leprosy healed

The Greek that is translated as “leprosy healed” or “leprosy left (him)” is translated in Alekano as “(he was) made to shed his skin.” (Source: Deibler / Taylor 1977, p. 1075)

See also leprosy.

touch

The Greek that is translated as “touch” in English is translated in the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) as “(touch and) hold on to” (festhalten).

leprosy, leprous

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The Greek and Hebrew terms that are often translated as “leprosy (or: defiling/skin disease)” or “leprous (person)” in English is translated in Mairasi as “the bad sickness,” since “leprosy is very common in the Mairasi area” (source: Enggavoter 2004).

Following are various other translations:

  • Shilluk: “disease of animals”
  • San Mateo Del Mar Huave: “devil sore” (this and the above are indigenous expressions)
  • Inupiaq: “decaying sores”
  • Kaqchikel: “skin-rotting disease” (source for this and three above: Eugene Nida in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 34f. )
  • Noongar: “bad skin disease” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Usila Chinantec “sickness like mal de pinta” (a skin disease involving discoloration by loss of pigment) (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Hiligaynon: “dangerous skin disease” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “fearful skin disease” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “terrible rotting” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Newari: “infectious skin disease” (source: Newari Back Translation)

Targumim (or: Targums) are translations of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic. They were translated and used when Jewish congregations increasingly could not understand the biblical Hebrew anymore. Targum Onqelos (also: Onkelos) is the name of the Aramaic translation of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) probably composed in Israel/Palestine in the 1st or 2nd century CE and later edited in Babylon in the 4th or 5th century, making it reflect Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. It is the most famous Aramaic translation and was widely used throughout the Jewish communities. In Leviticus 13 and 14 it translates tzaraat as a “quarantining affliction” — focusing “on what occurs to individuals after they suffer the affliction; the person is isolated from the community.” (Source: Israel Drazin in this article ). Similarly, the English Jewish Orthodox ArtScroll Tanach translation (publ. 2011) transliterates it as tzaraat affliction.

See also stricken and leprosy healed.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Leprosy (Word Study) and Bible Translations Are for People .

complete verse (Matthew 8:3)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 8:3:

  • Uma: “Yesus placed-hands-on him and said to him: ‘[Yes,] it’s possible. I heal you (sing.).’ In the blink of an eye he was well, there was no more disease.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Isa stretched out his hand and touched the leper and said, ‘I really want to. You are healed now.’ Immediately his leprosy was healed.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus laid his hand on him saying, ‘It is very good to my breath. May you be cured.’ And immediately his leprosy vanished.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Jesus reached-out his hand to place it on that man. Then he said, ‘I want to, you (sing.) will-be-made-clean.’ And his disease was removed immediately.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Jesus touched him, saying at the same time, ‘I really want to. Right now, you will now get better!’ When Jesus had said that, suddenly/unexpectedly that leper got better.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Jesus touched him with his hand and said: ‘Yes, I want to heal you. May you be healed now,’ he said to him. No sooner had he said this word when the sick man whose body was rotting was at once healed.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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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.

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

See also pronoun for “God”.

Honorary "are" construct denoting God ("say")

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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) 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, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.

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

Translation commentary on Matthew 8:3

One commentator calls attention to the striking parallelism between the man’s actions (“came to him and knelt before him, saying”) and Jesus’ response (stretched out his hand and touched him, saying). Reaching out and touching the man are best interpreted as gestures of healing (see 2 Kings 5.11; Mark 8.22-23). According to Jewish law, physical contact with someone who had leprosy would also have made Jesus unclean, yet all three of the Synoptic Gospels record this event (Mark 1.41; Luke 5.13). In Greek, Jesus’ action of touching the man is in focus.

In some languages it is better to say “Jesus” instead of he, so that it does not seem that the man stretched out his hand. Good News Translation is an example.

There are languages that can naturally say he stretched out his hand, but others will more likely say “stretched out and touched,” “reached out,” or simply “touched him with his hand.”

I will (Good News Translation “I do want to”) should be rendered as emphatically as possible. New English Bible has “Indeed I will,” and Jerusalem Bible “Of course I want to!” But translators should check how they handled the question in verse 2, so that the reply of Jesus here is appropriate.

Be clean may be more effectively rendered “Be cured!” (Jerusalem Bible). Of course translators will use either “Be cleaned” or “Be cured” according to what they used in verse 2. It may be difficult to use a passive imperative such as “Be cleaned” or “Be healed,” so that a phrase such as “I make you clean” or “You are now clean” may be better, or “You are healed” or “I now cure you.” But sentences such as these do not often have the same impact as the imperative, which should be used if at all possible.

And immediately is emphatic in the Greek sentence structure. Jesus’ power is beyond doubt, and the cure is immediate and complete. “At that very moment,” “Right that moment,” “At once”—phrases such as these can indicate this.

Was cleansed translates the same Greek verb rendered “you can make me clean” (verse 2) and be clean. Good News Translation shifts from the use of the ceremonial term to “was healed.” New American Bible translates “the man’s leprosy disappeared.” This can also be expressed as “the man was cured” or “the man was cured of his leprosy (or, his disease).” Certainly in very few languages will one speak of the disease being cleansed or healed. Almost always it is better to say the man was healed of the disease.

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 .