complete verse (Romans 12:17)

Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 12:17:

  • Uma: “If there are those who persecute us, don’t pay them back. Do what is good in the sight of all people.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “If someone does evil/bad to you don’t repay (him) with evil/bad. Do everything which is good in the sight of all people.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “If someone harms you, do not revenge. You just continue doing those actions that nobody can rebuke you for.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “If someone does evil to you, don’t take-revenge, but rather try to do what is good and right in the estimation of all people.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Don’t repay the evil which is done to you. Earnestly endeavor that concerning what is good, that is what you will do.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Romans 12:17

Do not pay him back with evil may be rendered as “do not do evil to him in return” or “do not be bad to him as he has been bad to you.”

The second part of this verse, try to do what all men consider to be good, comes from the Septuagint of Proverbs 3.4.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Romans 12:17

Paragraph 12:17–21

12:17a

Do not repay anyone evil for evil: This clause indicates that the believer should not do something evil to someone because that person did something evil to him. Here are other ways to translate this clause:

Never pay back evil with evil (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
Don’t pay people back with evil for the evil they do to you (God’s Word)

evil: The Greek word here it refers to harm that someone has done to you. Here are other ways to translate this word:

do wrong/harm
-or-
mistreat (Contemporary English Version)

It is different from the Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as “evil” at 12:9b. But some languages will translate it with the same word as there.

12:17b

consider: The Greek word refers to thinking ahead about what you are going to do. Here are other ways to translate this Greek word:

give thought to (English Standard Version)
-or-
plan ahead to do

right: The Greek word here refers to what is beautiful or good. Here it refers to what is morally good. Here are other ways to translate this word:

noble (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
good (NET Bible)

in the eyes of everybody: Here the word everybody refers to all people, believers and non-believers. For example:

before all people (NET Bible)

© 2020 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.

Commentaire sur la traduction de la lettre aux Romains 12.17

12.17-21

Plusieurs versions commencent un nouveau paragraphe en Rom 12.17 (Bible en français courant, Nouvelle Bible Segond, Parole de Vie). La La Bible du Semeur met même un sous-titre ici : « Le chrétien face au mal ». 12.17-19a, comporte de nouveau en grec des participes équivalant à des impératifs, tandis qu’en 19b-20, la forme à l’impératif réapparaît.
Comme Rom 12.16, ce verset est marqué par la répétition (mal… mal) et la première proposition est assez rythmée.

Ne rendez à personne le mal pour le mal : cette proposition commence par une négation très forte, mêdeni, « à aucun », litt. « à aucun mal place de mal rendant ». Ce dernier verbe est un participe, qui sera rendu comme un impératif dans la majorité des langues. Le Good News Bible propose de façon plus explicite « Si quelqu’un vous a fait du mal, ne lui rendez pas du mal ».

Le mot rendez traduit un mot qui veut dire « rembourser », « retourner ». La Parole de Vie arrive à maintenir le rythme et l’emphase : « Ne rendez à personne le mal ».

Pour mal, voir Rom 1.30.

ayez à cœur de faire le bien devant tous les hommes : il s’agit d’une citation de Prov 3.4, d’après l’ancienne version grecque. ayez à cœur rend le verbe προνοέω pronoeô, qui pourrait aussi être rendu par « Efforcez-vous… » (Bible en français courant). Le complément d’objet direct du verbe est καλὰ kala, un adjectif qui veut dire « bon » ou « bien ».

devant les hommes rend le mot grec ἄνθρωπος anthrôpos, un mot général désignant toute l’humanité. Certains disent « Efforcez-vous de faire ce qui est bien devant tous » (Nouvelle Bible Segond).

Source: Margot, Jean-Claude & Zogbo, Lynell. La lettre aux Romains – Manuel de traduction – Commentaire linguistique et exégétique de la Bible. Alliance biblique universelle, 2021.