every species of beast and bird and of reptile and sea creature

The Greek in James 3:7 that is translated as “every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature” in English is translated in Rincón Zapotec as “every animal of the field which walks on the earth, and every winged animal and the snakes dragging their stomachs on the earth and also every animal in the sea.” (Source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.)

See also birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

creeping things / reptiles

The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated in English as “reptiles” or “creeping things” or similar is translated as “those which crawl along upon their stomach” in San Mateo del Mar Huave, “those that crawl the way they travel” in Chichimeca-Jonaz, and “animals that crawl on the ground” in Lalana Chinantec. (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

In Nyamwezi it is translated as as vitundwa vya ku’yu’mba or “creatures that move.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

See also every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature and four-footed creatures and reptiles.

 

The Hebrew words zachal and remes literally mean “creeping [things]” or “crawling [things]”, which is the Hebrew way of referring to small unclean creatures, reptiles in particular. The Greek word herpeton is also a general word for reptile; it includes snakes and lizards. All of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin words usually exclude fish.

The Hebrew words carry the connotation of uncleanness.

In languages which have a word meaning “reptile”, this will fit most contexts. In languages which do not, phrases such as “snakes and lizards”, “wriggling things”, and so forth could be used.

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

complete verse (James 3:7)

Following are a number of back-translations of James 3:7:

  • Uma: “Every kind of wild animal, birds, animals that crawl and fish in the water, they can be tamed, and there are people who tame them.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “All varieties of animals and birds and fish and snakes can be ruled over and are ruled over already by men/humans.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “We know that humans can control any creature, for there are animals, birds, fish, and even snakes that have been tamed.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “People have the ability to tame all kinds of creatures including wild animals, birds, crawling things and that which is in the ocean, and there are (complimentary particle) people who have tamed all-things like these.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Isn’t it so that of all the kinds of animals, there isn’t a single one which can’t be trained/managed by man? For there are birds, fish, animals that walk and even those which crawl which have been tamed by man.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “A person can tame animals, the wild animals, the birds, the snakes, and the animals living in the sea a person can tame.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

sea / lake

The various Greek, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

Translation commentary on James 3:7

After describing the great destructive potential of the tongue, James now takes up another of its qualities, namely that it is uncontrollable. His point is that the tongue, that is, a person’s speech, defies control and therefore can be extremely evil.

For every kind of …: the particle For ties what is being said in verses 7-8 to the previous statement in verse 6. In some languages this explanatory particle is best retained to keep the argument clear. In others, however, the connection is clear enough without it. The word kind in every kind basically means “nature,” but in this context the sense is determined by the fourfold list of creatures, and so it has the narrower meaning of “species” (so New Revised Standard Version). For languages where a term like “species” is lacking, a more general term like kind, or “all other creatures” (Good News Translation) may be used.

Beast and bird … reptile and sea creature: in Greek the reference to all these creatures is in the plural. This classification reflects the characteristic biblical convention of dividing all the creatures into four classes (see Gen 1.26; 9.2; Deut 4.17-18). The word beast probably refers to undomesticated animals and therefore is rendered as “wild animals” by Good News Translation. Other ways to express this are “jungle [or forest, bush] animals.” The word reptile refers to crawling animals and so may be rendered as “creatures that crawl on the ground” (Revised English Bible). The word sea creature, used only here in the New Testament, is literally “[the things or creatures] in the sea,” and refers to “fish” (Good News Translation); it may also be rendered as “creatures that swim in the sea” (Revised English Bible), or even “creatures that swim in the water.” The context is referring to water creatures as opposed to land and air creatures. In places where seas or oceans are unknown, we may say, for example, “creatures that swim in the big rivers [or, large lakes].” It is important for translators to use the classification for creatures or animals that is meaningful in their own cultures.

Can be tamed and has been tamed is literally “is tamed and has been tamed.” The verb “to tame” appears elsewhere in the New Testament only in Mark 5.4, where it means “to subdue,” referring to the inability of people to subdue the demon-driven man. Here it obviously means “to domesticate,” “to subdue” (so New English Bible, Revised English Bible), “to bring under control” all species of animals. The first verb is in the present tense, which may point to the continual possibility of taming and therefore have the force of “is being tamed from time to time.” The second verb is in the perfect, indicating a completed action that continues to have present significance. It is therefore taken by some interpreters to mean that humankind’s dominion over the animal species was given at the very beginning of creation, and that the present situation of “taming” was established at that time in the past. It is not certain, however, that our author intends to make these fine points. Most commentators regard the double use of the same verb as simply to create a rhetorical effect, and have therefore rendered it as “can be tamed and has been tamed” (so Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, New Revised Standard Version), “can be subdued and have been subdued” (so New English Bible, Revised English Bible), or “can be, and has been, brought under control” (Barclay).

By humankind is a construction that can be taken as a dative of advantage in the sense of “for humankind.” The majority of commentators take it to be a dative of agent or instrument and render the phrase as “by humankind” or, in line with the use of the same word earlier in the verse, “by the human species” (so New American Bible, New Revised Standard Version). Good News Translation has rendered the saying in a positive form with mankind as the subject, thus “We humans are able to tame and have tamed all other creatures” (so also Bible en français courant). The word for humankind, sometimes rendered “man,” does not mean a male person, but human beings in contrast with other created animal species.

In languages that do not have the passive, the Good News Translation model is useful. In some languages it will be helpful to break this long sentence up into shorter sentences; for example:
• Human beings are able to tame all other creatures. This includes forest [or, wild] animals, birds, crawling creatures, and creatures that swim in the sea. They have in fact tamed them.

Quoted with permission from Loh, I-Jin and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Letter from James. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .