The Hebrew and Greek that is translated in English as “you shall not commit adultery” is translated in Toraja-Sa’dan with an established figure of speech: Da’ mupasandak salu lako rampanan kapa’ or “you shall not fathom the river of marriage” (i.e “approach the marriage relationship of another.”) (Source: H. van der Veen in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 21 ff. ).
In Hakha Chin the usual term for “adultery” applies only to women, so the translation in Hakha Chin is “do not take another man’s wife and do not commit adultery.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
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)
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 5:27:
Uma: “‘You know that there was a command long ago that said: ‘Don’t commit adultery.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “‘You have also heard this teaching, it says, ‘Do not commit adultery.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “You have heard that which was taught before saying, ‘Don’t commit adultery against your spouse.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “‘You have also heard what was commanded to them in the distant-past that they not be committing-adultery (lit. womaning-with).” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “‘You (pl.) have also heard this which was commanded in the past, which says, ‘Don’t commit-immorality with one not your spouse.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “You have heard the word taught to the people, that they were told: ‘Do not commit fornication.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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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 choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
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 Matthew 5:27-32:
The Bible says, “Be faithful in marriage.”
But I tell you to rid your mind of those lustful thoughts
that entice you to become unfaithful.
Poke out your staring eye and chop off your grabby hand —
better this, than for your whole body to burn in hell!
Thinking about divorce, just because it’s legal? Forget it!
Shy away from divorce, except as a last recourse,
and then only if your spouse has been terribly unfaithful.
When you divorce, you declare your partner an adulterer,
as well as anyone who marries your ex.
Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.
As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.
Here, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.
In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.
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®).
You have heard that it was said translates the same formula that is used to introduce verse 21, except that the phrase “to the men of old” does not appear here. According to Jewish law, the term “adultery” referred to sexual intercourse with the wife or the betrothed of a Jew. Both the commandment itself (Exo 20.14; Deut 5.18) and the Jewish interpretation of the commandment condemned adultery, because it involved the taking of another man’s wife. That is, it was considered the illicit use of another man’s property.
Many translators have used a word for adultery that is too broad for the Jewish use of the word. Either they have used a word that included all sexual relations between people not married to each other (really fornication), or they have used the word that would apply to such actions where at least one of the people involved was married, whether it was the woman or the man. This is the way the word is generally used in English today, for example. However, as we pointed out above, for the Jews, the word “adultery” was restricted to situations where the woman was married to someone else.
In those cases where the word normally used in the language is a general word for illicit sex, then translators can add the phrase “with a married woman” or “with someone else’s wife.” Or they can use the normal word for sexual relations and add the same phrase “with someone else’s wife.”
Translators must be sure that whatever word they use for sexual relations is acceptable in polite company. They must avoid words that would be shocking or offensive. Many languages use a euphemism such as “sleep with.”
Again, as in verse 21, a commandment is being cited. Shall is not being used as a simple future but marks an imperative.
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 .
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