truth

Nida (1947, p. 230) says this about the translation of the concept of “truth”: “The words for ‘truth’ and ‘true’ are not always the most readily discovered in aboriginal languages. In some instances the only expression which corresponds to ‘true’ is something like ‘it happened.’ A falsehood is something that ‘did not happen.’ In a good many languages the meaning of ‘truth’ is expressed by the words signifying ‘straight’ and ‘direct.’ Untruth is accordingly ‘crookedness.’ An abstract noun such as English “truth” is quite difficult to find in some instances. Only an expression such as ‘true statement’ or ‘true word’ will be found to correspond to English ‘truth.’”

The Greek, Latin, Ge’ez, and Hebrew that is usually translated in English as “truth” is translated in Luchazi with vusunga: “the quality of being straight” (source: E. Pearson in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 160ff. ), in Obolo as atikọ or “good/correct talk” (source: Enene Enene), and in Ekari as maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (esp. in John 14:6 and 17; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).

Helen Evans (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) tells of the translation into Kui which usually is “true-thing.” In some instances however, such as in the second part of John 17:17 (“your word is truth” in English), the use of “true-thing” indicated that there might be other occasions when it’s not true, so here the translation was a a form of “pure, holy.”

The translation committee of the Malay “Good News Bible” (Alkitab Berita Baik, see here ) wrestled with the translation of “truth” in the Gospel of John:

“Our Malay Committee also concluded that ‘truth’ as used in the Gospel of John was used either of God himself, or of God’s revelation of himself, or in an extended sense as a reference to those who had responded to God’s self-disclosure. In John 8:32 the New Malay translation reads ‘You will know the truth about God, and the truth about God will make you free.’ In John 8:44 this meaning is brought out by translating, ‘He has never been on the side of God, because there is no truth in him.’ Accordingly Jesus ‘tells the truth about God’ in 8:45, 46 (see also 16:7 and 8:37a). Then, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14:6) becomes ‘I am the one who leads men to God, the one who reveals who and what God is, and the one who gives men life.” At 3:21 the translation reads ” … whoever obeys the truth, that is God himself, comes to the light …’; 16:13a appears as ‘he will lead you into the full truth about God’; and in 18:37 Jesus affirms ‘I came into the world to reveal the truth about God, and whoever obeys God listens to me.’ On this basis also 1:14 was translated ‘we saw his glory, the glory which he had as the Father’s only Son. Through him God has completely revealed himself (truth) and his love for us (grace)’; and 1:17 appears as ‘God gave the law through Moses; but through Jesus Christ he has completely revealed himself (truth) and his love for us (grace).'” (Source: Barclay Newman in The Bible Translator 1974, p. 432ff. )

The German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) has followed a somewhat similar path to the Malay committee 50 years earlier in the gospel of John. In John 1 it translates “truth as “God’s nature,” in John 3 as “God’s will,” in John 8 as “God’s reality,” in John 14 as “encountering God,” and in John 16 as “God’s truth.”

complete verse (1 John 2:21)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 John 2:21:

  • Uma: “So, it’s not my purpose to write this to you as if to say that you don’t know the true teaching. I write this to you because you do know the true teaching, and you also know that there is no lie that appears from the truth.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “I am writing you not because you are ignorant of the true teaching, but because you know the true teaching. And you also know that no lie comes from the true teaching.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “I am not writing to you because you do not understand what the true doctrine is, rather, because you do understand it and because there is nothing false which comes from the true doctrine.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The reason I wrote you this is not your not knowing the truth, but rather because you already-know it and you also know that absolutely no lies come from the true teaching.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “I don’t mean to say that I’m writing to you because you don’t know the truth concerning Cristo, but rather so that I can cause you to be sure of this truth which you already know. And well, you also know that as for those teachings which are lies, they don’t come from this truth.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “I did not write here in this letter some message that you do not know; rather now you know that the words I tell you are true. And you know that there are no lies included in the true word.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “I have written you this letter because you are acquainted with what is true, not because you do not know what is true. When we speak true words it is obvious we are not lying.”
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “And I write to you, and I don’t think (mean) that you don’t know what is true, but you really do know it. And you know that a lie is not the companion of the truth.”
  • Tzotzil: “It is not that you do not know the word that is true. It is because you know it therefore I wrote to you. You know also that if we tell the truth, we are not lying.” (Source for this and two above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on 1 John 2:21

This verse draws a conclusion; hence, for example, “I write you, then, …” (Good News Translation).

I write to you: for the pronoun see 2.1; for the verb see 1.4. The tense is the aorist, as in verses 13c and 14; see comments on I am writing in 2.12. In the three following clauses the verb “to know” occurs only twice in the Greek. The third occurrence in Revised Standard Version is an addition, for which see below.

Because … because … that … The Greek uses the same conjunction three times, and it can mean “because” or “that.” Three interpretations are given: (1) three times “because,” dependent on “I write” (New English Bible, and others); (2) three times “that,” dependent on “I write” again; and (3) twice “because” or “that,” dependent on “I write,” once “that,” dependent on the second “you know.” In case (3) the verb is supposed to have two direct objects, the first a pronoun, the second a clause: “but because you know it (that is, the truth), and that no lie is of the truth.” Such a construction, though harsh and rather unusual, is not impossible, and it makes good sense. It is represented, among others, by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, both of which add a third “know” in order to ease over the harshness of the construction.

The present authors think (1) unlikely, and (3) quite defensible, but they have a slight preference for (2). According to that interpretation the writer wants to assure his readers that it is they, not his opponents, who really know the truth. To express himself as strongly as possible, he uses a pair of opposite clauses that reinforce each other, stating the same fact first negatively, then positively. This is a characteristic feature of his style; compare similar negative-positive or positive-negative pairs in 1.6, 8; 2.4, 7, 16, 23, 27b; 4.18; 3 John 11. And for further emphasis he adds the third clause, which states that there is a basic and essential difference between truth and untruth.

You do not know the truth, or ‘you are not aware of what is (really) true.’ For the truth see comments on 1.6, but the reference here is to facts about Christ. This is shown by the next verse: the truth John’s readers know is the fact that Jesus is the Christ, as revealed in the gospel.

No lie is of the truth: for “to be of” see comments on 2.16. The clause aims directly at the teaching of John’s opponents. Just as they themselves are not “of us” (verse 19), so their words are lies and cannot “be of the truth,” or ‘spring from the truth,’ ‘have the quality of truth’; or, with further shifts, ‘lies and truth cannot go together,’ ‘one who lies cannot have anything to do with truth.’

Accordingly the topic of this last clause of verse 21 is lie. Therefore an otherwise acceptable transposition, ‘truth cannot produce a lie,’ may be less advisable. For lie, or ‘false/untrue word,’ ‘what is false/untrue,’ see comments on the verb in 1.6.

The truth has another shade of meaning than in the first part of this verse. Now it refers to God’s real being (see comments on 1.8); its function comes close to that of a name of God. Therefore it is sometimes to be rendered ‘the true One,’ ‘the One who is true.’

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 2:21

2:21a

(Good News Translation) then: (Logical Relationship) Having stated that his readers have knowledge, John points out that this shows he is confident of their true faith in Christ (as in 2:12–14). Good News Translation and Living Bible make this connection explicit.

I have not written to you because you lack knowledge of: (Sentence Breaks) John is telling his readers not to think that the reason for his writing to them is that he considers them ignorant of the truth. Notice that this statement contains two negatives, which may make it unclear in translation. It may therefore be better to make it a separate sentence from 2:21b–c and make the reasoning more explicit. Or it could be translated using a rhetorical question:

Am I writing to you because I think that you do not know the truth? No. It is not because of that. I am sure that you know the truth.

2:21b–c

(Revised Standard Version) because you know it, and you know that…: (Alternative Interpretations) There are different interpretations as to how 2:21b and 2:21c relate to each other:

(1) John is probably saying that his readers know two things, firstly, the truth, and secondly, that no lie comes from it. (King James Version, Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, The Jerusalem Bible)

(2) Some think he is only mentioning one thing they know (the truth) and then he gives another reason for his writing, namely that no lie comes from the truth. (Berean Standard Bible, New English Bible)

2:21c

comes from: (Metaphor) To say that a lie comes from something abstract like truth is a metaphor, which may not be natural in your language. The basic meaning to be translated here is that truth and lies are totally different, so it is impossible for wrong beliefs (lies) to be part of God’s truth.

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