leprosy, leprous

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The Greek and Hebrew terms that are often translated as “leprosy (or: defiling/skin disease)” or “leprous (person)” in English is translated in Mairasi as “the bad sickness,” since “leprosy is very common in the Mairasi area” (source: Enggavoter 2004).

Following are various other translations:

  • Shilluk: “disease of animals”
  • San Mateo Del Mar Huave: “devil sore” (this and the above are indigenous expressions)
  • Inupiaq: “decaying sores”
  • Kaqchikel: “skin-rotting disease” (source for this and three above: Eugene Nida in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 34f. )
  • Noongar: “bad skin disease” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Usila Chinantec “sickness like mal de pinta” (a skin disease involving discoloration by loss of pigment) (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Hiligaynon: “dangerous skin disease” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “fearful skin disease” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “terrible rotting” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Newari: “infectious skin disease” (source: Newari Back Translation)

Targumim (or: Targums) are translations of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic. They were translated and used when Jewish congregations increasingly could not understand the biblical Hebrew anymore. Targum Onqelos (also: Onkelos) is the name of the Aramaic translation of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) probably composed in Israel/Palestine in the 1st or 2nd century CE and later edited in Babylon in the 4th or 5th century, making it reflect Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. It is the most famous Aramaic translation and was widely used throughout the Jewish communities. In Leviticus 13 and 14 it translates tzaraat as a “quarantining affliction” — focusing “on what occurs to individuals after they suffer the affliction; the person is isolated from the community.” (Source: Israel Drazin in this article ). Similarly, the English Jewish Orthodox ArtScroll Tanach translation (publ. 2011) transliterates it as tzaraat affliction.

See also stricken and leprosy healed.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Leprosy (Word Study) and Bible Translations Are for People .

complete verse (Leviticus 13:51)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Leviticus 13:51:

  • Kupsabiny: “And on the seventh day, the priest is to examine that thing, and if the mold has spread to another area, that thing is unclean.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “On the seventh day it must be examined again, [and] if the mold has spread in the woven cloth or in a thing made from leather, it is a persistent defiling mold. It is unclean.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “On the seventh day, the priest is-to-look-at this again. And if the mildew has-spread, this cloth or leather is-to-be-considered dirty/unclean, and this must be-burnt because this mildew is-spreading/(becoming-many).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “On the seventh day he must examine it again. If the mildew has spread, it is clear that it is a type of mildew that destroys clothing, and that clothing must not be worn again.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Leviticus 13:51

Some translators may prefer to restructure the beginning of this verse by saying “Seven days later, the priest must reexamine the object.” It may also be necessary to leave implicit the list of different kinds of objects that is repeated from the previous verses. Compare Good News Translation.

Whatever be the use of the skin: this parenthetical information is intended to make it clear that such skin would have to be pronounced unclean regardless of the purpose for which the skin had been previously used. In some cases one may prefer to put this in parentheses. Good News Translation has simply left it implicit, but it may be better to make it explicit in the receptor language.

A malignant leprosy: this seems to mean a persistent type of mildew. It may be translated “an incurable condition,” “a destructive mildew” (New International Version), or “a rotting mould” (New English Bible).

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .