demon

The Hebrew and Greek that is typically translated/transliterated in English as “demon” is translated in Central Mazahua as “the evil spirit(s) of the devil” (source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.).

In Sissala it is translated with kaŋtɔŋ, which traditionally referred to “either a spirit of natural phenomena such as trees, rivers, stones, etc., or the spirit of a deceased person that has not been taken into the realm of the dead. Kaŋtɔŋ can be good or evil. Evil kaŋtɔŋ can bring much harm to people and are feared accordingly. A kaŋtɔŋ can also dwell in a person living on this earth. A person possessed by kaŋtɔŋ does not behave normally.” (Source: Regina Blass in Holzhausen 1991, p. 48f.)

In Umiray Dumaget Agta it is translated as hayup or “creature, animal, general term for any non-human creature, whether natural or supernatural.” Thomas Headland (in: Notes on Translation, September 1971, p. 17ff.) explains some more: “There are several types of supernatural creatures, or spirit beings which are designated by the generic term hayup. Just as we have several terms in English for various spirit beings (elves, fairies, goblins, demons, imps, pixies) so have the Dumagats. And just as you will find vast disagreement and vagueness among English informants as to the differences between pixies and imps, etc., so you will find that no two Dumagats will agree as to the form and function of their different spirit beings.” This term can also be used in a verb form: hayupen: “creatured” or “to be killed, made sick, or crazy by a spirit.

In Yala it is translated as yapri̍ija ɔdwɔ̄bi̍ or “bad Yaprija.” Yaprijas are traditional spirits that have a range presumed activities including giving or withholding gifts, giving and protecting children, causing death and disease and rewarding good behavior. (Source: Eugene Bunkowske in Notes on Translation 78/1980, p. 36ff.)

In Lamnso’ it is translated as aànyùyi jívirì: “lesser gods who disturb, bother, pester, or confuse a person.” (Source: Fanwong 2013, p. 93)

In Paasaal it is translated as gyɩŋbɔmɔ, “beings that are in the wild and can only be seen when they choose to reveal themselves to certain people. They can ‘capture’ humans and keep them in hiding while they train the person in herbalism and divination. After the training period, which can range from a week to many years, the ‘captured’ individual is released to go back into society as a healer and a diviner. The gyɩŋbɔmɔ can also be evil, striking humans with mental diseases and causing individuals to get lost in the wild. The Pasaale worldview about demons is like that of others of the language groups in the area, including the Northern Dagara [who use kɔ̃tɔmɛ with a similar meaning].” (Source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)

See also devil and formal pronoun: demons or Satan addressing Jesus.

complete verse (Matthew 8:28)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 8:28:

  • Uma: “Yesus with his disciples arrived on the other side of the lake in the land of the Gadara people. When they arrived there, two people appeared from the graves, they came to meet Yesus. Those two were possessed [entered-into] by demons, they were very wild, with the result that no-one dared to pass by there.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “When Isa and company arrived on the other side of the lake, there in the place of the people of Gadara, two demon possessed people came to meet him. They came out of the burial caves. They were very bad, therefore nobody was bold enough to pass that way.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And they arrived on the other side of the lake at the land under the jurisdiction of the town of Gadara. And Jesus was met by two men who had come from the burial caves. These two were demon possessed, and they were dangerous. That’s why people were afraid to pass that way.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Plural Jesus continued to cross the lake until they arrived in the region of Gadara. When Jesus got-out-of the boat, two men met (him) who were possessed by evil-spirits, coming from the location of the cemetery caves. They were extremely cruel and easily-angered/vicious so no one dared to walk there.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “They came to shore at the other side of the lake, the Gadareno being the people there. After they’d come to shore, they were met by two men coming from the cemetary. As for these two, they were possessed by evil spirits and really frightening. That’s why no-one could go there any more.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “They arrived at the other side of the lake, at the land called Gadarene. There Jesus was met by two men who walked with evil spirits. But these men were very terrible, they came from the cemetery. It was a fearful thing for anyone to have to pass along that road.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

pronoun for "God"

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 Kouya, Godié, Northern Grebo, Eastern Krahn, Western Krahn, and Guiberoua Béte, all languages of the Kru family in Western Africa, a different kind of systems of pronouns is used (click or tap here to read more):

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.

Translation: Chinese

在现代汉语中，第三人称单数代词的读音都是一样的（tā），但是写法并不一样，取决于性别以及是否有生命，即男性为“他”，女性为“她”，动物、植物和无生命事物为“它”（在香港和台湾的汉语使用，动物则为“牠”）。这些字的部首偏旁表明了性别（男人、女人、动物、无生命事物），而另一偏旁通常旁提示发音。

到1930年为止，基督教新教《圣经》经过整整一百年的翻译已经拥有了十几个译本，当时的一位圣经翻译者王元德新造了一个“神圣的”代词“祂”，偏旁“礻”表示神明。一般汉语读者会立即知道这字的发音是tā，而这个偏旁表示属灵的事物，因此他们明白这个字指出，三位一体的所有位格都没有性别之分，而单单是上帝。

然而，最重要的新教圣经译本（1919年的《和合本》）和天主教圣经译本（1968年的《思高圣经》）都没有采用“祂”；虽然如此，许多其他的圣经译本采用了这个字，另外还广泛出现在赞美诗和其他基督信仰的书刊中。（资料来源：Zetzsche）

《吕振中译本》的几个早期版本也使用“祂”来指称“上帝”；这个译本的《新约》于1946年译成，整部《圣经》于1970年完成。克拉默斯（Kramers）指出：“‘他’的这种新写法（即‘祂’）产生了一个小问题，就是在指称耶稣的时候，是否一律使用这个敬语代词？《吕振中译本》遵循的原则是，在称呼耶稣这个人的时候，用一般的‘他’，而在称呼耶稣神性的时候，特别是升天之后的耶稣，则用尊称‘祂’。”

Translator: Simon Wong

Translation commentary on Matthew 8:28

Since the text goes straight on from the scene in the boat, it will not be a problem in most languages to retain when. Compare how this differs from 8.23, for example. And does indicate it is a new unit, however, but whether to retain it or not depends on the receptor language.

He came: here again Good News Translation identifies the pronoun of the Greek text as “Jesus,” since a new section is introduced.

Came may also be rendered “arrived” or “reached.”

The other side refers to the eastern shore of Lake Galilee. See comment at verse 18. As there, some will say “the other side of the lake.”

There is a textual problem regarding the name Gadarenes. Other manuscripts have “Gergesenes,” and still others have “Gerasenes.” The best textual evidence is in favor of Gadarenes, from Gadara, a town about five miles southeast of Lake Galilee. Although the town is five miles distant from Lake Galilee, ancient coins bearing the name Gadara often have a ship on them. Moreover, the Jewish historian Josephus indicates that Gadara possessed territory bordering on Lake Galilee.

The text refers to the area as the country of the Gadarenes, that is, the country of the people of Gadara. Whether to retain “people” or refer to the area by the name of the town, as in “the region of Gadara,” will depend on what the receptor language normally does.

Two demoniacs met him, coming out of the tombs may sound to the reader, especially to the hearer, as though Jesus was the one coming out of the tombs. Good News Translation does considerable restructuring to avoid this ambiguity: “he was met by two men who came out of the burial caves there. These men had demons in them….” Another way this can be restructured is “He was met by two men who had evil spirits in them. The men were coming out of the burial caves.”

The tombs were more specifically “burial caves,” as Good News Translation indicates. The dead were customarily placed in the rear of burial caves, leaving a small antechamber toward the front of the cave. It was there, in the front part of the cave, that these men would probably have lived. According to Jewish teaching, tombs were ritually unclean, but they would have been considered suitable homes for demons and demon-possessed people.

The idea of burying people in caves seems most odd in many parts of the world. For this reason some translators have preferred to say “the area of the tombs” or “places where they bury people.” However, this does not give as complete a picture as Good News Translation‘s “burial caves,” and a slightly better rendering may be “the caves where the Jews used to bury people.”

Fierce (so also Good News Translation) may also mean “violent” (New English Bible) or even “savage” (New American Bible). At least one commentator suggests the meaning “difficult to subdue.” Other words that can translate the word are “dangerous” or “uncontrollable.”

Could is the preference of most translations. Good News Translation and New English Bible have “dared.” The verb literally means “be strong” or “able” (Barclay).

Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates the entire verse: “On the other side of the lake Jesus came to the territory of Gadara. There two men from the burial caves ran out to meet him. They were possessed by demons and were so fierce that no one dared use that road.”

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 .