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 (2 Corinthians 12:6)

Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Corinthians 12:6:

  • Uma: “Actually, if I did want to praise myself, I wouldn’t be lying, for there really are some things that are fitting I praise myself for. But I will hold-myself-back, I won’t recount my visions any longer, lest someone praise me when they hear this story of mine. If anyone wants to praise me, they should look at my actions and listen to my words.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “If I really wanted to boast, my boasting would not be like the boasting of stupid/bad people because all I say is true. But I do not boast, lest/perhaps people would unduly honor me. I want that they consider me only because of my doings that they see and my words/speech that they hear.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For example, if I want to boast you cannot say that my boasting is of no value, because what I boast about is true. However I will not boast because I do not want people to think I am very high in rank. It is better if what they think about me is the result of those things they have seen, and my teaching that they have heard.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “There is much that I could boast-about if I wanted (but I don’t), and I am not a fool if I do that, because what I say is true. But I keep-quiet-about-it in order that people will not go-too-far in making-me -high. Because I want their opinion of me to be based on what I have done and said which they have seen and heard for themselves.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But supposing I wanted to seek-praise, it would not mean that I am stupid, because what I say would indeed be true. But no. I am restraining myself, because I don’t want people’s estimation of me to be too high. What I want is, if their estimation of me is good, it’s just because of my good works that they have seen or good teaching of mine that they have heard.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “If I wanted to speak of myself, as to how good I live, then I could. No one could say that it is not true what I said. But I do not want to boast in my speaking. Rather, only according to what you have seen in how I walk and according to what you have heard me say, I want you to judge for yourselves.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on 2 Corinthians 12:6

I shall not be a fool: Paul is not talking here about actually being a fool, but rather about acting like a fool by boasting. Actually Paul does not think it foolish, since he is telling the truth. Translator’s New Testament reads “that would not be foolish of me.” Some languages will require a more natural restructuring such as “I would not be acting like a fool if I decided to boast, because I would be telling the truth.” Compare verse 11 below.

I refrain from it: that is, “I refuse to go on boasting”; or, as Contemporary English Version has it, “I will try not to say too much.”

Most translations complete one sentence at the end of verse 6 with the words “hears from me” (Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Revised English Bible) and begin a new sentence at verse 7. In Greek the first words of verse 7 are “by the abundance of revelations.” Other translations, such as New Jerusalem Bible and Martin, connect the words “by the abundance of revelations” to the end of verse 6. New Jerusalem Bible translates 12.6b-7a as follows: “But I will not go on in case anybody should rate me higher than he sees and hears me to be, because of the exceptional greatness of the revelations” (so also New Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, Nouvelle version Segond révisée, and the UBS Greek New Testament). According to this second interpretation people would think too highly of Paul because of the abundance of revelations that he has had.

Though the Greek is literally so that no one, Contemporary English Version is surely correct in translating this as “none of you.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellingworth, Paul. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on 2 Corinthians 12:6

12:6a Even if I wanted to boast,

For/But if I should decide to boast,
-or-
Let me explain, if I wanted to boast ⌊about my experiences⌋,

12:6b I would not be a fool,

I would not speak like a fool,
-or-
I would not be foolish,

12:6c because I would be speaking the truth.

because I would tell the truth.
-or-
because I would be telling you what actually happened.

12:6d But I refrain,

But I avoid ⌊doing that⌋,
-or-
But I prevent myself ⌊from such boasting⌋,

12:6e so no one will credit me with more

in order that no one will give too high of status to me,
-or-
so that no one would hold/regard my name/reputation too highly.

12:6f than he sees in me or hears from me,

rather than giving me status based on what I do and say.
-or-

⌊I want people’s opinion of me⌋ to be based on only what I have done and said.

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