complete verse (1 Corinthians 9:8)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Corinthians 9:8:

  • Uma: “What I an saying, is a parable from daily life. But we get the same teaching in the Lord’s Law.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “It is not just from our (incl.) human custom that we (dual) know as to what is right for people who work but even the holy-book, in the holy-book it says the same about this.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “There are just arguments which come from our activities as human beings. However, the Law teaches the same thing.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “It is admittedly true that the illustrations I have-just-related are based on what we know to be true on this earth, but what is in Moses’ law is the same also.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “What I am saying here, I’m not just getting it from what people do. This is in fact what the law says.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Do not think that I am making up the word I tell you. Because this word is what is said in the law Moses wrote.” (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 9:8

This verse forms a transition between the everyday examples of verse 7 and the argument from scripture in verse 9.

It is difficult to know where to place the question marks in this verse. Most translations take the second half of the verse to be a rhetorical question, since it is introduced by “or” in the Greek, a word that commonly introduces rhetorical questions.

It is not certain whether the first sentence is a rhetorical question or not. By New Testament times it is impossible to draw any firm conclusion from the fact that different Greek negatives are used in the two halves of the verse. Good News Bible, however, translates both parts of the verse as statements. Translators may do well to follow Good News Bible‘s lead here.

The words that Revised Standard Version translates on human authority mean “in a human way,” “from a human standpoint.” Good News Bible‘s “everyday examples” and Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente‘s “examples from human experience” help to make a good contrast with the law in the second half of the verse. The law refers to the five books of the Law in the Old Testament, so Good News Bible capitalizes “the Law.” Some translations that do not use capitalization may need to say “law written by Moses.”

Some languages cannot talk about the Law as “speaking” or “saying.” In such cases the translator can say “The same thing is written in the Law” or “You can find the same thing in the book of God’s Law.”

Although the two Greek verbs that Revised Standard Version translates say are different, they are probably used for variety with no difference in meaning.

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 .