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 (Amos 5:10)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Amos 5:10:

  • Kupsabiny: “God is saying,
    ‘You persecute the one who rebukes those who make mistakes
    and you hate those who speak the truth.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “You hate honest judges
    And you also hate those people who speak the truth.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “You (plur.) from-Israel, you (plur.) (are) angry at the one-who-judges rightly and tells the truth in the court.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “He is the one who will punish you
    because you hate those who challenge anyone who tries to make unjust decisions,
    and you hate those who tell the truth in your courts.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Amos 5:10

They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth/You people hate anyone who challenges injustice and speaks the whole truth in court. In this verse the Hebrew speaks about the ones who are doing the hating (see Revised Standard Version), but in the next verse changes and speaks directly to them. The Hebrew continues speaking directly to them until verse 13 (which balances verse 10); in verse 13 it speaks about people once more, but they are different people.

Good News Translation simplifies the passage by speaking to the people right from the beginning. This keeps the passage much easier and avoids the problem that in some languages the use of they could mean nothing else than the strong who were destroyed in verse 9. Such a translation would certainly be wrong.

The setting of verse 10 is gate, which means the large space inside the city gate where court cases were judged. Since the place itself is not being emphasized in this context, court makes a better translation in English. Court should be translated in such a way that it indicates local judgment, not the judgment of a far-off national government. In some languages this will be “palaver house” or “village council” or “meeting of the elders,” etc.

The Hebrew has two words, to hate and to abhor, and the translator may want to look for two equivalent verbs if that would be best for the style of the translation. On the other hand, the words mean the same thing except for emotional differences between them, and may be combined into one word, as in Good News Translation.

It is hard to know who is being hated and abhorred in this verse. Probably they are people with the qualities translated in the Good News Translation: anyone who challenges injustice and speaks the whole truth in court. In translating like this, however, in some languages it will be necessary to show whose injustice is intended: “he who shows (reproves) your injustice” (compare Moffatt: “who exposes you”) or “anyone who shows how unjust/unfair you are.”

It is not fully clear whether the person who challenges injustice is the same as the one who speaks the whole truth. More likely they are different (judges who speak out against injustice, and witnesses who refuse to lie), but sometimes it will be easier to translate with only one kind of hated person: “he who shows your injustice in speaking the (whole) truth.”

Quoted with permission from de Waard, Jan & Smalley, William A. A Handbook on Amos. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1979. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .