sin

The Hebrew and Greek that is typically translated as “sin” in English has a wide variety of translations.

The Greek ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō) carries the original verbatim meaning of “miss the mark” and likewise, many translations contain the “connotation of moral responsibility.”

  • Loma: “leaving the road” (which “implies a definite standard, the transgression of which is sin”)
  • Navajo (Dinė): “that which is off to the side” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: kasalan, originally meaning “transgression of a religious or moral rule” and in the context of the Bible “transgression of God’s commandments” (source: H. van der Veen in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 21ff. )
  • Kaingang: “break God’s word”
  • Sandawe: “miss the mark” (like the original meaning of the Greek term) (source for this and above: Ursula Wiesemann in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 36ff., 43)

In Shipibo-Conibo the term is hocha. Nida (1952, p. 149) tells the story of its choosing: “In some instances a native expression for sin includes many connotations, and its full meaning must be completely understood before one ever attempts to use it. This was true, for example, of the term hocha first proposed by Shipibo-Conibo natives as an equivalent for ‘sin.’ The term seemed quite all right until one day the translator heard a girl say after having broken a little pottery jar that she was guilty of ‘hocha.’ Breaking such a little jar scarcely seemed to be sin. However, the Shipibos insisted that hocha was really sin, and they explained more fully the meaning of the word. It could be used of breaking a jar, but only if the jar belonged to someone else. Hocha was nothing more nor less than destroying the possessions of another, but the meaning did not stop with purely material possessions. In their belief God owns the world and all that is in it. Anyone who destroys the work and plan of God is guilty of hocha. Hence the murderer is of all men most guilty of hocha, for he has destroyed God’s most important possession in the world, namely, man. Any destructive and malevolent spirit is hocha, for it is antagonistic and harmful to God’s creation. Rather than being a feeble word for some accidental event, this word for sin turned out to be exceedingly rich in meaning and laid a foundation for the full presentation of the redemptive act of God.”

In Warao it is translated as “bad obojona.” Obojona is a term that “includes the concepts of consciousness, will, attitude, attention and a few other miscellaneous notions.” (Source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. ). See other occurrences of Obojona in the Warao New Testament.

Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the Danish Bibelen 2020, comments on the translation of this term: “We would explain terms, such that e.g. sin often became ‘doing what God does not want’ or ‘breaking God’s law’, ‘letting God down’, ‘disrespecting God’, ‘doing evil’, ‘acting stupidly’, ‘becoming guilty’. Now why couldn’t we just use the word sin? Well, sin in contemporary Danish, outside of the church, is mostly used about things such as delicious but unhealthy foods. Exquisite cakes and chocolates are what a sin is today.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )

See also sinner.

complete verse (1 Corinthians 15:56)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Corinthians 15:56:

  • Uma: “Mankind must die because of sin. And mankind’s sin must be punished because [they] have transgressed the Lord’s Law.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “That is the reason why people are afraid to die because they know that they will be punished because of their sins. And the reason that sin has to be punished is because when people sin they break God’s law.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The reason people are afraid of death is because they know that when they die, they will be punished because they are sinful. And why are they sinful? Because they have broken the Law of God.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Because the place-where-death -gets its power, it is our sinning, and sin’s means-of-defeating us, it is our not obeying God’s law.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “What is meant by this deadly-poison is sin, for that is what leads people to die. And, because of God’s laws, people’s sins are much more evident for they are always breaking them.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Death hurts those who have sin. Concerning the law we break, thus we have sin.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

law

The Greek that is translated in English as “Law” or “law” is translated in Mairasi as oro nasinggiei or “prohibited things” (source: Enggavoter 2004) and in Noongar with a capitalized form of the term for “words” (Warrinya) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

In Yucateco the phrase that is used for “law” is “ordered-word” (for “commandment,” it is “spoken-word”) (source: Nida 1947, p. 198) and in Central Tarahumara it is “writing-command.” (wsource: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)

See also teaching / law (of God) (Japanese honorifics).

Translation commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:56

Paul comments in this verse on the second half of the quotation in verse 55, and in verse 57 on the first half of that quotation.

Like verse 27b, this verse is an aside. In modern books it would have been put in a footnote or in parentheses.

This verse begins in the Greek with a word meaning “and” or “but.” Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible agree in omitting this word here, where it is a very weak transitional.

Sting: see the comments on verse 55.

Power implies “power to hurt,” or perhaps even better, “power to kill,” as in Bible en français courant.

The law: this law is considered as coming from God, so Good News Bible capitalizes “the Law.” Some translations that do not use capitalization may need to say “the law written by Moses.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .