The Greek that is translated as “sexual immorality” or “fornication” or similar is translated much more specifically in some languages. Morelos Nahuatl has “let a man not yield himself to another woman except only to his wife. Also let a woman not yield herself to another man except only to her husband” or in Lalana Chinantec as “not proper for them to mix themselves with other women. The same is true of women for other men also.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
In Low German as Hurenkram or “things related to prostitution (and/or sleeping around)” (translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006) and in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) typically as Sexgier or “sex cravings” (exceptions: Acts 15:10 and 15:29).
The Greek that is typically translated with a generic expressions such as “he who,” “whoever,” or “if anyone” in English is translated with the plural form (“they”) in Daga. “A literal translation of these conveys the idea that one specific unnamed individual is being discussed. Thus, for instance, in John 5:24 ‘he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life’ meant in Daga that there was one fortunate individual to whom it applied.”
Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Corinthians 6:18:
Uma: “Don’t dare do wrong [sexual] behavior, relatives! Of [lit., From] all sins that mankind does, there is no other sin that wrecks/makes-bad our life like the sin of wrong behavior. Whoever behaves wrongly with the wife of another or with an unmarried woman, that sin wrecks/makes-bad his own life.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Amey-amey listen, don’t commit adultery/fornication, because that sin is really bad. Other sins don’t do anything to the body of the person, but if a person commits adultery he sins against his own body.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Really avoid desiring someone who is not your wife because that is a very bad sin. Other sins are bad also, but they are not by means of the body. That kind of filthy activity, that can really destroy us (incl.) because it’s by means of our bodies.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Therefore don’t be sleeping-with someone who is not your spouse. Distance yourselves from sins like that. Because the way this sin destroys the body, it is different from the way other sins do, because the one who commits-adultery, it is his own body that he is sinning-against.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Therefore always put far away every kind of immoral-behavior with one not your (sing.) spouse. For this sin, (it’s) different from every other kind of sin that people commit. Because through this behaving-immorally with one not your spouse, you use what is as-it-were a part of the body of Cristo to sin with (one who is) not part of his body.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Do not commit adultery. There are many other sins that people commit, but the adulterer spoils his own body.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The Hebrew, Ge’ez, 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. )
Bariai: “bad behavior” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
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)
Nias: horö, originally a term primarily used for sexual sin. (Source: Hummel / Telaumbanua 2007, p. 256)
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.”
Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the DanishBibelen 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. )
Shun is literally “run away from” and may be translated this way in certain languages. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “Avoid immorality at all costs!” Paul uses similar language in 10.14: “shun the worship of idols.” The meaning of Shun is the same in both places. One could also say “Do not commit … at all” or “Have nothing to do with….”
For immorality, see comment on 5.1.
The word for sin is one that Paul uses only here and in Rom 3.25, where he refers to “former sins.” In Romans it may have its original meaning of “the result of sin” rather than “the act of sinning.” However, in this passage Paul is clearly talking about sinful acts themselves.
A man means “a human being.” Paul was clearly thinking of “males” in verses 15-16, but in this verse and for the rest of this chapter he is referring to both males and females (humans). So this phrase Every other sin which a man commits may be expressed as “all other sins that humans commit” or “every sin that a person commits” (New Revised Standard Version).
Is outside: Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch expresses this as “does not soil.” Another way of saying this is “does not make dirty.” Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente translates in such a way as to show that body means “person”: “Any other sin which a man commits remains in a certain sense external to him; but the man who gives himself to immorality fundamentally destroys himself.”
The clause sins against his own body may be translated as “commits sins that hurt his own body.”
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 .
Be very careful that you do not behave immorally.
-or-
Have nothing at all to do with sexually bad ways.
-or-
Absolutely do not have sex with anyone except your spouse.
6:18b Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body,
Other kinds of sins are not sins against one’s own body ⌊in the same way⌋.
-or-
When people sin, they usually do not sin against their own bodies.
-or-
All the ⌊other⌋ sins that people do are not sins that affect/harm their own bodies in the way
6:18c but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
But when people have sex with people they are not married to, they sin against their own body.
-or-
But people who behave in sexually bad ways are wronging their own bodies.
-or-
that having sex with someone they are not married to harms them.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
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