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).
Usila Chinantec “sickness like mal de pinta” (a skin disease involving discoloration by loss of pigment and that also involved social isolation) (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.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Leviticus 14:57:
Kupsabiny: “These laws make it clear whether something is clean or not clean.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “In this way it will be determined whether [one] is clean or unclean. "In this way one will be clean from contagious diseases of the skin and spreading [lit.: scattering] mold."” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Those are the regulations/rules concerning the dangerous diseases on the skin which itch, or swell, or break-out-in-a-rash, or whiten/blister, and concerning the mildew on clothes and mold in a house. And through those regulations/[lit. what-is-to-be-followed], you (plur.) are-to-know/determine what (is) clean and dirty/unclean.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “to find out whether a person has a contagious disease or not, and whether people will still be permitted to touch their clothing or their house, or not.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The Greek, Hebrew, and Ge’ez that is translated in English as “Law” or “law” is translated in Mairasi as oro nasinggiei or “prohibited things” (source: Enggavoter 2004), in Noongar with a capitalized form of the term for “words” (Warrinya) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang), in Yucateco as “ordered-word” (for “commandment,” it is “spoken-word”) (source: Nida 1947, p. 198), and in Central Tarahumara it is “writing-command” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
McKnight’s English translation (publ. 2023) has it as Covenant Code. He explains (p. 301): “The law of Moses was a covenantal arrangement by God with the people of Israel. This code of conduct expected of them was not the same as law in the Roman world or what law means to us today. It is a revelation of God’s will for God’s covenant people but requires ongoing interpretation and adjustments.”
To show …: Good News Translation takes the whole of verse 57 as belonging to a single sentence with the law as the subject. On the other hand, Revised Standard Version and most other versions take the first part of this verse as the completion of the sentence begun in verse 54. This does not alter the meaning greatly, but it does make for a rather long and complicated sentence. The Good News Translation rendering will be a better model for many languages.
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 .
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