sinner

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The Greek that is translated as “sinner” in English is translated in various ways:

  • “people with bad hearts” (“it is not enough to call them ‘people who do bad things,’ for though actions do reflect the heart, yet it is the hearts with which God is primarily concerned — see Matt. 15:19“) in Western Kanjobal
  • “people who are doing wrong things in their hearts” in San Blas Kuna (source for this and above: Nida 1952, p. 148)
  • “people with bad stomachs” in Q’anjob’al (source: Newberry and Kittie Cox in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. )
  • “those others who don’t fully obey our laws” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • “people with dirty hearts” or “people who are called ‘bad'” in Mairasi (source: Enggavoter 2004).
  • “those who owe sin” in Central Mazahua and Teutila Cuicatec (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • “those without (or: “who don’t know”) God” (Gottlose) in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999)
  • “people of bad deeds” in Bariai (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • “rejected/despised people” in Kupsabiny (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)

scribe

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The Greek that is usually translated as “scribe” in English “were more than mere writers of the law. They were the trained interpreters of the law and expounders of tradition.”

Here are a number of its (back-) translations:

  • Yaka: “clerk in God’s house”
  • Amganad Ifugao: “man who wrote and taught in the synagogue”
  • Navajo (Dinė): “teaching-writer” (“an attempt to emphasize their dual function”)
  • Shipibo-Conibo: “book-wise person”
  • San Blas Kuna: “one who knew the Jews’ ways”
  • Loma: “educated one”
  • San Mateo del Mar Huave: “one knowing holy paper”
  • Central Mazahua: “writer of holy words”
  • Indonesian: “expert in the Torah”
  • Pamona: “man skilled in the ordinances” (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Sinhala: “bearer-of-the-law”
  • Marathi: “one-learned-in-the-Scriptures”
  • Shona (1966): “expert of the law”
  • Balinese: “expert of the books of Torah”
  • Ekari: “one knowing paper/book”
  • Tboli: “one who taught the law God before caused Moses to write” (or “one who taught the law of Moses”) (source for this and 5 above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Noongar: Mammarapa-Warrinyang or “law man” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Mairasi: “one who writes and explains Great Above One’s (=God’s) prohibitions” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Chichewa: “teacher of Laws” (source: Ernst Wendland)
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “teachers of law”
  • Huehuetla Tepehua: “writer”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “person who teaches the law which Moses wrote”
  • Alekano: “man who knows wisdom” (source for this and four above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
  • Saint Lucian Creole French: titcha lwa sé Jwif-la (“teacher of the law of the Jews”) (source: David Frank in Lexical Challenges in the St. Lucian Creole Bible Translation Project, 1998)
  • Chichimeca-Jonaz: “one who teaches the holy writings”
  • Atatláhuca Mixtec: “teacher of the words of the law”
  • Coatlán Mixe: “teacher of the religious law”
  • Lalana Chinantec: “one who is a teacher of the law which God gave to Moses back then”
  • Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “one who know well the law” (Source for this and four above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Huixtán Tzotzil: “one who mistakenly thought he was teaching God’s commandments”(Huixtán Tzotzil frequently uses the verb -cuy to express “to mistakenly think something” from the point of view of the speaker; source: Marion M. Cowan in Notes on Translation 20/1966, pp. 6ff.)
  • Sumau: “law-knowing men” (source: this blog post by Todd Owen)
  • German das Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022): “theologian” and in the 1964 translation by Helmut Riethmüller: “theologian of scriptures” (Schrifttheologe)
  • English translation by Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023): Covenant Code scholar

In British Sign Language it is translated with a sign that combines the signs for “expert” and “law.” (Source: Anna Smith)


“Scribe” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL , used with permission)

Pharisee

The Greek that is a transliteration of the Hebrew Pərūšīm and is typically transliterated into English as “Pharisee” is transliterated in Mandarin Chinese as Fǎlìsài (法利賽 / 法利赛) (Protestant) or Fǎlìsāi (法利塞) (Catholic). In Chinese, transliterations can typically be done with a great number of different and identical-sounding characters. Often the meaning of the characters are not relevant, unless they are chosen carefully as in these cases. The Protestant Fǎlìsài can mean something like “Competition for the profit of the law” and the Catholic Fǎlìsāi “Stuffed by/with the profit of the law.” (Source: Zetzsche 1996, p. 51)

In Finnish Sign Language it is translated with the sign signifying “prayer shawl”. (Source: Tarja Sandholm)


“Pharisee” in Finnish Sign Language (source )

In British Sign Language it is translated with a sign that depicts “pointing out the law.” (Source: Anna Smith)


“Pharisee” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)

In French Sign Language it is translated with a sign that depicts the box of the phylacteries attached to the forehead:


“Pharisees” in French Sign Language (source: La Bible en langue des signes française )

Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023) translates it into English as Observant. He explains (p. 302): “Pharisee has become a public, universal pejorative term for a hypocrite. Pharisees were observant of the interpretation of the Covenant Code called the ‘tradition of the elders.’ They conformed their behaviors to the interpretation. Among the various groups of Jews at the time of Jesus, they were perhaps closest to Jesus in their overall concern to make a radical commitment to the will of God (as they understood it).”

See also Nicodemus.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Pharisees .

complete verse (Luke 15:2)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 15:2:

  • Mairasi: “Farisi people and the people who explain and write Great Above One’s prohibitions already got angry. They themselves said: ‘Yi [Yuck], this person calls bad people to come to Him, then also he eats things together with them!'” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Noongar: “The Pharisees and Law Men, they began criticising Jesus. ‘This man welcomes bad people. He also eats together with them.'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “The Parisi people and the religion teachers disparaged them, they said: ‘Ii, that person there is befriending sinners and eating with them.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Then the Pariseo and the teachers of the religious law grumbled, they said, ‘This person goes along-with/keeps company with sinful people and even eats together with them.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And this disgusted very much some Pharisees and some teachers of the Law who were there also, and they said, ‘As for this Jesus, he runs around with people who are breakers of our Law, and he eats also with them.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “So the Pharisees and the teachers of the law grumbled/muttered saying, ‘Now look at this person! Why does he like to converse-with sinful people and even eat-with them!'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But the Pariseo and explainers of law talked-among-themselves. They were saying, ‘Really as for this fellow, he gathers-around-himself sinners and even joins-in-eating with them.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Honorary "rare" construct denoting God ("raise")

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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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, age-rare-ru (上げられる) or “raise” is used.

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

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Luke 15:1-7)

Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Luke 15:1-7:

A mixed crowd — some politically incorrect
and others simply street scum —
       were hanging around, listening to Jesus teach.
A group of religious snobs came up and started griping,
“This guy goes around with the wrong crowd,
       and he even eats with them.”

Then Jesus told them this story:

       What would you do, if you had a hundred sheep,
              and one of them wandered off?
       Wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine out in the field
              and look for the lost sheep, until you found it?
       Sure you would, and you’d be so glad when it was found
              that you’d throw it on your shoulder and carry it home.
       Then you’d say to your friends, “Let’s celebrate!
              I’ve found my lost sheep.”

“That’s how it is with God,” declared Jesus.
“God gets more excited over one person
who has a change of heart
       than over ninety-nine self-righteous bigots.”

Translation commentary on Luke 15:2 – 15:3

Exegesis:

diegogguzon ‘grumbled,’ presumably in Jesus’ presence.

diagogguzō (also 19.7) ‘to murmur,’ ‘to grumble,’ synonymous with gogguzō (cf. on 5.30).

hoi te Pharisaioi kai hoi grammateis ‘the Pharisees and the experts in the law,’ cf. on 5.17 and 21. By te … kai they are represented as belonging very closely together.

houtos ‘this man,’ contemptuously.

hamartōlous prosdechetai ‘welcomes sinners,’ i.e. into his company. For the inarticulate hamartōlous cf. on v. 1.

sunesthiei autois ‘and eats with them,’ presumably at their invitation and in their homes.

(V. 3) eipen de pros autous tēn parabolēn tautēn ‘then he told them this parable,’ i.e. as an answer to their grumbling. Strictly speaking Jesus does not tell them one parable, but two parables in question-form, which closely resemble each other and from which the same application is drawn in vv. 7 and 10.

Translation:

Murmured, cf. on 5.30.

For receives see 9.5. In this context Sranan Tongo has: ‘sides (lit. keeps/holds) with,’ Bible en français courant: fait bon accueil à.

For eats with them see 7.36; for parable see 8.4.

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.