complete verse (Romans 3:10)

Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 3:10:

  • Uma: “As it is written in the Holy Book long ago: ‘There are no people who are upright, not even one.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “It is written in the holy-book, saying, ‘There is no person straight in the sight of God, there is none not even one.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For there is written word of God which says, ‘There is not even one person that God considers to be righteous.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Because this is the very-thing the written word of God is talking-about which says, ‘There is absolutely no righteous person, not even one.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “There in the Holy Book is written the word which says: ‘No person will come out that he has lived good, not even one person.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

righteous, righteousness

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The Greek, Hebrew, and Latin terms that are translated in English mostly as “righteous” as an adjective or personified noun or “righteousness” (also as “justice”) are most commonly expressed with concept of “straightness,” though this may be expressed in a number of ways. (Click or tap here to see the details)

Following is a list of (back-) translations of various languages:

  • Bambara, Southern Bobo Madaré, Chokwe (ululi), Amganad Ifugao, Chol, Eastern Maninkakan, Toraja-Sa’dan, Pamona, Batak Toba, Bilua, Tiv: “be straight”
  • Laka: “follow the straight way” or “to straight-straight” (a reduplicated form for emphasis)
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl, Kekchí, Muna: “have a straight heart”
  • Kipsigis: “do the truth”
  • Mezquital Otomi: “do according to the truth”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “have truth”
  • Yine: “fulfill what one should do”
  • Indonesian: “be true”
  • Navajo: “do just so”
  • Anuak: “do as it should be”
  • Mossi: “have a white stomach” (see also happiness / joy)
  • Paasaal: “white heart” (source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
  • Nuer: “way of right” (“there is a complex concept of “right” vs. ‘left’ in Nuer where ‘right’ indicates that which is masculine, strong, good, and moral, and ‘left’ denotes what is feminine, weak, and sinful (a strictly masculine viewpoint!) The ‘way of right’ is therefore righteousness, but of course women may also attain this way, for the opposition is more classificatory than descriptive.”) (This and all above from Bratcher / Nida except for Bilua: Carl Gross; Tiv: Rob Koops; Muna: René van den Berg)
  • Central Subanen: “wise-good” (source: Robert Brichoux in OPTAT 1988/2, p. 80ff. )
  • Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac: “live well”
  • Mezquital Otomi: “goodness before the face of God” (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl: “the result of heart-straightening” (source: Nida 1947, p. 224)
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “entirely good” (when referred to God), “do good” or “not be a debtor as God sees one” (when referred to people)
  • Carib: “level”
  • Tzotzil: “straight-hearted”
  • Ojitlán Chinantec: “right and straight”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “walk straight” (source for this and four previous: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22)
  • Aari: The Pauline word for “righteous” is generally rendered by “makes one without sin” in the Aari, sometimes “before God” is added for clarity. (Source: Loren Bliese)
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “having sin taken away” (Source: Nida 1952, p. 144)
  • Nyamwezi: wa lole: “just” or “someone who follows the law of God” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Venda: “nothing wrong, OK” (Source: J.A. van Roy in The Bible Translator 1972, p. 418ff. )
  • Ekari: maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (the same word that is also used for “truth“; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
  • Guhu-Samane: pobi or “right” (also: “right (side),” “(legal) right,” “straightness,” “correction,” “south,” “possession,” “pertinence,” “kingdom,” “fame,” “information,” or “speech” — “According to [Guhu-Samane] thinking there is a common core of meaning among all these glosses. Even from an English point of view the first five can be seen to be closely related, simply because of their similarity in English. However, from that point the nuances of meaning are not so apparent. They relate in some such a fashion as this: As one faces the morning sun, south lies to the right hand (as north lies to the left); then at one’s right hand are his possessions and whatever pertains to him; thus, a rich man’s many possessions and scope of power and influence is his kingdom; so, the rich and other important people encounter fame; and all of this spreads as information and forms most of the framework of the people’s speech.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in Notes on Translation 1964, p. 11ff.)

See also respectable, righteous, righteous (person), and She is more in the right(eous) than I.

Translation commentary on Romans 3:10 – 3:12

As the Scriptures say is the same formula as in verse 4 above. The reason for the difference in translation is that in this series of quotes (vv. 11-18) Paul is using various passages from the Old Testament as a summary of the entire content of its message. The accumulative effect of keeping all these verses together is seen in verse 19-20, that is, to indicate that all men have sinned and so are under God’s judgment.

These verses come from Psalm 14.1-3 (parallel 53.1-3). In the Psalm the first and sixth lines read the same, but Paul has made a significant change by introducing into the quote the word righteous. This word appears neither in the Hebrew nor in the Septuagint, but it is a basic element in Paul’s theology. For Paul this phrase would mean there is not a man who is in a right relation with God. It is significant that in verse 20 Paul summarizes his total argument from the scriptures by the quotation from Psalm 143.2: because no man is put right in God’s sight by doing what the Law requires. To translate as the Jerusalem Bible does (“there is not a good man left, no, not one”) is to translate the Psalm rather than what Paul intends.

In view of the particular manner in which Paul uses righteous in this context, it may be necessary in some languages to use the phrase “right before God,” “righteous in God’s eyes,” or “seen as righteous by God.” This is certainly more than merely “doing right.”

In a number of languages one cannot use an expression such as who understands without indicating something of the nature of what is or is not understood. The most neutral and contextually appropriate goal of such understanding is probably “what is right.” Therefore one may translate: “There is not one person who really understands what is right.”

The last clause of verse 11 must not be rendered in such a way as to imply that a person goes out looking for God in the same way that one would look for a lost coin. To avoid a wrong connotation one may have, in some languages, “seeks to be related to God,” “seeks to be with God,” or “wants to have God with him.”

In the Psalm the phrase from God does not appear in the statement all men have turned away, but it is clearly implicit, and the Good News Translation makes this information explicit for its readers.

The equivalent of the expression turned away from God is in some instances “do not wish to have God in their minds,” “will not remember God any longer,” or “have turned their backs on God.” The verb rendered gone wrong (so Revised Standard Version, Moffatt) literally means “to become useless” and appears in a variety of forms in various translations (An American Translation* “worthless”; New English Bible “debased”; Phillips “unprofitable”; Jerusalem Bible “tainted”). The meaning of does what is good (so most translations) is to be preferred over the meaning “to show kindness” (New English Bible).

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 .