Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 7:26:
Noongar: “You tell me, what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, truly, but you saw something much greater, not only a Prophet.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “So, what do you go wanting to see? Perhaps you want to see a prophet? If that, it is very true/right. Because that Yohanes is greater than the other prophets.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Na, what then did you see when you went? A prophet? Yes, I tell you the prophet you saw is greater than the other prophets.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Why was it that you went out to him? Did you go out to see a prophet of God? That’s what you really went out to see, because John really is a prophet. But he’s not only a prophet.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Tell then who you went to see? Was it a prophet? Emphatically yes, but the truth-of-it is, he was higher than a prophet.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well, what really did you want to see there? Was it a prophet? Yes indeed, but he isn’t just a prophet.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Eugene Nida wrote the following about the translation of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek terms that are typically translated with “prophet” in English:
“The tendency in many translations is to use ‘to foretell the future’ for ‘prophesy,’ and ‘one who foretells the future’ for ‘prophet.’ This is not always a recommended usage, particularly if such expressions denote certain special native practices of spirit contact and control. It is true, of course, that prophets of the Bible did foretell the future, but this was not always their principal function. One essential significance of the Greek word prophētēs is ‘one who speaks forth,’ principally, of course, as a forth-teller of the Divine will. A translation such as ‘spokesman for God’ may often be employed profitably.” (1947, p. 234f.)
Following is a list of (back-) translations from other languages (click or tap for details):
Ayutla Mixtec: “one who talks as God’s representative”
Isthmus Mixe: “speaker for God” (source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Mezquital Otomi / Paasaal: “God’s messenger” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff. and Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Noongar: Warda Marridjiny or “News Traveling” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Kutu: mtula ndagu or “one who gives the prediction of the past and the future” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
French 1985 translation by Chouraqui: inspiré or “inspired one” (“someone in whom God has breathed [Latin: in + spiro]) (source: Watson 2023, p. 45)
In Ixcatlán Mazatec a term is used that specifically includes women. (Source: Robert Bascom)
“In some instances these spiritual terms result from adaptations reflecting the native life and culture. Among the Northern Grebo people of Liberia, a missionary wanted some adequate term for ‘prophet,’ and she was fully aware that the native word for ‘soothsayer’ or ‘diviner’ was no equivalent for the Biblical prophet who spoke forth for God. Of course, much of what the prophets said referred to the future, and though this was an essential part of much of their ministry, it was by no means all. The right word for the Gbeapo people would have to include something which would not only mean the foretelling of important events but the proclamation of truth as God’s representative among the people. At last the right word came; it was ‘God’s town-crier.’ Every morning and evening the official representative of the chief goes through the village crying out the news, delivering the orders of the chief, and announcing important coming events. ‘God’s town-crier’ would be the official representative of God, announcing to the people God’s doings, His commands, and His pronouncements for their salvation and well-being. For the Northern Grebo people the prophet is no weird person from forgotten times; he is as real as the human, moving message of the plowman Amos, who became God’s town-crier to a calloused people.” (source: Nida 1952, p. 20)
In British Sign Language it is is translated with a sign that depicts a message coming from God to a person (the upright finger) and then being passed on to others. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Prophet” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
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.
nai, legō humin ‘yes, I tell you.’ legō humin (cf. on 3.8) goes with nai as answering the preceding question prophētēn? ‘a prophet?,’ emphatically in the affirmative.
kai perissoteron prophētou ‘and even more than a prophet,’ syntactically still object of the infinitive idein. perissoteron may be masculine (“someone even greater…”, The Four Gospels – a New Translation) or neutral (‘something even more…’), preferably the latter (cf. pleion Iōna ‘more than Jona’ in 11.32). In both cases the reference is to a person.
Translation:
Again cf. on v. 24.
A prophet, a rhetorical question expecting a positive answer—as given in the next sentence, “yes”, or, ‘that’s it’ (Batak Toba, Sranan Tongo).
And more than a prophet, or, ‘even more than that’; Ekari has, ‘doubtless one incomparable to (i.e. surpassing) a prophet.’
Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.
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