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:
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)
The Greek that is translated as “sexual immorality” or “fornication” or similar is translated much more specifically in some languages. Morelos Nahuatl has “let a man not yield himself to another woman except only to his wife. Also let a woman not yield herself to another man except only to her husband” or in Lalana Chinantec as “not proper for them to mix themselves with other women. The same is true of women for other men also.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
In Low German as Hurenkram or “things related to prostitution (and/or sleeping around)” (translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006) and in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) typically as Sexgier or “sex cravings” (exceptions: Acts 15:10 and 15:29).
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 15:19:
Uma: “Because from in the heart is the appearing-place of evil thoughts, with the result that there are those who kill, commit adultery, behave wrongly with women or men, steal, give false witness, and curse.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “For out of the liver come bad thoughts like killing, committing adultery, and doing other bad things, stealing, lying and slandering.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Because from the breath of a person comes bad thoughts which displease God very much like murdering, fooling around with somebody not his spouse, filthy activity, stealing, lying in court, and telling lies in order to destroy the reputation of another person.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Because the mind/thoughts of a person are the source of all bad intentions. And bad intentions are what direct a person to do bad-things like these: to kill, to-commit-adultery and other filthiness, to-steal, to-testify telling-lies and to-speak-evil of one’s companion.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Because coming from the mind/inner-being is all the evil thinking which leads a person to do all these, which are killing, all kinds of immorality with one not your spouse, stealing, lying and insulting/belittling.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Because in the mind of the person come to sit the evil thoughts, murder, fornication, robbery, lies, slandering. All from the mind of the person come these evils.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
Out of the heart is emphasized in Greek, as may be concluded from the position which it occupies in the sentence order of Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.
Translators normally render heart very much as they did in verse 18.
For out of the heart come … sometimes has to be restructured. Examples include “For it is in the heart that evil thoughts, murder … have their origin,” “For it is the heart that evil thoughts … come from,” and “For evil thoughts, murder … all come from the heart.” But it is important to retain the emphasis on out of the heart.
These sins which come from a person’s heart are listed as nouns in the text. However, in many languages it will be more natural to list them as verbs. An example is “For it is what is in a person’s heart that makes him think evil, murder … and speak evil about others.” Other languages will find it natural to reverse the order of the verse, as with “For when a person thinks evil, murders … and speaks evil of other people, he does those things because of what is in his heart.”
The list of sins that defile a person is shorter in Matthew than in Mark (7.21-23). After the first one (evil thoughts) the rest of the sins mentioned follow the order in which they are forbidden according to the Ten Commandments (Exo 20.13-16).
Good News Translation has interpreted evil thoughts to be the thing which leads to the other sins, and other translators may find this restructuring useful also. Most, however, simply list it as one of the sins that defile a person.
Murder is not the same as “killing” but refers specifically to killing that is not condoned by society. Thus, killing in warfare or executions ordered by a court are not included.
Fornication is the same word translated “unchastity” in 5.32; see comment there. The noun may be used of any sort of illicit sexual intercourse; Good News Translation has “other immoral things.”
In many cultures the distinction between adultery and fornication is not the same as in the Bible, where the latter refers to sexual misconduct in general, and the former to cases where a married woman is involved. Quite often there is one term in a language which covers general sexual misconduct. It is also common for there to be a general word for such illicit behavior between people who are married to someone else. For translators in languages where either of these situations prevails, one solution is to use that general word or expression for rendering fornication, and the same word for adultery but with the added phrase “with a married woman.” However, in a listing of sins like this one here, it is not necessary to make the distinction so rigidly, and many translators will simply use the general term that covers both words of the text, or do something similar to Good News Translation.
False witness (so also New American Bible) is translated as a verb in Good News Translation: (“lie”), as are the other sins in the list; New Jerusalem Bible and New English Bible have “perjury”; Barclay has “lies about other people.” The only other occurrence of the noun in the New Testament is in 26.59, where it is used as a technical legal term; however, the related verb, used also in a technical sense in 26.60, is employed with a nontechnical meaning in 1 Corinthians 15.15.
Slander (so also New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible; Good News Translation “slander others”) is transliterated “blasphemy” by New American Bible. Although in other contexts the word may more naturally mean “slander against God” or “blasphemy,” the present context is strongly in favor of the meaning “slander against others,” as is suggested both by the place which it occupies in the overall list and by the observation that it immediately follows false witness. Elsewhere in Matthew (12.31; 26.65) it is used of slander against God.
The usual translation of slander is “say bad things about other people.” In some languages a phrase such as “ruin the name of other people” is the closest equivalent.
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
For: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as For introduces the basis for the things that Jesus said in 15:18.
Here is another way to translate this:
⌊I say this⌋ because
Some English versions do not translate this conjunction. In some languages, it will not be natural to translate this conjunction either.
out of the heart come: The word heart is the same word as in 15:18a. You should translate it here as you did there.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
that which comes from the heart of a person are
-or-
the things that are in a person’s heart cause/make him to
In some languages, it will be more natural to put the phrase out of the heart come at the end of the verse. See the General Comment at the end of 15:19d for some examples.
15:19b
evil thoughts: There is an interpretation issue here. It involves how the expression evil thoughts relates to the rest of the terms in 15:19.
(1) It is a specific term. It is the first of the seven terms in the list. These seven terms are all things that come out of the heart. For example:
evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander (New International Version)
(Berean Standard Bible, Revised Standard Version, New International Version, NET Bible, English Standard Version, New Living Translation (2004), New American Standard Bible, God’s Word, Contemporary English Version, Revised English Bible, King James Version, New Century Version)
(2) It is a general term. It is the thing that leads to the next six specific terms. Some versions show this by putting a colon after this term. For example:
(Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). The majority of English versions follow this interpretation.
In some languages, it will be more natural to translate this noun phrase as a verb. For example:
he thinks evil things
murder: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as murder is a plural noun. It also means “killings.” In this context, it refers to the illegal ending of someone’s life. It does not refer to executing a criminal or killing an enemy soldier in battle.
Here is another way to translate this word:
⌊he⌋ kills/murders people
15:19c
adultery: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as adultery means “a married person having sex with someone other than his wife (or her husband).”
Here is another way to translate this word:
sleeping with someone to whom he is not married
sexual immorality: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as sexual immorality is a general term referring to all sexual sin.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
[other] sexual sins (God’s Word)
-or-
all other sexual immorality (New Living Translation (1996))
-or-
fornication
-or-
⌊he⌋ does other filthy/evil deeds
General Comment on 15:19c
Some languages have one term that covers the meaning of both “adultery” and “sexual immorality.” Other languages may need more than two terms. You should use as few or as many words as necessary to translate these two Greek words.
15:19d
theft: The word theft refers to taking the property of someone else when the owner did not give permission to take it.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
robbery
-or-
⌊he⌋ steals
false testimony: The Greek word here primarily refers to telling lies in court. It can also refer to telling lies in any situation.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
lying (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
⌊he⌋ tells lies
slander: In Greek this word refers to saying things that hurt the reputation of someone.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
speaking evil of others (New Century Version)
-or-
insulting others (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
⌊he⌋ destroys the name/reputation of other people
General Comment on 15:19a–d
In some languages, it will be more natural to change the order of some of the parts of this verse. For example:
Evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immoralities, theft, lying, and slander all come from the heart.
-or-
Many evil things come from the heart such as evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immoralities, theft, lying, and slander.
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