complete verse (Matthew 15:20)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 15:20:

  • Uma: “Behavior like that is what makes people evil in the sight of God. Eating not washing hands first, that is not what makes people evil in the sight of God.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “All these make people unclean, not if he eats but hasn’t washed his hands in the way the Pariseo command.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “These are the deeds which displease God, but he is not displeased when we eat without washing our hands according to the custom of the Pharisees.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “These are the things-that-make-a person -dirty. But a person’s eating without having washed-hands correctly, that’s not what-makes-him -dirty.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “These are the things which cause a person to be disgusting in the sight of God. But when one will eat without first washing his hands according to what was said in your handed-down teachings, that won’t cause a person to be disgusting in the sight of God.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “This is what makes a person have sin. But when a person doesn’t wash his hands when he eats, that isn’t a sin.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Matthew 15:20

Verse 20 is essentially a repetition of verse 11, only in negative form. See comments there. See also Matthew 15.2 for a discussion of unwashed hands.

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Matthew 15:20



15:20a

These are: The word These is emphasized in Greek. This word refers back to the list in 15:19.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

It is those ⌊things/actions that⌋ are
-or-
Those are ⌊the things/deeds that⌋
-or-
It is because of those ⌊things/deeds⌋

what defile a man: The word defile is the same word as in 15:11a–b and 15:18b. You should translate this word the same way here as you did there. For example:

makes a person unclean
-or-
make you unfit to/before God

15:20b

but: There is a contrast here. The contrast is between what defiles a man (20a) and what does not (20b). The Berean Standard Bible indicates this contrast with the conjunction but.

In some languages, it is not necessary to use a conjunction to indicate the contrast. The context will show the contrast even without a conjunction.

eating with unwashed hands: The term unwashed hands refers to the ceremonial rinsing as in 15:2b. You should translate this term here in the same way that you did there. For example:

to eat without washing your hands as they say you should (Good News Translation)

-or-

to eat without ⌊following the correct way to⌋ wash the/your hands

General Comment on 15:17–20

In some languages, it will be more natural to use plural words like “people” or “men” rather than singular words like “person” or “man.” For example:

17 Do you not see that whatever food people eat goes into their stomachs and then into the sewer? 18 But the talk that comes out of peoples’ mouths comes from their hearts and defiles them. 19 Because out of peoples’ hearts come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, stealing, false witness, speaking evil things about people. 20 These are what defile people. But for people to eat with unwashed hands, this does not defile them.

© 2023 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.