Balinese: “put on a new behavior” (compare “repentance“: “to put on a new mind”)
Tzeltal: “cause one’s heart to return to God” (compare “repentance”: “to cause one’s heart to return because of one’s sin”)
Pedi: “retrace one’s step” (compare “repentance”: “to become untwisted”)
Uab Meto: “return” (compare “repentance”: “to turn the heart upside down”)
Northwestern Dinka: “turn oneself” (compare “repentance”: “to turn the heart”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
Central Mazahua: “change the heart” (compare “repentance”: “turn back the heart”) (source: Nida 1952, p. 40)
In Elhomwe, the same term is used for “conversion” and “repentance” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Western Kanjobal: “molt” (like a butterfly) (source: Nida 1952, p. 136)
Latvian: atgriezties (verb) / atgriešanās (noun) (“turn around / return”) which is also the same term being used for “repentance” (source: Katie Roth)
Isthmus Mixe: “look away from the teaching of one’s ancestors and follow the teachings of God”
Highland Popoluca: “leave one’s old beliefs to believe in Jesus” (source for thsi and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
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.”
Following are a number of back-translations of James 5:19:
Uma: “All my relatives! If there is a companion of ours who has circumvented/wandered-from from the true teaching, and there is one who guides him back to the Lord, he has done a good deed.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then, my brothers, remember this, if there is someone among you who no longer follows/obeys the true teaching and one of you can influence/bring him back again to follow/obey the true teaching, (that is) good.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Brothers, if any one of you departs from and forgets about the true doctrine and someone helps him so that he might return,” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Think-about this brothers. If there is someone among you who goes-far from the correct teaching or behavior that God wants and there is someone among you who advises him to cause-him-to-return to what is right,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “The final thing I have to say to you, my siblings in believing, is that if one of you will get led astray from the path of truth and there is also one who can cause him to return, that is really good.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Listen, my dear brethren, if there is anyone who has departed from the word which is true, let another person cause that he return again.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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 formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
James is now drawing the letter to a close. He does so by addressing his readers again as My brethren, indicating a shift in topic, and by making a general appeal to refrain from error.
My brethren: this final address is again inclusive and may be rendered “My friends” (Good News Translation, Revised English Bible), “My brothers and sisters” (New Revised Standard Version), or “My fellow believers.”
If any one among you wanders from the truth: the conditional clause immediately suggests that James is concerned about some members of the Christian community slipping away in their faith. The verb rendered “to wander” should not suggest that slipping away from the truth is accidental. It is a metaphor, comparing life to a road that the believer follows. To “wander away” is to go astray from the road. It is not an unconscious departure from the truth but a rejection of the will of God. It is to “err from the truth” (American Standard Version). Since the verb is passive in form, some translations in English render it in the passive with an uncertain agent, “If any one of you is led astray from the truth” (Goodspeed). But most translations interpret the verb to mean “wander away.” In languages that do not use that figure of speech, we may say something like “If any of you stops listening to the true word of the gospel.” See 2 Tim 4.4 for the similar idea, “will turn away from listening to the truth.” The word truth here does not refer to Christian doctrine but more likely to the truth of the gospel; see the discussion in 1.18 and 3.14. With the concern that James has about right living, truth here has to do with truthfulness in Christian conduct, not the correctness of Christian belief. The focus is more moral than intellectual.
And some one brings him back: James does not leave the person who has gone astray to care for himself or herself. It is the responsibility of the Christian community to bring him or her back. Notice the emphasis on responsibility for one another: If any one among you wanders … and some one (among you) brings him back. The verb “to bring back” basically means “to turn around.” It is “turning back a sinner from the error of his ways,” as explained in the next verse, and bringing that person back to the faith and truth from which he or she has gone astray. Another way to express this is “and another Christian [or, believer] helps [or, causes] him [or, them] to believe in the gospel again, ….”
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 .
James encouraged believers to help the person who is no longer obeying God to obey him again
In this final section of James’ epistle, he encouraged his readers to help any fellow Christians who had stopped obeying God to begin to obey him again.
Some other possible headings for this section are:
Help Those Who Have Wandered Away from the Truth (God’s Word)
-or-
Restore Wandering Believers (New Living Translation (2004 Revision))
-or-
Help people return to obeying God
Paragraph 5:19–20
The two verses of this paragraph are all one sentence in the Greek text. In 5:19 James described figuratively something that may happen to a Christian: a person strays away from God, and someone brings him back. In 5:20 James commented that bringing this person back into a relationship with God is a worthwhile thing to do.
5:19a
My brothers: Here James used the phrase My brothers to emphasize the following point and to introduce a new topic.
This phrase also occurs in 5:12a.
if one of you should wander from the truth: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as wander means that a person “strays from,” “leaves” or “abandons” the correct path. This is a figure of speech meaning that a person is no longer following God nor living a life that pleases him.
There are at least two ways to translate this figure of speech:
• Keep the metaphor. For example:
if one of you strays from the truth (Revised English Bible)
-or-
if one of you leaves the path of truth
• Translate the meaning. For example:
If one of you believers no longer obeys the true teachings about/ from God
one of you: The phrase one of you refers to a member of the Christian community.
the truth: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the truth here refers to the true way of life. This is the way that is taught in God’s word. It is the true teaching of God.
Some other ways to translate this word are:
true/straight teaching
-or-
God’s ways
-or-
the way that God wants us to live
-or-
following what God teaches us to believe and do
This word also occurs in 3:14d.
5:19b
and someone should bring him back: This clause is a second part of the condition. In other words, the word “if” is implied. For example:
and if someone should bring him back
James continued to use figurative language. He spoke of someone helping another person to find the right path again. He meant helping this other person to recognize that he was no longer living as a Christian should. This person helps the other to repent and again live the way a true Christian should live.
There are at least two ways to translate this figure of speech:
• Keep the metaphor. For example:
you should try to lead them back. (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
and if someone helps him follow God’s path again
• Translate the meaning. For example:
and if someone helps him to repent
-or-
if someone encourages him to obey the truth again
(See the General Comment on 5:19–20 at the end of 5:20d for a way to make this a separate sentence.)
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
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