hate

The Greek and Hebrew that is translated in English as “hate” or a form thereof is translated in Tabasco Chontal as “don’t want to see [the person who is hated].” (Source: John Beekman & Harwood Hess in Notes on Translation, March 1963, p. 1ff.)

See also hate.

complete verse (1 John 2:11)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 John 2:11:

  • Uma: “People who hate their relatives, they are still in the darkness. They walk in the darkness, and they don’t know where they are going, for that darkness has blinded them, with the result that they can’t see.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But the one hating his fellow-man is still in darkness, that means he does bad/evil. He walks but he does not know where he is going because he is like a blind person because he cannot see in the darkness.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “However, the person who is the enemy of his companion, his mind is still in the darkness, and his actions are still evil. He is like a person who does not know where he is going, for he is still in the dark.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But the one however who hates his fellow-men, the darkness is where he is remaining and walking. He doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness of course has blinded him.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But that one who still is ignoring/spurning his sibling in believing, he really is still in the darkness which is sin. An illustration of him is, it’s like he is walking in the darkness and he can’t find where it would be good for him to walk, because he is still being blinded by this darkness which is sin.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “But the one who hates his brother is still living an evil life. And he does not know how to live because the evil in him covers over his thoughts.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “If we are in a state of hating our fellows, we are in darkness in that we are doing evil, and we are walking (living) in darkness. We do not know what road we will take (where we are going) because our head-hearts are darkened (without understanding) by reason of the evil we are doing.”
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “He who hates his sibling lives in the darkness, and walks there, and doesn’t know where he’s going, he can’t see because the darkness has covered his eyes.”
  • Tzotzil: “If we hate our Christian brethren, we are still in darkness. We walk along in darkness. We don’t know where we are going because we can’t see because it is dark.” (Source for this and two above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)
  • Candoshi-Shapra: “The one who hates his brother lives in darkness. He walks in darkness. He does not even see where he is going. For his eyes don’t see in the darkness.”
  • Yanesha’: “This one who despises his countrymen, he is still in the darkness. There he walks, he does not know where maybe he is going, the darkness is blocking on him his eyes.”
  • Aguaruna: “But he, one who hates his brother, lives (stays) in darkness-place, because he is so, walking in darkness-place, he does not know ‘I am like that’ saying, the darkness has caused his eyes to be blind.” (Source for this and two above: Mildred Larson in Notes on Translation, July 1965, p. 1-15)
  • Murui Huitoto: “This one who hates his brother is in darkness. He is like one walking in the dark. He does not know where he is going because the darkness causes his eyes not to see.” (Source for this and two above: Mildred Larson in Notes on Translation, July 1965, p. 1-15)

Translation commentary on 1 John 2:11

This verse is the negative counterpart of verse 10 and at the same time elaborates verse 9b. It forms the climax in the refutation of the false teachers. These men, John points out, live in the deepest darkness (thrice mentioned), since they blindly wander about in it, act in it, and cannot see the light (although they pretended to live in it; see 1.5). The last clause reinforces and explains the two preceding ones, showing why they cannot but wander about and act in darkness. With the exception of the last one, the verbs in this verse are in the present tense with durative force.

He … does not know where he is going, or ‘he is not aware in what direction he is going (or which road he is taking).’ Or, since going refers to behavior, ‘he does not realize what he ought to do.’

The darkness has blinded his eyes is a syntactic construction that may be idiomatically unacceptable in the receptor language. Some possible restructurings are ‘living in the darkness (as he is), his eyes are blinded’; compare also “to move in the dark is to move blindfold” (Phillips), or ‘his eyes can’t see because it is dark.’ The verb in this clause is in the aorist tense because it refers to the conclusion and result of a process that lasted for some time.

“To blind,” or ‘to cause to be blind,’ ‘to cause not to see’: in some receptor languages such verbs preferably take the person concerned as object, not that person’s eyes or sight; compare ‘has made him blind.’ In other languages “to blind the eyes” must be rendered by ‘to dim/block the eyes,’ ‘to take away the sight,’ ‘to cover the eyes’ (a verb that is also used in the language concerned with reference to the mind or heart), or even ‘to destroy the eyes/sight.’

Quoted with permission from Haas, C., de Jonge, M. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on The First Letter of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator's Notes on 1 John 2:11

2:11b

walks in the darkness: (Metaphor) See the note on 2:6. However, John extends the metaphor in this verse by comparing this person with someone who walks about in a dark place and cannot see where he is going.

2:11c

where he is going: (Alternative Interpretations) There are two ways of understanding this:

(1) As stated in the previous note, it is probably just part of the picture of someone who cannot see where he is going in the dark.

(2) Some commentators say it means that the person who hates his brother “does not know he is going to Hell.” But this is unlikely, since John is not concerned with Hell in this letter.

2:11d

has blinded his eyes: (Metaphor) Here John extends the metaphor further by comparing this person with someone who has become blind. The meaning is that ignorance or rejection of God’s truth prevents one from knowing what one is really doing.

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