truth

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.”

devil

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The Greek that is translated in English as “devil” (itself via late Latin from Greek diabolos: “accuser, slanderer”) 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. . See also this article by Tunde Adegbola: Èṣù is not Satan: A Christian apologist’s perspective .)

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)
  • Uma: “King of Evil-ones” (source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “leader of demons” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “the bad man” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Kupsabiny: “the Enemy” (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
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.”

See also unclean spirit / evil spirit, demon, and Beelzebul.

father of lies

The Greek in John 8:44 that is translated in English as “father of lies” or similar is translated as “(he is the one) who causes people to lie” in Asháninka, “chief of liars” in Shipibo-Conibo, “originator of lies” in Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac, and “all liars originate from the devil” in Chol. (Source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)

complete verse (John 8:44)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 8:44:

  • Uma: “The King of Evil-ones is your father! And you continually want to follow the will of that your father. From the beginning he was already a killer. He never says what is true, because there is nothing that is true in him. If he lies, that is to be expected, because he was already a liar, and all people who lie follow/take after his behavior.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Isa said yet to those people, ‘You, your father is the leader of demons and that is what you want to follow, the will of your father. Since the very beginning he has always killed. He has not followed the truth because there is nothing true in him. That is what he does, lying, for that is his custom. He is really a liar and he is the source of all lies.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Your Father is Satan, and the desire of your father is also the thing that you want to do. From the beginning Satan was a murderer. He has no part with the true teaching because there is nothing true in him. If he speaks, then he speaks a lie because a lie is the only thing that he can think about. He is a liar and from him originates every lie.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “You are like your father who is Satanas, and your purpose is to obey what that father of yours wants. He has been a murderer starting-from the beginning until now. Neither does he say anything true, because he has nothing to-do-with that. If/When he lies, he does what is fitting to his custom/character, because he is a consistent-liar and he moreover is the origin of lies.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Satanas for sure is the one who is your father. Whatever he wants, that is what you are wanting to do. It’s true, he was a murderer from long ago and an enemy of the truth, for this truth will really never-ever be found in him. When he lies, well that’s his nature/way, because he really is a habitual-liar and he is the source of lies.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “He who is as a father to you is the devil. And you want to please him. The devil has been a murderer from his beginning. He never speaks what is true. When he speaks, it is all lies. He speaks his own ideas because he is a liar. He is as father to those who lie.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing his disciples and common people

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

Here, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.

In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.

Translation commentary on John 8:44

You are the children of you father, the Devil is literally “You are of your father, the Devil.” It is obvious that the expression “of your father, the Devil” means the children of your father, the Devil. Phillips and New English Bible both translate “Your father is the devil” (Jerusalem Bible “The devil is your father”). It is best to translate as Good News Translation does, since the pronoun you is emphatic in the Greek sentence structure.

Underlying the expression the children of your father is the concept that a son partakes of the characteristics of his parents, especially of the father; but this concept may be utterly lost in some languages. In fact, it may be preferable to shift the focus and say “the Devil himself is your father.” In other languages it may be better to indicate likeness by saying “you are just like your father, the Devil.”

And you want to follow your father’s desires is literally “And you are willing to do the desires of your father.” In some languages this clause may be rendered “and you like to do the same things your father likes to do.”

In some languages it is difficult to speak of from the very beginning without indicating precisely what began. At the same time, one should not use a translation of from the very beginning which would suggest the eternal existence of the Devil. The closest equivalent in many languages is “he has always been a murderer” or, in some languages, “… one who destroys people” or “… one who kills people.”

[Ulrich Wendel argues (in Jahrbuch für Evangelikale Theologie 21/2007, p. 127ff. ) that the relationship between the two clauses mentioned above could also be in the sense of “namely” (“You have the devil for a father, namely you want to do what your father wants you to do”). The labeling of the adressees (not Jews as such, but Jewish Christ-believers, see 8:30-31) as the children of Satan would therefore be only a refection of their acts, rather than a suggestion of an actual deeper relationship. Wendel says that that “translation would be grammatically possible, though not the first choice in terms of the micro-context, but yet perhaps necessary in terms of the overall tone of Johannine theology and the message of the New Testament.”]

And has never been on the side of truth is more literally “And he was not standing (some Greek manuscripts, “has not stood”) in the truth.” On truth, see Appendix II. The UBS Committee on the Greek text indicates that there is a high degree of doubt concerning the reading selected for the text, and it is almost impossible to determine which of the two Greek texts the various translations follow. However, the meaning comes out essentially the same, whether the imperfect (“was not standing”; “did not stand”) or the perfect (“has not stood”) is followed. Revised Standard Version translates this cause “and has nothing to do with the truth”; New English Bible “and is not rooted in the truth”; Jerusalem Bible “he was never grounded in the truth”; and Moffatt “he has no place in the truth.” In some languages one may say “he has never encouraged that which is true” or “he has never favored that which is true.”

Because there is no truth in him is essentially the same translation as a number of others (see Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, Jerusalem Bible). Phillips changes the focus considerably by rendering “since the truth will have nothing to do with him.” The purpose of this verse is to indicate that God and truth are one, and that the Devil has no relation with God because he has nothing in common with truth. In some languages because there is no truth in him may be rendered “because he has never spoken the truth” or “because he has never said that which is true.”

Jesus’ judgement against the Devil proceeds a step further. He has already affirmed that the Devil has nothing in common with truth, and now he declares that it is the Devil’s very nature to lie. Good News Translation (he is only doing what is natural to him), Revised Standard Version (“he speaks according to his own nature”), Moffatt (“he is expressing his own nature”), and Phillips (“he speaks in character”) all express, at various levels of language, the same meaning. New English Bible (“he is speaking his own language”), Jerusalem Bible (“he is drawing on his own store”), and New American Bible (“Lying speech is his native tongue”) make it difficult for the reader to see immediately what Jesus is talking about. It is not that these translations miss the point, but rather that they fail to communicate clearly and readily the meaning of Jesus’ words. In some languages the closest equivalent of the clauses When he tells a lie he is only doing what is natural to him may be best expressed in a single clause, for example, “because of his own character he habitually lies.” One may, of course, also translate “Whenever he tells a lie, he is only behaving in accordance with his own character” or “… he is true to his own heart” or “… he is speaking from his own heart.”

Because he is a liar and the father of all lies is literally “because he is a liar and the father of it (him).” As the literal rendering of this clause indicates, the phrase translated of all lies by Good News Translation may be taken either as neuter (“of it”) or as masculine (“of him”). If it is taken as masculine, the meaning is “the father of all liars.” Most translators take this phrase to be neuter, and so translate “the father of lies.” In most languages it is easy enough to say “he is the father of all liars,” but difficult to say “he is the father of lies.” One can, of course, say “he is the one who causes people to lie” or “he is the one who prompts lies,” but this translation loses the figure of speech involved in the use of “father.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .