witness

The Hebrew, Ge’ez, and and Greek that is translated as “witness” in English is translated in these ways:

  • “truly have seen” in Highland Popoluca
  • “telling the truth regarding something” in Eastern Highland Otomi
  • “know something” in Lalana Chinantec
  • “verily know something to be the truth” in San Mateo del Mar Huave
  • “we ourselves saw this” in Desano
  • “tell the truth about something” in Eastern Highland Otomi
  • “know something is true because of seeing it” in Teutila Cuicatec (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • “ones who will confirm that these-things that you have seen are true” in Kankanaey (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • “ones who are to testify about these things, because it all happened before your eyes” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

complete verse (Deuteronomy 17:6)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 17:6:

  • Kupsabiny: “A person like that is to be killed if there are two or three people who say that they have seen that person doing sin. But a person should not be killed if only one person is saying that he has seen that one doing a sin.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Kill the person who must be killed only on the witness of two or three people, do not kill him on the witness of only one person.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “(It is) possible to kill a person/man if (it is) proven that he/she had-sinned by the telling/testimony of the two or three witnesses, but if only one witness he/she cannot be-killed.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “But you are allowed to execute such people only if at least two witnesses testify that they saw them doing that. They must not be executed if there is only one witness.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 17:6

On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses: as the second part of the verse shows, this means simply “two or more witnesses” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Good News Translation). New International Version and New Revised Standard Version “of two or three witnesses” is not good, since in current English this expression actually means “[just] a few.” See 19.15. Alternative translation models for the first part of this verse are “However, you may put that person to death only if two or more people give evidence against him,” or “… two or more people say, ‘I saw that person worshiping idols.’ ”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .