わたしを強くして下さるかたによって、何事でもすることができる。 watashi o tsuyoku shite kudasaru kata ni yotte, nanigoto demo suru koto ga dekiru I can do all things through him who strengthens me
This is a philological study of Philippians 4:13 in Japanese, the verse Christians most often ask to have brushed. It sets seven Japanese renderings side by side, from the first Japanese New Testament of 1880 to the 2018 Japan Bible Society text, and shows why Christ's name stood in the first and in none since 1917.
Abstract
Philippians 4:13 has been printed in seven Japanese Bibles since 1880, and the seven agree on the sentence's shape and differ on its words: a strengthening one, an instrument, and all things. The first Japanese New Testament named Christ, 我に力を予ふるキリストに因りて, because the Greek its translators used named him; the revision of 1917 and every translation since follow the critical Greek text, in which the verse ends at the one who strengthens me, and print 者, かた or 方 where the King James Bible prints Christ. The 1955 colloquial translation's わたしを強くして下さるかたによって、何事でもすることができる is the wording most Japanese readers know, and the two Bible Society translations of 1987 and 2018 recast the last clause as すべてが可能です, everything is possible. An English reader who expects Christ in the Japanese line is meeting the older Greek text, not a Japanese omission.
Overview
The sense. A first-person sentence of confidence, the last of a run in which Paul says he has learned to be content in want and in plenty: he can do everything, or bear everything, through the one who gives him strength. The Japanese versions keep that shape in every rendering: an agent who strengthens the speaker, a particle of means (によって, by means of; the older texts' に因りて and によりて), and a predicate of capability (できる, なし得る, 爲得る, 可能です). What they differ on is how to name the agent and how wide to make all things [1][2][3].
The words. 強くして下さるかた (1955), 強くしてくださる方 (2003, 2017), 強めてくださる方 (1987, 2018), 強くし給ふ者 (1917): the one who strengthens, the verb 強くする or its transitive twin 強める with the honorific auxiliary くださる, 給ふ in the literary version; the 1955 text alone writes the noun in kana, かた; the 1880 text has no such noun, only 力を予ふるキリスト, Christ who gives me strength. 何事でも (1955), どんなことでも (2003, 2017), 凡ての事 (1917), 諸の事 (1880, read すべての), すべて (1987, 2018): whatever, anything at all, all things. The book's own name is ピリピ人への手紙 in the 1955 and 新改訳 Bibles and in both Japanese encyclopedias, フィリピの信徒への手紙 in the 1987 and 2018 Bibles, ピリピ人への書 in 1917, 腓立比書 in the Meiji Bible and in the commentaries written on it [1][2][3][4].
The text in English. The Japanese Bibles were translated from the Greek, not from an English Bible, and the English reader's difference is a textual one. The King James Bible reads I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me [5]; its Greek, the received text of the sixteenth century, ends the verse ἐν τῷ ἐνδυναμοῦντί με Χριστῷ [6], and the critical text that every translation since the Revised Version of 1881 has followed ends it ἐν τῷ ἐνδυναμοῦντί με, without the name [7]. The King James wording is the one the English quotation dictionaries print, the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations and Stevenson's Home Book of Bible Quotations alike [8][9]; the revised wording, in him that strengtheneth me, is the one that William Elliot Griffis put in the mouth of James Curtis Hepburn, the physician who made the first Japanese New Testament, as the assured belief of this constitutionally timid man [10].
The historical record
1880, in a printing of 1881. The 明治元訳, the first Japanese New Testament. 我は我に力を予ふるキリストに因りて諸の事を爲得るなり, read at the leaf with its own furigana: われはわれにちからをあたふるキリストによりてすべてのことをなしうるなり [11]. The translators, Hepburn among them, worked from the received Greek, and the name stands in the Japanese as it stands in the King James.
1913. Griffis, Hepburn of Japan. The verse in English as the creed of the man who had put it into Japanese: "I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me," was the assured belief of this constitutionally timid man [10]. Griffis quotes the Revised Version, which had by then dropped Christ from the verse that Hepburn's own 1880 text still carried.
1917, in a printing of 1919. The 大正改訳, the Japan Bible Society's literary New Testament. 我を強くし給ふ者によりて、凡ての事をなし得るなり。 The revisers follow the critical text: the name is gone, 者 stands in its place, and the register is classical throughout, 給ふ for the honorific, なし得るなり for can do, 凡ての事 for all things [2][12].
1924. Uchimura Kanzō 内村鑑三, 羅馬書の研究. Seven years after the revision, the Meiji wording is still the one a Japanese Christian quotes: 又同一の事を使徒パウロは其實驗として言うた「我は我に力を與ふるキリストに因りて凡ての事をなし得るなり」と。パウロのキリストは又我等のキリストである, and the same thing the apostle Paul said as his own experience: "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." Paul's Christ is our Christ too [13]. The 1929 printing carries the sentence unchanged.
1954 and 1955. The 口語訳, the colloquial translation. わたしを強くして下さるかたによって、何事でもすることができる。 The New Testament in 1954, the whole Bible in 1955; the first Japanese Bible in the spoken language, and the rendering that most Japanese Christians of the later twentieth century learned [1]. The Japan Bible Society states on its own copyright page that the protection period of this 1955 translation has expired under Japanese law, while the moral right against alteration remains and the words of its later correction list are protected [14].
1987. The 新共同訳, the interconfessional translation. わたしを強めてくださる方のお陰で、わたしにはすべてが可能です。 The verb becomes 強める, the instrument becomes お陰で, thanks to, and the predicate becomes a noun sentence, すべてが可能です, everything is possible [1].
2003 and 2017. The 新改訳, third edition and 2017. 私は、私を強くしてくださる方によって、どんなことでもできるのです。 (2003); 私を強くしてくださる方によって、私はどんなことでもできるのです。 (2017). The same words in two orders; the 2017 revision moves the subject 私は into the second clause [3]. Its publisher states that every edition, the first included, remains in copyright [15].
2018. The 聖書協会共同訳. 私を強めてくださる方のお陰で、私にはすべてが可能です。 The 1987 sentence with its わたし written in kanji [1].
Today. Japanese Wikisource carries the 1917 chapter whole and holds the 1955 chapter under a copyright-deletion proceeding with the verse text removed; the publisher's own text endpoint is where the 1955, 1987 and 2018 renderings are read [1][2].
A reading
The seven translations are one sentence in seven registers, and the choice a reader makes among the six still in print is a choice of voice, not of meaning: the 1917 text for the literary ear, the 1955 text for the plain spoken sentence, the Bible Society's 1987 and 2018 texts for everything is possible, the 新改訳 for どんなことでも. What none of the six offers is the name an English reader may be listening for, and the record shows why: the first Japanese translators had the name in their Greek and printed it, キリスト, in 1880; the revisers of 1917 had a Greek text without it and left it out; and Uchimura, quoting in 1924, was still saying the older sentence. A Japanese line that says かた or 方 where the English says Christ is faithful to the same verse the Revised Version of 1881 prints, which is the verse Hepburn himself came to quote. If the sentence is to be brushed, the 1955 wording is the one whose publisher has said in its own words that it may be reproduced without alteration; and the reading, in the ruling standard, is watashi o tsuyoku shite kudasaru kata ni yotte, nanigoto demo suru koto ga dekiru, breaking naturally at the comma the Bible itself prints.
Sources not seen
- A printed page of the 1955, 1987, 2003, 2017 and 2018 Bibles; those renderings were read at their publishers' own text endpoints. The 1880 text was read in its 1881 printing, and the 1917 text in a 1919 printing, both at the leaf.
- The Nestle-Aland apparatus itself, or any textual commentary naming the manuscripts for and against Χριστῷ; the two Greek texts were read at their addresses, the apparatus was not.
- The American Standard Version of 1901 and the Revised Standard Version at this verse.
- The Roman Catholic フランシスコ会訳 and バルバロ訳, and the 岩波 translation.
A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.
References
- 日本聖書協会, 聖書本文検索: 口語訳 ピリピ人への手紙 4:13; 新共同訳 and 聖書協会共同訳 フィリピの信徒への手紙 4:13. https://www.bible.or.jp/read/vers_search/titlechapter.html
- 『舊新約聖書』(文語訳, 大正改訳 1917), ピリピ人への書 4:13, Japanese Wikisource. https://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/ピリピ人への書_(文語訳)
- 新日本聖書刊行会, 聖句検索: 新改訳 第三版 (2003) and 新改訳2017, ピリピ人への手紙 4:13. https://www.seisho.or.jp/biblesearch-result
- ピリピ人への手紙, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 and ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 小項目事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/ピリピ人への手紙
- The Holy Bible, King James Version, Philippians 4:13, at English Wikisource. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/Philippians
- Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, Scrivener's 1894 Textus Receptus, Philippians 4:13: παντα ισχυω εν τω ενδυναμουντι με χριστω. https://www.textusreceptusbibles.com/Scrivener/50/4
- The SBL Greek New Testament, Philippians 4:13: πάντα ἰσχύω ἐν τῷ ἐνδυναμοῦντί με, in the Lexham English Bible reverse interlinear at sblgnt.com. https://sblgnt.com/download/revint/71-Philippians.pdf
- Elizabeth Knowles, ed., Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 8th ed., Oxford University Press, 2014, Bible, no. 964.
- Burton Stevenson, The Home Book of Bible Quotations, Harper, New York, 1949, Philippians iv, 13.
- William Elliot Griffis, Hepburn of Japan and His Wife and Helpmates, Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1913, p. 25. https://archive.org/details/hepburnofjapanhi00grif
- 『新約全書』, 米国聖書会社, 1881, 腓立比書 第四章, p. 572. National Diet Library pid 992682, scan 290. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992682
- 『新約聖書 改訳』, 大英国北英国聖書会社, 1919, ピリピ書 第四章, p. 413. National Diet Library pid 988334, scan 210. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/988334
- 内村鑑三『羅馬書の研究』, 向山堂書房, 1924, p. 150. National Diet Library pid 971111, scan 87; the 1929 printing (古我, pid 1226870, scan 85) the same. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/971111
- 日本聖書協会, 著作権について. https://www.bible.or.jp/read/bible_copyright.html
- 新日本聖書刊行会, 引用・利用規定. https://www.seisho.or.jp/s2017/quotation-policy-2/