The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated as “naked” in English is translated in Enlhet with a figure of speech: “(one’s) smoothness.” (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )
In Elhomwe the word for “naked” is “shameful to use, and would never be used by a preacher in church.” Therefore “without clothes” is used. (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
In Cherokee it is translated as “being in a bodily state.” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 30)
In the Catholic Mandarin ChineseSigao version and the Protestant Union Version, historical Chinese idioms are used: chìshēn lòutǐ (赤身露體 / 赤身露体) or chìshēn luǒtǐ (赤身裸體 / 赤身裸体): “bare and uncovered body.” (Source: Toshikazu S. Foley in Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies, 2011, p. 45ff.)
3:1 In the garden that Yahweh created there were many animals. Out of all the animals, there was one very cunning creature compared to a serpent who was very deceitful.
It happened that the man and the woman were walking in the garden and the serpent approached them and spoke to them cunningly. To the woman he said, “Did Yahweh really say, ‘You must not eat from any fruit tree in the garden’?”
3:2 The woman replied to the serpent, “No, Yahweh gave us all the trees in the garden to eat from.
3:3 But there is one tree in the middle of the garden whose fruit we must not eat nor touch. If we do, our lives will be ruined and there will be death thereafter.
3:4 The serpent said to the woman, “‘Your lives will be ruined and you will die thereafter?’ Ha. No, you will not die.
3:5 Yahweh knows that when you eat from this tree your eyes will be opened and you will become enlightened. Yahweh knows good and evil, if you know good and evil you will become like God.”
3:6 The woman looked at the tree with its many fruits with desire. The fruits were pleasing to her eyes and aroused her desire for wisdom. She picked the fruit and ate it. She gave some of the fruit to her husband who also ate it.
3:7 Suddenly, their eyes were opened, they looked at themselves and realized that they were naked. They had transgressed. They tried to cover their bodies. They ran to find large fig leaves which they gathered and weaved together to hide their nakedness.
3:8 In the cool of the evening, Yahweh walked through the garden. The man and woman were still trying to cover their bodies when they heard his footsteps. The man and woman hid fearfully behind the trees.
3:9 Yahweh called to the man “Where are you? Why have you not come to me?”
3:10 The man emerged from behind the trees and answered Yahweh, “I heard you but because I was naked, I was afraid to come to you, so I hid behind the trees.”
3:11 And Yahweh replied, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree which I commanded you not to eat from?”
3:12 Ashamedly, the man replied, “It was the woman you created from my rib to be my companion who picked the fruit from the tree and gave it to me to eat.”
3:13 And Yahweh said to the woman, “What have you done?”
Fearfully, the woman emerged from the trees and replied, “It was the serpent who deceived me. I fell for his trick and ate the fruit from the tree.”
3:14 And Yahweh looked at the serpent and cursed it saying, “Above all the animals, all livestock and wild animals, you are the least. You will be punished by remaining low and crawling on your belly in the dust, you will breathe dust for the rest of your life.
3:15 The serpent and the woman will be enemies; your offspring will be enemies. One of her descendants will crush your head and you will bite his feet.”
3:16 To the woman Yahweh spoke, “For the rest of your life you face struggles and hardship, you will suffer severe childbearing, severe labor and the burden of child rearing will be hard. You will desire a husband as your partner, but your husband will rule over you.”
3:17 To the man Yahweh spoke, “I commanded you not to eat from the tree, but you listened to your wife and ate it. For the rest of your life, you will face struggles and hardship. You will work hard to plow the land for food
3:18 but the soil will produce thorns and weeds that will ruin your crops.
3:19 You will sweat and work hard to gather food for the rest of your life. When your body dies it will break down and return to the dust from which it came. I, Yahweh, created man from dust and to the dust you will return.”
3:20 The man Adam named the woman Eve because she would become the mother of all the living. Eve.
3:21 Yahweh made clothes from animal skin and clothed them.
3:22 And Yahweh said to them, “You have eaten from the tree and transgressed. Now you are like us; you know good and evil. If one eats from the tree of life they will live forever. If you also eat from the tree of life, you will live forever. This cannot be allowed, you must leave.”
3:23 In the garden where they were, Yahweh sent them away. The same soil that Yahweh created human from is the same soil Adam will plow and toil laboriously.
3:24 They left the garden walking towards the East. When they left Yahweh commanded the heavenly beings to guard the tree of life on either side. In the center he placed a sword of fire flashing back and forth. Adam and Eve will never be able to return, the garden remains guarded.
Back-translation by Amakedia Wallen, coordinated by Tashi Widmer
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the inclusive pronoun, including the family.
The Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Greek that is transliterated as “Jacob” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign that signifies “lentil,” referring to the soup he gave his brother in exchange for his birthright (see Genesis 25:34). Note that another Spanish Sign Language sign for Jacob also users the sign for Jewish. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
In Finnish Sign Language it is translated with the signs signifying “smooth arm” (referring to the story starting at Genesis 27:11). (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 3:11:
Kankanaey: “God said to him, ‘Where was your(sing.)-means-of-knowing that you (sing.) were naked? Is it because you (sing.) ate some of the fruit of the tree that I prohibited to you (pl.)?'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Newari: “‘Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten the fruit of the tree that I told you not to eat?'” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “The LORD God asked, ‘Who said to you (sing.) that you (sing.) are naked? Did- you (sing.) -eat the fruit of the tree that I told you (sing.) not to eat?'” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “God said, ‘How did you find out you were naked? It must be because you ate some of the fruit from the tree that I told you, ‘Do not eat its fruit.”” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
The man has confessed to his nakedness but has said nothing about his disobedience. Therefore God pursues the questioning.
Who told you that you were naked? may have to be expressed in the present: “… that you are naked.” Some translators may have problems with the form of this question, since it does not state directly what God is really asking, namely, “How did you find out that you were naked?” The word told in this context actually means “spoke to you so that you found out.” See also comments on “knew that they were naked” in Gen 3.7. A restructuring used in one translation to make the sense of this verse clearer is “God asked him, ‘How did you know that you were naked? Who told you? Have you eaten…?’ ”
Have you eaten of the tree…? is often better translated “Did you eat the fruit of the tree…?” or “Did you eat some of the fruit of the tree…?”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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