complete verse (1 Thessalonians 5:7)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Thessalonians 5:7:

  • Uma: “Because people who sleep and get-drunk, sleep and get-drunk at night.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “It is at night hep that people sleep and it is also at night that the people who drink are always drunk.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “He who sleeps, sleeps in the night, and he who gets drunk, also gets drunk in the night.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Because the night is the sleeping-time of people and the getting-drunk-time of drunkards.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For isn’t it so that night is the time when people sleep and get drunk?” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Those who sleep sleep in the night. Those who get drunk get drunk in the night.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): “Both who sleep at night and who are drunk at night belong to the darkness.”

Translation commentary on 1 Thessalonians 5:7

The grammatical structure of this verse in Greek is balanced, but the meaning is not. A fairly literal translation would be “for the sleepers sleep at night, and the drunkards get drunk at night.” Paul is not interested here in distinguishing those who sleep and get drunk from those who do not, but in mentioning two of the activities associated with night. Good News Translation effectively focuses attention upon the factor of time by introducing both the sleeping and the drunkenness with the phrase it is at night. Other languages may use “at night people sleep; at night they get drunk,” or “people sleep at night and get drunk at night.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

Sung version of 1 Thessalonians 5

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®).

For more information, see here .