The concept that is expressed as “mind” in English is translated as “head-heart” in Yatzachi Zapotec. This concept is applied to terms that are translated in English as “fellowship” (“head-hearts are one”), the “inner-self” (“have no evil” is “have no evil in our head-hearts”), “eye” (in the sense of “understanding”), “heart” and “soul.”
Source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22.
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. )
Following are a number of back-translations of 1 John 5:17:
Uma: “All evil doing, sin is its name. But there is sin(s) that does not bring eternal punishment.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “All doing bad is certainly sin, but there is sin that draws God’s wrath.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Sin is any kind of evil doing, and there is a sin whose result is not death.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “It is admittedly true that all bad that is done is sin, but there is nevertheless sin that can be forgiven so it does not lead to punishment that has no end.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “The truth is, each thing we do which is opposed to the will of God, that is sin. But except for that which I mentioned, there is indeed forgiveness.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “All that is evil is sin. But there are sins which can be forgiven a person.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Yatzachi Zapotec: “Everything which people do which does not go straight (is not righteous) is evil. But there is evil which people do which does not make them and their head-hearts like a dead person.”
Eastern Highland Otomi: “All whenever one departs in regard to the good, it is sin. But sometimes one sins not taking the evil road for good.”
Tzotzil: “All that is bad-evil, it is sin. There is sin that we will not be lost (eternally) because of it.” (Source for this and two above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)
The distinction between nonmortal and mortal sin might lead people to underestimate the seriousness of sin. Therefore John thinks fit to remind his readers of the fact that all wrongdoing is sin, that is, rebellion against God and siding with the devil (compare 3.4). Yet the distinction just made remains valid, as the next sentence of the verse makes clear; some evil deeds, although undoubtedly sins, do not lead to death and can be forgiven (compare 1.9-10).
All wrongdoing is sin, or ‘every evil/unrighteous deed is sin,’ ‘everyone who does wrong is sinning.’
But there is sin which is not mortal, or ‘yet not all sin is deadly sin,’ ‘yet not everyone who sins is sinning to death.’
Verses 18-20 contain an encouragement to the believers, made emphatic by the threefold repetition of the introductory we know; compare the threefold “I am writing” and “I write” in 2.12-14.
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 .
In the previous verse John has mentioned two types of sin, those which lead to death and those which do not. In this verse he is making his readers understand that the sins which do not lead to death are also very bad. All sin is serious in God’s sight.
5:17a
All unrighteousness is sin:(Lexical Problem) The terms unrighteousness and sin are often used to mean the same thing, but here they are used with more specific meanings. In this verse unrighteousness means any act which is against God’s will or is below the standard he sets. Here, sin means something which offends God and spoils or breaks a person’s relationship with him.
5:17b
yet there is:(Logical Relationship) The Berean Standard Bible translates the Greek conjunction used here as yet. Since this statement contrasts with the first half of the verse the English conjunction “but” is another translation option here. See Good News Translation, The Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, Revised Standard Version, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English.
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.
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®).
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.