complete verse (John 5:21)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 5:21:

  • Uma: “Like my Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also I give life to whomever I choose.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “My Father God causes dead people to be alive. Likewise also I, the Son of God, I am able to make alive whoever I wish.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “As for my father, he raised the dead and he gives them life. And I, his child, life also is what I will give anyone whom I choose.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Because my Father, he makes-alive the dead, and that also is what I his Child will do, because I make-alive whomever I want to make-alive.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For in the way in which the Father raises-to-life those who have died, like that indeed the Son will raise-to-life as many as he wants to raise-to-life.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The Father causes to be resurrected those who died. Also the Son of God will cause to be all who he wants to.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on John 5:21

The phrase Just as … in the same way translate particles in Greek which help to convey the exact parallelism between the activity of the Father and the Son. The same particles occur again in verse 26.

Raises the dead and gives them life expresses a constant activity of the Father.

In languages requiring an identification of the relation between kinship terms, verse 21 may be rendered “In the same way that my Father raises the dead and causes them to live, in just that same way I, his Son, give life to those that I want to.” It is also possible to translate “… in just that same way I give life to those I want to” or “… to those I choose to give life to.”

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 .