devil

The Greek that is translated in English as “devil” is sometimes translated with indigenous specific names, such as “the avaricious one” in Tetelcingo Nahuatl, “the malicious deity” in Toraja-Sa’dan (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel), or in Yoruba as èṣù. “Èṣù is thought of as bringing evil, but also as giving protection. The birth of a child may be attributed to him, as the names given to some babies show, Èṣùbiyi (Èṣù brought this forth), and Èṣùtoyin (Èṣù is worthy of praise).” (Source: John Hargreaves in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 39ff. )

Other translations include:

  • Muna: Kafeompu’ando seetani or “Master of the evil-spirits” (source: René van den Berg)
  • Mairasi: owe er epar nan or “headman of malevolent spirits” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Central Subanen: Palin or “Perverter” (incl. in 2 Cor. 6:15) (source: Robert Brichoux in OPTAT 1988/2, p. 80ff. )
  • Huehuetla Tepehua: “chief of demons”
  • Ojitlán Chinantec: as “head of the worldlings” (source for the last two: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125).
  • Mandarin Chinese móguǐ (魔鬼), literally “magical ghost.” This is a term that was adopted from Buddhist sources into early Catholic writings and later also by Protestant translators. (Source: Zetzsche 1996, p. 32)
In Lak and Shughni it is translated with terms of feminine gender. Vitaly Voinov tells this story (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight):

“In the Lak language of Dagestan, the names ‘Iblis’ and ‘sheytan’ (referring to Satan and his minions, respectively) in this language were borrowed from the Arabic Islamic tradition, but they entered Lak as feminine nouns, not masculine nouns. This means that they grammatically function like nouns referring to females in Lak; in other words, Laks are likely to think of Iblis as a woman, not a man, because of the obligatory grammatical patterning of Lak noun classes. Thus, when the team explained (in Russian) what the Lak translation of Jesus’ wilderness temptation narrative at the beginning of Matthew 4 said, it sounded something like the following: ‘After this, the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Iblis… .The temptress came to Jesus, and she said to Him…’

“Since this information (that the devil is a female spirit) is part of the very name used for Satan in Lak, nothing can really be done about this in the translation. The Lak translator did not think that the feminine gender of Iblis should cause any serious misunderstandings among readers, so we agreed to leave it in the translation. Prior to this, I had never heard about languages in which the devil is pictured as a woman, but recently I was told by a speaker of the Shughni language that in their language Sheytan is also feminine. This puts an interesting spin on things. The devil is of course a spirit, neither male nor female in a biologically-meaningful sense. But Bible translators are by nature very risk-aversive and, where possible, want to avoid any translation that might feed misleading information to readers. So what can a translator do about this? In many cases, such as the present one, one has to just accept the existing language structure and go on.”

complete verse (Ephesians 4:27)

Following are a number of back-translations of Ephesians 4:27:

  • Uma: “so that there will be no opportunity for the King of Evil-ones to tempt/test us.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Don’t give room to the demons to tempt you.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Don’t you permit by means of your anger that Satan take advantage of you.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “so that Satanas will have no opportunity to tempt you.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For if you cause it to be for a long time, you are giving Satanas an opportunity/place and he will drag you into sin.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Don’t give a way for the devil to make you do what pleases him.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Ephesians 4:27

This verse in Greek follows without a break from verse 26. Jerusalem Bible combines the two as follows: “never let the sun set on your anger, or else you will give the devil a foothold.” This takes verse 27 to be a consequence of not obeying the injunction in verse 26 (see also Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). But verse 27 can be understood as a general command and not restricted only to the anger of verse 26. Devil translates a Greek noun which means “slanderer, accuser,” and which may be used of human beings (1 Tim 3.11; 2 Tim 3.3; Titus 2.3) as well as of Satan, the ruler of the evil spiritual forces. Believers should do nothing that would allow the force of evil to disrupt their fellowship in the body of Christ.

In some cases it may be necessary to specify what chance is given to the Devil, for example, “do not give the Devil a chance to tempt you” or “do not give the Devil any time in which he can try to make you sin.”

Devil is often translated as “head of the evil spirits” or “chief evil power.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1982. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .