adulterer

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “adulterer” in English would imply “I only take unmarried girls” in Telugu, so it was necessary to be more generic and say “I go after other women” (source: David Clark).

In Central Subanen an “adulterer” is “one who can’t be trusted” (source: Bratcher / Nida) and in Yagaria as “woman-theft man” (source: Renck 1990, p. 139)

See also adulteress and adultery.

adultery

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The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “adultery” in English (here etymologically meaning “to alter”) is typically understood as “marital infidelity.” It is (back-) translated in the following ways:

  • Highland Totonac: “to do something together”
  • Yucateco: “pair-sin”
  • Ngäbere: “robbing another’s half self-possession” (compare “fornication” which is “robbing self-possession,” that is, to rob what belongs to a person)
  • Kaqchikel, Chol: “to act like a dog” (see also licentiousness)
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: “to measure the depth of the river of (another’s) marriage”
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “married people using what is not theirs” (compare “fornication” which is “unmarried people using what is not theirs”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Purari: “play hands with” or “play eyes with”
  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “talk secretly with spouses of our fellows”
  • Isthmus Zapotec: “go in with other people’s spouses”
  • Tzeltal: “practice illicit relationship with women”
  • Huehuetla Tepehua: “live with some one who isn’t your wife”
  • Central Tarahumara: “sleep with a strange partner”
  • Hopi: “tamper with marriage” (source for this and seven above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • German: Ehebrecher or “marriage breaker” / Ehe brechen or “breaking of marriage” (source: Zetzsche)
  • In Falam Chin the term for “adultery” is the phrase for “to share breast” which relates to adultery by either sex. (Source: David Clark)
  • In Ixcatlán Mazatec a specification needs to be made to include both genders. (Source: Robert Bascom)
  • Likewise in Hiligaynon: “commit-adultery-with-a-man or commit-adultery-with-a-woman” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

See also adultery, adulterer, adulteress, and you shall not commit adultery.

neighbor

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The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “neighbor” in English is rendered into Babatana as “different man,” i.e. someone who is not one of your relatives. (Source: David Clark)

In North Alaskan Inupiatun, it is rendered as “a person outside of your building,” in Tzeltal as “your back and side” (implying position of the dwellings), in Indonesian and in Tae’ as “your fellow-man,” in Toraja-Sa’dan it is “your fellow earth-dweller,” in Shona (translation of 1966) as “another person like you,” in Kekchí “younger-brother-older-brother” (a compound which means all one’s neighbors in a community) (sources: Bratcher / Nida and Reiling / Swellengrebel), in Mairasi “your people” (source: Enggavoter 2004), in Mezquital Otomi as “fellow being,” in Tzeltal as “companion,” in Isthmus Zapotec as “another,” in Teutila Cuicatec as “all people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), and in most modern German translations as Mitmensch or “fellow human being” (lit. “with + human being”).

In Matt 19:19, Matt 22:39, Mark 12:31, Mark 12:33, Luke 10:27, Luke 10:29 it is translated into Ixcatlán Mazatec with a term that refers to a person who is socially/physically near. Ixcatlán Mazatec also has a another term for “neighbor” that means “fellow humans-outsiders” which was not chosen for these passages. (Source: Robert Bascom)

In Noongar it is translated as moorta-boordak or “people nearby” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

complete verse (Leviticus 20:10)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Leviticus 20:10:

  • Kupsabiny: “If a man plays around with the wife of another man, that man and the woman are to be killed.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “’If anyone has intercourse with his neighbor’s wife, both the woman and the man must be killed. ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “If a man has-sexual-intercourse with the wife of another-(man), he and the woman must be-killed.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘If a man commits adultery with some other man’s wife, both of them, the man and the woman, must be executed.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Leviticus 20:10

The Hebrew text of the beginning of this verse literally reads “A man who commits adultery with the wife of another who commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor….” The majority of modern English translations understand this to be an error made by someone copying a part of the manuscript twice over. Nevertheless, this text is recommended by HOTTP and is followed by New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Standard Bible, and An American Translation. The New Jerusalem Bible rendering is typical of the way that sense is made of the longer text: “If a man commits adultery with a married woman, committing adultery with his neighbor’s wife….”

Commits adultery: the Hebrew verb thus translated has the meaning of “have sexual intercourse with someone other than one’s marriage partner” or “be unfaithful to one’s marriage promise.” In other words, it is not just any unlawful sexual activity, but it always involves breaking the marriage covenant and violating the marriage relationship. In Hebrew thought a man committed adultery only when he slept with a married woman (another man’s wife), but a woman was considered to have committed adultery if she slept with any person other than her husband. This specific case concerns the adultery of a male with the wife of another man. But in the end both the man and the woman were considered as having violated the law concerning adultery. See Exodus 20.14.

His neighbor: see 19.13 on the broader meaning of this word.

The adulterer and the adulteress: it may be more natural and simpler in some languages to say “both the man and the woman” or “the woman as well as the man involved in the act.”

Shall be put to death: this is again the emphatic construction seen in verses 2, 4, and 9 above.

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 .