moth

The Greek and Hebrew that is translated into English as “moth(s)” was translated as “cockroach(es)” in Gola “since moths are not seen as destroying things but cockroaches are” (source: Don Slager). The same translation was chosen for Uripiv (source: Ross McKerras).

In Yakan it is translated as “termites” (source: Yakan Back Translation) and in Tagbanwa as “chewing-insects” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).

See also let them be overthrown before you.

sell

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “sell” in English is translated in Noongar as wort-bangal or “away-barter.” Note that “buy” is translated as bangal-barranga or “get-barter.” (Source: Bardip Ruth-Ang 2020)

See also buy and buying / selling.

complete verse (Luke 12:33)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 12:33:

  • Noongar: “Sell your possessions and give the money to the poor people. Get purses which don’t wear out and put your wealth in Heaven. There, your wealth will not become smaller, because no thief can take everything and moths can not eat everything.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “That is why I say, sell your goods, and give the price to the poor. Make a purse that cannot tear. Its meaning, do good behavior. Because that good behavior can be compared to goods that you store in heaven, that do not disappear, because there is no-one who steals and there are no insects that wound [it].” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Sell your wealth and give the proceeds as alms to the poor. If you do this, you are figuratively storing your wealth in a purse which does not become old, that means your wealth will not be used up there in heaven. And there are no people who steal and there are no termites that destroy it.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Sell all of your possessions and give the money to the poor; by means of this it will be possible for you to have wealth there in Heaven. Your possessions in Heaven cannot be destroyed; they cannot be lessened, because there’s no one there who steals, and there are no cockroaches to gnaw on them.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “So sell your possessions in order to give the sale-money to the poor, and you will be prepared with a wallet/coin-purse that can’t-be-destroyed in which-will-be-stored your wealth in heaven. There it will not be reduced, because no thief will-be-able-to-approach and nothing also will be able to ruin it.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Go ahead, sell your belongings now, and divide them among the poor. What is good is to collect wealth in heaven, for what that is like is a money container which can’t be destroyed and also never runs out (of contents). Because that is wealth which can’t be stolen and isn’t chewed by chewing-insects.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

heaven

Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Aramaic all have one term only that refers to what can be expressed in English as “sky” or “heaven(s)” (as a physical and spiritual entity). While there is a slight overlap between the meaning of the two English terms, “sky” (from Old Norse sky meaning “cloud”) typically refers to the physical entity, and “heaven” (from Old English heofon meaning “home of God”) typically refers to the spiritual entity. While this enriches the English lexicon, it also forces English Bible translators to make decisions that can be found only in the context in the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts. Most versions tend to use “heaven(s)” even if the meaning is likely “sky,” but the Contemporary English Version (NT: 1991, OT: 1995, DC: 1999) is an English translation that attempted to be more specific in the separation of the two meanings and was used as the basis for the links to verses used for this and this story (“sky”).

Norm Mundhenk (in The Bible Translator 2006, p. 92ff. ) describes the difficulty that English translations face (click or tap here to see more):

“A number of years ago an old lady asked me a question. What did Jesus mean when he said, ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away’? I do not remember what answer I gave, but I was surprised at how concerned she seemed to be about the verse. It was only later, after I had left her, that I suddenly realized what it was that she was so concerned about. She knew that death could not be far away, and all her life she had looked forward to being with God in heaven. But this verse said that ‘heaven will pass away’! What did that mean for her hopes? In fact, of course, in this verse Jesus was talking about the skies or the heavens, not about Heaven as the place of God’s presence. If I had realized the problem in time, I could easily have set the lady’s mind at rest on this question that was troubling her so much. However, I suspect that she is not the only person to be misled by the wording of this verse. Therefore, it is very surprising to find that even today many English versions (including the New International Version, New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, Good News Translation) still say ‘heaven and earth’ in verses like Matt 24:35 and its parallels (Mark 13:31 and Luke 21:33). The Contemporary English Version (CEV) and Phillips’ translation seem to be aware of the problem, and in Mark 13:31 both of these have ‘earth and sky’ instead of ‘heaven and earth.’ But in some other passages (such as Matt 5:18) the traditional wording is still found in both of those translations. The New Century Version (NCV) does have ‘earth and sky’ more consistently, and the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has ‘sky and earth’ in these passages. (Although ‘sky and earth’ is closer to the Greek, it seems more natural in English to say ‘earth and sky’; but either way, at least the meaning is correct.)

“Louw and Nida’s Lexical Semantics of the Greek New Testament (publ. 1992) suggests that the Greek expression being translated here, ho ouranos kai he ge is ‘a more or less fixed phrase equivalent to a single lexical unit’ and that it means everything that God created, that is, the universe. They then quote Mark 13:31 as an example, using ‘heaven and earth’ in their translation of it. However, they go on to say that there ‘may be certain complications involved in rendering ho ouranos kai he ge as ‘heaven and earth,’ since ‘heaven’ might be interpreted in some languages as referring only to the dwelling place of God himself. The referents in this passage are ‘the sky and the earth,’ in other words, all of physical existence, but not the dwelling place of God, for the latter would not be included in what is destined to pass away.’ In my opinion, English itself is one of the languages where the word ‘heaven’ will be interpreted as referring only to the dwelling place of God himself, and translations into English should not use ‘heaven’ in these passages. It is probably because these passages are so very familiar that translators do not realize the meaning they are giving their readers when they use the expression ‘heaven and earth’ here. In modern English we might talk about a rocket ‘soaring into the heavens,’ but we would certainly not describe it as ‘soaring into heaven,’ because ‘heaven’ is not another way of referring to the sky or to outer space.

“In fact, it is surely important in all languages to have some way of distinguishing the concept of ‘sky’ from the concept of ‘dwelling place of God.’ In these passages translators should never use a term meaning ‘the dwelling place of God.’ It may not be necessary to use a term meaning ‘sky’ either, if there is some other expression in the language which gives the correct meaning of ‘everything that has been created’ or ‘the universe.’ There are of course places in the New Testament where Heaven, as the place where God lives, is contrasted with the earth. In these passages, translators should be careful to give the correct meaning. A good example of this is in the Lord’s Prayer, in Matt 6:10: ‘Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ Similarly, 1 Cor 15:47 says that ‘the first man [a reference to Adam] was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.’ Passages like these are referring to Heaven, not to the sky. Other NT passages where heaven refers to God’s dwelling place, in contrast with earth, are Matt 5:34-35, 16:19, 18:18, Acts 7:49, James 5:12, and Rev 5:3.
“Sometimes in the New Testament, the word ‘heaven’ is used because of the Jewish reluctance to use the name of God. ‘Heaven’ in these cases is used in place of ‘God’ and refers to God himself. This is the case in the many references in Matthew to ‘the kingdom of heaven’ where other gospels have ‘the kingdom of God’ (e.g., compare Matt 4:17 with its parallels in Mark 1:15 and Luke 10:9). It is also most likely the case in references like Matt 16:1, Luke 20:4, 5, John 3:27, and even perhaps Col 1:5.

“There are some places, such as Matt 11:25, where God is called ‘Lord of heaven and earth.’ Since God is of course the Lord of Heaven as well as of the universe, it may not matter so much which interpretation is given in these passages (others are Luke 10:21 and Acts 17:24). Nevertheless, the intended meaning here is likely to be ‘the universe.’ This is because this expression in Greek, as Louw and Nida say, is a set expression referring to everything that has been created. Acts 17:24 in fact combines the idea of the creation of the universe with the idea of God as Master or Lord of the universe. (…)

“Old Testament background The use of ‘heaven and earth’ in the New Testament is very similar to what we find in the Old Testament, because it is largely based on the Old Testament.

“The Old Testament begins with the story of creation, which is presented as the creation of the heavens and the earth, with lights to shine in the heavens and give light to the earth. Birds are created to live in the heavens, animals to live on earth, and fish to live in the sea (Gen 1:1-2:4).

“As we can see from the way the creation story is told, it is meant to be understood as the creation of the universe. Although in English the regions above the earth have traditionally been called ‘the heavens’ in the story of creation, they cannot be called ‘Heaven,’ in the sense of the place where God dwells. In terms of modern English, it would probably be better to say ‘the sky and the earth’ or ‘the earth and the sky.’ The story of creation then becomes an important theme throughout the Old Testament. (…)

“In most passages, whether in the Old Testament or the New Testament, when ‘heaven and earth’ or ‘the heavens and the earth’ are mentioned, the meaning is the created universe. It is not a reference to Heaven, as the dwelling place of God. In English, translators have not been careful to keep this distinction clear, and this is probably true in many other languages as well. However, as we have seen, this can lead to real confusion for ordinary Bible readers. It is better if translators find ways to make the meaning clear in these passages. ‘Heaven’ should be mentioned only in passages which clearly mean the dwelling place of God. In other passages, an expression should be used which means only ‘sky.’ Or else, the whole expression ‘heaven and earth’ can be translated in a way to show that the whole universe is meant.”

Other languages that have a semantic distinction similar to English include (click or tap here to see more):

  • Hungarian: ég — “sky”; menny — “heaven”
  • Tagalog: kalawakan — “sky”; langit/kalangitan — “heaven”
  • Swedish: sky — “sky”; Himmel — “heaven”
  • Loma: “up” — “sky”; “God’s place” — heaven”
  • Mossi: saase — “sky”; nyingeri — “the up above”(source for Loma and Mossi: Bratcher/Nida)
  • Roviana: mamaṉa — “sly”; maṉauru — “heaven” (an old word, meaning “empty, open space of the sky”) (source: Carl Gross)
  • Kayaw: mô̄la or “canopy-under”/mô̄khû̄la or “canopy-above-under” — “sky” (atmosphere where there is just air); mô̄khû̄ or “canopy-on/above” — “heaven” (invisible abode of God and angels)
  • Burmese: မိုး ကောင်း ကင်/moe kaungg kain — “sky”; ကောင်း ကင်/kaungg kain — “sky” or “heaven”; ကောင်း ကင်ဗုံ/kaungg kain bone — “heaven”
  • Mairasi: Sinyavi — an indigenous term that is used for both “sky” and heaven”; Surga — loanword from Sanskrit via Indonesian referring to “heaven” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Noongar: worl — “sky”; Boolanga-Yirakang Boodjer — “Country of God” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)

Many languages follow the original biblical languages in not making that distinction, such as (click or tap here to see more):

In some languages, such as Wandala, the vocabulary for terms for either “heaven” or “sky” is much richer than just to include those two distinction. While zhegela, the term that is specifically used for the physical sky was only used in early translations of the New Testament for “sky,” other terms such as samaya (used for both “sky” and “heaven”), zlanna (specifically used for the perfect abode of God and the goal of the faithful, as in Matthew 8:11), kwárá (a locational term used to speak of a chief’s rule [lit., “voice”] such as Matthew 3:2), or sleksire (“chieftaincy,” “kingship,” or “royalty” [originally from slekse “chief”] and used where there are no locational overtones, such as in Matthew 16:28) are used. (Source: Mona Perrin in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 51ff.)

The English translation by Sarah Ruden (2021) uses “sky” throughout. Ruden explains (p. li): “The Greek word ouranos refers evenhandedly to the physical sky and the place—often pictured as a royal court — where supreme divinity resides. ‘Sky’ seems generally better, first of all in avoiding the wackier modern imagery that comes with the English ‘heaven.’ And even when a supernatural realm is meant, ‘sky’ will often do, because the divine realm was thought to be located there, in addition to the weather and the heavenly bodies, whereas ‘heaven’ to us is fundamentally a religious term, and the ancients did not tend to separate linguistic domains in this way. I have retained the plural ‘skies’ where I see it in the Greek, because it is a Hebraism familiar in English translations of scripture and (I hope) not too archaic or jarring.”

Translation commentary on Luke 12:33

Exegesis:

pōlēsate ta huparchonta humōn ‘sell your possessions,’ cf. on 8.3.

kai dote eleēmosunēn ‘and give alms,’ i.e. give the money that you make on your possessions as alms. For eleēmosunē cf. on 11.41.

poiēsate heautois ‘make for yourselves.’ poiēsate goes with ballantia and thēsauron. With the former poiēsate means ‘make,’ with the latter ‘gather.’ heautois ‘for yourselves’ contrasts with the giving of alms to other people.

ballantia mē palaioumena, thēsauron anekleipton en tois ouranois ‘purses that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven.’ ballantia is best understood to refer to that which is contained in the purses, as e.g. thēsauros can mean both ‘treasure’ and ‘treasure-box,’ thēsauron anekleipton is an explicative apposition to ballantia mē palaioumena.

palaioomai lit. ‘to grow old,’ here ‘to wear out.’

hopou kleptēs ouk eggizei ‘where no thief comes near,’ i.e. where no thief can get near it, i.e. the treasure.

oude sēs diaphtheirei ‘and where no moth destroys,’ i.e. can destroy it. sēs and diaphtheirō.

Translation:

Give alms, or, “give the money to the poor” (Good News Translation); and see 11.41.

Provide yourselves with, or, “get yourselves” (An American Translation), ‘try to acquire/possess.’

Purses that do not grow old, or ‘become bad,’ ‘decay’; the interpretation given in Exegesis may result in, ‘money that does not run short/give out.’

With a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, explaining the metaphor found in the preceding phrase; hence e.g. ‘that is, with a treasure…,’ ‘which form, as it were, a treasure….’ Treasure, i.e. that which is stored up (see 6.45), ‘wealth’ (Tzeltal), ‘(precious) possessions,’ ‘important goods’ (Pohnpeian), ‘a lot of things that are valuable’ (Central Mazahua in Mt. 13.44). The term to be used here should include, or at least not exclude, clothes and fabrics liable to be eaten by insects. That does not fail, or, ‘that will not give out/decrease,’ ‘that will suffice for ever,’ ‘that no one can use up.’

The clause where … destroys may better be co-ordinated, e.g. ‘there (or, in that place) ….’

No thief approaches (it), or ‘no thief can reach it,’ ‘no one can come near to steal it, or, take it away secretly,’ ‘it is not stolen.’ The term for thief often is derived from ‘to steal.’

No moth destroys (it), or, ‘devours/eats it,’ or, ‘it is not termite-eaten’ (Tzeltal). Moth, or the name of some other destructive insect or grub, e.g. ‘weevil/borer’ (Shona), ‘(house) cricket’ (Lomwe, Yao, Zarma), ‘termite,’ or generically, ‘insect’ (Kituba, Thai 1967).

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.

SIL Translator’s Notes on Luke 12:33

12:33a

In the previous verse Jesus assured his disciples that God would care for them as their king. That gave his disciples the assurance they needed to do what Jesus told them here in 12:33. He advised them to share their possessions with the poor. If they did that, they would have lasting wealth in heaven.

In some languages it may be natural to make the connection between 12:33 and the previous verse explicit. For example:

Therefore/So⌋ sell… (Translator’s Reference Translation)

Sell your possessions: Sell your possessions means “sell the things you own.” Jesus did not say how many of their possessions the disciples were to sell, and you should not attempt to supply this information.

and give to the poor: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as give to the poor is literally “give alms.” Several English versions, such as the New King James Version and New Revised Standard Version, translate it that way here. The same expression also occurs in 11:41a, where the Berean Standard Bible translates it as “give…alms.” It means to give money to someone in need. In this context it is implied that the disciples would give the money that they got from selling their possessions. In some languages it may be necessary to make this information explicit. For example:

give the money to the poor (God’s Word)

12:33b

The text implies a connection between 12:33a and 12:33b. When the disciples give money to the poor as Jesus said in 12:33a, they will be gaining purses that will not wear out. In some languages it may be helpful to make this connection explicit. For example:

In this way, you will provide purses…

Provide yourselves with purses that will not wear out: This is a figure of speech. Jesus was using purses that will not wear out as a figure of speech to talk about wealth that will not be used up.

In some languages the figurative meaning of purses may not be clear. It may be necessary to translate this part of the verse without using the figure of purses. For example:

Provide/Prepare for yourselves the kind of riches that will never disappear/decrease

purses: In this context the word purses refers to the contents of the purses. The kind of purses that are referred to here were small bags or pouches made of leather or fabric. The same word was used in 10:4. Both men and women carried money in these bags. In modern English, a purse generally refers to a bag that a woman carries. In your translation, use a word for something that both men and women use to carry money. For example:

moneybags (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
wallets (God’s Word)
-or-
money belt/container

wear out: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as wear out is literally “grow old.” Several English versions, such as the English Standard Version and CSB, translate it that way. When purses wear out, they get holes in them and are no longer useful for carrying money. For example:

never get old or develop holes (New Living Translation (2004))

12:33c

an inexhaustible treasure in heaven: The phrase an inexhaustible treasure in heaven explains the meaning of “purses that will not wear out” in the previous verse part. Such purses are equivalent to spiritual treasure in heaven. The text does not say what that treasure is. It probably refers to spiritual blessings rather than literal money. In some languages it may be possible to avoid a wrong meaning by using a phrase such as:

spiritual/heavenly⌋ treasure

inexhaustible: The Greek adjective that the Berean Standard Bible translates as inexhaustible is literally “unfailing.” It refers here to wealth that will never decrease or be used up. Other ways to translate this verb are:

will never decrease (Good News Translation)
-or-
will be safe (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
never loses its value (God’s Word)

heaven: Here the word heaven refers to the place where God lives. Jesus also spoke of heaven as the place where believers will live with God after they die. See heaven, Meaning 2, in the Glossary.

General Comment on 12:33b–c

In some languages it may be clearer to reorder the parts of this verse so that “treasure in heaven” is mentioned before “purses.” For example:

Store up treasure for yourselves in heaven. Heavenly purses never wear out and their contents never disappear.

12:33d

where no thief approaches: The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as where no thief approaches refers to heaven, where a thief cannot approach the riches to steal them.

and no moth destroys: A moth can eat holes in earthly clothes and destroy them. But the moth cannot harm riches that are stored in heaven. Perhaps Jesus mentioned moths here because he had already talked about clothes in 12:27–28.

moth: A moth is a flying insect that eats cloth or chews holes in cloth. If you do not have moths in your language area, other ways to translate it are:

Use a word for another insect that can destroy clothing. For example:

termite/cricket

Use a more general expression. For example:

chewing insect

Translate this term in a way that is natural in your language.

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