11If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
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, Matthew 7:9-11 reads “If your son asks you for a tortilla to eat, not a stone you would give him. If he asks you for fish to eat, not a snake you would give him. You whose hearts are not good, know what good gifts you will give your children. Your father in heaven surpassingly knows what good gifts he will give to those who ask him.”
The Greek that is translated with the capitalized “Father” in English when referring to God is translated in Highland Totonac with the regular word for (biological) father to which a suffix is added to indicate respect. The same also is used for “Lord” when referring to Jesus. (Source: Hermann Aschmann in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 171ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 7:11:
Uma: “Even though your wickedness is so great, you still know to give what is good to your children. How much more your Father who is in heaven! He knows very much how to give what is good to people who ask of Him.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “You, even though you are sinful, you know to give your children the best/good things. Even more so God, your Father in heaven will give to you good things when you ask him.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And as for you humans who are not righteous, if good is what you give to your children, of course good also is what our Father God in heaven will give to any of you who asks from him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “You therefore who are bad, if you know to give your child good(-things), surely even-more-so will our Father in heaven give good(-things) to those who ask.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well, if you who are sinners know how to give good things to your children, isn’t it much more so of your Father who is in heaven? He really will give good things to those who request from him.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “So now, you are those who have sin, yet you know that you give good things to your children. Well even more will your Father in heaven give good to you when you ask.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff.) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal ta (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential ta (祂) is used.”
In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff) explains in the following way: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff.)
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible, but most translations, especially those published in the 21st century, do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
See also this chapter in the World Atlas of Language Structures on different approaches to personal pronouns.
Who are evil (Good News Translation “As bad as you are”) is not intended to be a philosophical statement regarding human nature; the comparison is between God and the human race, all of whom are sinful. The phrase who are evil may be expressed “Even though you are sinful (or, bad), you know how to….”
In some languages it is redundant to speak of “giving gifts,” but one can give “good things.” Good News Translation has used this phrase.
How much more introduces an argument “from the lesser to the greater” (see 6.30 for this same form of argument): human fathers are evil, but they still give good things to their children; our Father in heaven is good, and so he is much more ready to give good things to those who ask him.
For your Father who is in heaven, see comments on 5.16.
In place of good things Luke has “the Holy Spirit” (Luke 11.13). One commentator suggests that good things are probably intended to include everything mentioned in the Lord’s Prayer, though Matthew may be thinking of God’s will in general.
The phrase who ask him is a shortened form of “who ask him for something (or, for what they need).” In some languages it may be necessary to use this longer form, or possibly “who ask him to give them good things.”
Quite often, to render this verse easier for their readers to understand, translators will find it necessary to restructure. For example, they may break it up into two sentences, as in these examples: “You are sinful and yet you know how to give good things to your children. Think then how much better God your Father in heaven is able to give good things to those who ask him” or “Even though you are evil, you know how to give good things to your children. Surely God your heavenly Father will give things that are much better than that to those who ask him.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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