) at the people who are coming. They are the ones I am comparing to ripe rice in the field, because they ought to be harvested.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Isn’t it so that you say there are still four months then it’s harvest? But this is what I say to you, it’s already like it’s harvest. For look at those crowds of people coming towards us. As for them, what they’re like are plants ready for harvest.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “You say that the harvest lacks four months. But I tell you to look at the people coming here. You will not have to wait any longer before the people will believe in me.” (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 4:35

You have a saying is in Greek a question expecting an affirmative answer. Have a saying translates the same verb used in Matthew 16.2 (literally “you say”), where also a popular saying or proverb is introduced. That Jesus is quoting a proverb is indicated both by the form and by the brevity of the Greek expression. Jerusalem Bible translates “Have you not got a saying?” and New American Bible “Do you not have a saying?”

When the language has an equivalent word for saying or adage, this word can be employed. If such a term is not available, the saying can be introduced by such an expression as “people often say” or “you often hear people say” or “the following words are often heard.”

This saying may be taken from the viewpoint of Jesus’ own time, and so indicate that there were four months from then until harvest time, or it may reflect popular reckoning, which thought of a four-month period between sowing and harvest. Both the famous Gezer agriculture calendar (10th century B.C.) and certain later rabbinic sayings speak of a four-month period between the time of sowing and the time of harvest.

In translating Four more months and then the harvest, it is appropriate to employ the same kind of succinct structure. However, in many languages two such phrases cannot be put together so as to make sense. It may be necessary to translate “In four more months we will harvest” or “After four months people gather in the harvest” or “From planting to harvest is four months.”

Take a good look at is literally “lift up your eyes, and see,” which Phillips translates “open your eyes and look.” Jerusalem Bible has “Look around you, look…” and New American Bible “Open your eyes and see!”

The reference to the fields must indicate fields which have a cultivated crop, that is, “planted fields.” The most specific reference would probably be to “fields of barley” or “fields of wheat.”

The crops to which Jesus refers in this verse are clearly the people who are coming out from the city to see him. Nonetheless, the term for crops must be appropriate to harvested grain. It may be necessary in some languages to say “The grain is now ripe and ready to be harvested.” The term ripe as applied to grain may mean literally “hard” or “yellow,” or “dry.” It is important to use the correct designation to avoid any inconsistency in referring to fields of grain. Similarly, a receptor language term for harvested may mean literally “cut” or “brought in” or even “beat out,” a specific reference to threshing, but with the more general meaning of harvesting.

The last word of the Greek text in verse 35 is now or “already.” Translators are divided as to whether this word should go with the last part of verse 35 (New English Bible, Zürcher Bibel) or with the first part of verse 36 (Moffatt, La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée, Goodspeed, Luther, New American Bible with a note indicating the alternative possibility). Phillips and Jerusalem Bible apparently take it with both verses (Jerusalem Bible “already they are white, ready for harvest! Already the reaper is being paid his wages….”). Good News Translation takes this adverb with verse 35 (now … ready). The observation that both verses refer to present events may justify the translations of Phillips and Jerusalem Bible. That is, both verses are in the present tense (are ripe … being paid … gathers), and the fact that “already” occurs at the juncture of the two verses may be a way of tying together the aspects of the present tense in the two verses and giving emphasis to both.

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 .