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 in Matthew 5:28 that is translated as “looks at a woman with lust” or similar in English is translated in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) with eine Frau anblickt und sie in Gedanken auszieht or “looks at a woman and undresses her in his mind.”
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 Nepali translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and other people with the medium honorific pronoun timīlē (तिमीले) or timīlēharū (तिमीलेहरू). His disciples respond with a high honorific pronoun. (Source: Chitra Chhetri in The Bible Translator 2009, p. 73ff. )
In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 5:28:
Uma: “But I say: whoever looks at a woman and he has a heart desiring her, he commits adultery in his heart.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “But I, I say: whoever looks at a woman and thinks bad, he has already committed adultery with that woman in his liver.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “But my teaching is that a man who just looks at a woman and is sexually aroused, that man has already committed adultery against his wife.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “But I say to you that the one who looks at a woman to crave her has already committed-adultery with her in his mind.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “But now/today, I am the one saying to you that whoever stares at a woman with a motive in his mind, it’s like he has already acted-immorally.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “But I tell you that whoever looks at a woman and it comes to his heart that he wants to fornicate with her, it comes out that it is the same that he had truly fornicated with the woman he looked at.” (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 first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
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.
But I say to you is the same statement that introduces verse 22.
Every one who looks at a woman lustfully is translated in a number of different ways; for example, Good News Translation has “anyone who looks at a woman and wants to possess her”; Moffatt “anyone who even looks with lust at a woman”; and Barclay “if anyone looks at a woman in such a way as deliberately to awaken within himself the forbidden desire for her.”
It is important to note that this verse does not just refer to noticing a woman as attractive, or even to a brief recognition that she is sexually appealing. It refers instead to actually contemplating having sex with her, that is, to having the intention of doing so. Thus, for looks … lustfully translators can say “wants to sleep with her,” “wants sex with her,” or “looks at her with the intention of sleeping with her.”
Has already committed adultery with her (so also New English Bible, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible) translates a Greek aorist; but for English speakers the perfect tense adequately and accurately expresses the meaning.
Since heart refers to the realm of thought, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates in his heart as “in thought.” In many cultures, in his heart would only be understood to refer to the emotions, so that “in his thought” or “in his thinking” are better translations.
Some translators have used a translation like “it is as if he is already guilty of committing adultery with her.” This would be wrong because Jesus does not say it as if he were guilty, but affirms that he is guilty already. Thus the sin of adultery is not in the act but in the lust or desire to do so.
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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