forgive, forgiveness

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The concept of “forgiveness” is expressed in varied ways through translations. Following is a list of (back-) translations from some languages:

  • Tswa, North Alaskan Inupiatun, Panao Huánuco Quechua: “forget about”
  • Navajo (Dinė): “give back” (based on the idea that sin produces an indebtedness, which only the one who has been sinned against can restore)
  • Huichol, Shipibo-Conibo, Eastern Highland Otomi, Uduk, Tepo Krumen: “erase,” “wipe out,” “blot out”
  • Highland Totonac, Huautla Mazatec: “lose,” “make lacking”
  • Tzeltal: “lose another’s sin out of one’s heart”
  • Lahu, Burmese: “be released,” “be freed”
  • Ayacucho Quechua: “level off”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “cast away”
  • Chol: “pass by”
  • Wayuu: “make pass”
  • Kpelle: “turn one’s back on”
  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “cover over” (a figure of speech which is also employed in Hebrew, but which in many languages is not acceptable, because it implies “hiding” or “concealment”)
  • Tabasco Chontal, Huichol: “take away sins”
  • Toraja-Sa’dan, Javanese: “do away with sins”
  • San Blas Kuna: “erase the evil heart” (this and all above: Bratcher / Nida, except Tepo Krumen: Peter Thalmann in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 25f.)
  • Eggon: “withdraw the hand”
  • Mískito: “take a man’s fault out of your heart” (source of this and the one above: Kilgour, p. 80)
  • Gamale Kham: “unstring someone” (“hold a grudge” — “have someone strung up in your heart”) (source: Watters, p. 171)
  • Hawai’i Creole English: “let someone go” (source: Jost Zetzsche)
  • Cebuano: “go beyond” (based on saylo)
  • Iloko: “none” or “no more” (based on awan) (source for this and above: G. Henry Waterman in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 24ff. )
  • Tzotzil: ch’aybilxa: “it has been lost” (source: Aeilts, p. 118)
  • Suki: biaek eisaemauwa: “make heart soft” (Source L. and E. Twyman in The Bible Translator 1953, p. 91ff. )
  • Warao: “not being concerned with him clean your obonja.” Obonja is a term that “includes the concepts of consciousness, will, attitude, attention and a few other miscellaneous notions” (source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. See other occurrences of Obojona in the Warao New Testament.)
  • Martu Wangka: “throw out badness” (source: Carl Gross)
  • Mairasi: “dismantle wrongs” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Nyulnyul: “have good heart” (source )
  • Kyaka: “burn the jaw bones” — This goes back to the pre-Christian custom of hanging the jaw bones of murdered relatives on ones door frame until the time of revenge. Christians symbolically burned those bones to show forgiveness which in turn became the word for “forgiveness” (source: Eugene Nida, according to this blog )
  • Koonzime: “remove the bad deed-counters” (“The Koonzime lay out the deeds symbolically — usually strips of banana leaf — and rehearse their grievances with the person addressed.”) (Source: Keith and Mary Beavon in Notes on Translation 3/1996, p. 16)
  • Arapaho: “setting is aside” (source )
  • Ngbaka: ele: “forgive and forget” (Margaret Hill [in Holzhausen & Ridere 2010, p. 8f.] recalls that originally there were two different words used in Ngbaka, one for God (ɛlɛ) and one for people (mbɔkɔ — excuse something) since it was felt that people might well forgive but, unlike God, can’t forget. See also this lectionary in The Christian Century .
  • Amahuaca: “erase” / “smooth over” (“It was an expression the people used for smoothing over dirt when marks or drawings had been made in it. It meant wiping off dust in which marks had been made, or wiping off writing on the blackboard. To wipe off the slate, to erase, to take completely away — it has a very wide meaning and applies very well to God’s wiping away sins, removing them from the record, taking them away.”) (Source: Robert Russel, quoted in Walls / Bennett 1959, p. 193)
  • Gonja / Dangme: “lend / loan” (in the words of one Dangme scholar: “When you sin and you are forgiven, you forget that you have been forgiven, and continue to sin. But when you see the forgiveness as a debt/loan which you will pay for, you do not continue to sin, else you have more debts to pay” — quoted in Jonathan E.T. Kuwornu-Adjaottor in Ibadan Journal of Religious Studies 17/2 2010, p. 67ff. )
  • Kwere: kulekelela, meaning literally “to allow for.” Derived from the root leka which means “to leave.” In other words, forgiveness is leaving behind the offense in relationship to the person. It is also used in contexts of setting someone free. (Source: Megan Barton)
  • Merina Malagasy: mamela or “leave / let go (of sin / mistakes)” (source: Brigitte Rabarijaona)
  • Mauwake: “take away one’s heaviness” (compare sin as “heavy”) (source: Kwan Poh San in this article )

See also this devotion on YouVersion .

sin

The Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Greek that is typically translated as “sin” in English has a wide variety of translations.

The Greek ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō) carries the original verbatim meaning of “miss the mark” and likewise, many translations contain the “connotation of moral responsibility.”

  • Loma: “leaving the road” (which “implies a definite standard, the transgression of which is sin”)
  • Navajo (Dinė): “that which is off to the side” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: kasalan, originally meaning “transgression of a religious or moral rule” and in the context of the Bible “transgression of God’s commandments” (source: H. van der Veen in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 21ff. )
  • Kaingang: “break God’s word”
  • Bariai: “bad behavior” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Sandawe: “miss the mark” (like the original meaning of the Greek term) (source for this and above: Ursula Wiesemann in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 36ff., 43)
  • Nias: horö, originally a term primarily used for sexual sin. (Source: Hummel / Telaumbanua 2007, p. 256)
  • Mauwake: “heavy” (compare forgiveness as “take away one’s heaviness”) (source: Kwan Poh San in this article )

In Shipibo-Conibo the term is hocha. Nida (1952, p. 149) tells the story of its choosing: “In some instances a native expression for sin includes many connotations, and its full meaning must be completely understood before one ever attempts to use it. This was true, for example, of the term hocha first proposed by Shipibo-Conibo natives as an equivalent for ‘sin.’ The term seemed quite all right until one day the translator heard a girl say after having broken a little pottery jar that she was guilty of ‘hocha.’ Breaking such a little jar scarcely seemed to be sin. However, the Shipibos insisted that hocha was really sin, and they explained more fully the meaning of the word. It could be used of breaking a jar, but only if the jar belonged to someone else. Hocha was nothing more nor less than destroying the possessions of another, but the meaning did not stop with purely material possessions. In their belief God owns the world and all that is in it. Anyone who destroys the work and plan of God is guilty of hocha. Hence the murderer is of all men most guilty of hocha, for he has destroyed God’s most important possession in the world, namely, man. Any destructive and malevolent spirit is hocha, for it is antagonistic and harmful to God’s creation. Rather than being a feeble word for some accidental event, this word for sin turned out to be exceedingly rich in meaning and laid a foundation for the full presentation of the redemptive act of God.”

In Warao it is translated as “bad obojona.” Obojona is a term that “includes the concepts of consciousness, will, attitude, attention and a few other miscellaneous notions.” (Source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. ). See other occurrences of Obojona in the Warao New Testament.

Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the Danish Bibelen 2020, comments on the translation of this term: “We would explain terms, such that e.g. sin often became ‘doing what God does not want’ or ‘breaking God’s law’, ‘letting God down’, ‘disrespecting God’, ‘doing evil’, ‘acting stupidly’, ‘becoming guilty’. Now why couldn’t we just use the word sin? Well, sin in contemporary Danish, outside of the church, is mostly used about things such as delicious but unhealthy foods. Exquisite cakes and chocolates are what a sin is today.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )

See also sinner.

complete verse (Romans 4:7)

Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 4:7:

  • Uma: “He said like this: ‘Blessed are the people whose wrongs are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “He said, ‘A person is really glad when his sins are forgiven by God and his evil deeds are forgotten by God.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For King David said, ‘How much better off is the person whose transgressions are forgiven and his sins are already forgotten by God!” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “He said, ‘Fortunate is the person whose sins God has forgiven and forgotten.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “He said: ‘The good fortune has been encountered by the people whom God has forgiven. Now he won’t punish them for the sins they have done.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Romans 4:6 – 4:8

The Jewish rabbis often used a method of exegesis by which they would appeal to two passages in which the same word occurred, and would use the second passage to throw light on the use of the word in the first passage. In Genesis 15.6 (quoted in v. 3 above) the writer used a word rendered accepted by the Good News Translation. Paul uses this same word in verse 4, regarded as, and in verse 5, takes into account, and he now uses it again in verse 6, accepts. In the quotation from Psalm 32.1-2 (quoted in vv. 7 and 8) the word is used once more and is translated keep account of. By using a second scripture references, Paul not only strengthens his argument based on scriptural proof, but also elaborates on it. That is, the quotation from Psalm 32 is intended to prove that the man whom God accepts as righteous, apart from any works, is a happy man. He is happy because God has forgiven his wrongs and has covered over his sins and not kept account of them.

It may be necessary to recast the clause when he spoke of the happiness of the man whom God accepts as righteous, because the happiness of the man may itself require expression as a separate clause—for example, “when he said the man whom God accepts as righteous is truly happy.”

The final phrase apart from any works must normally be expressed as a complete clause—for example, “despite the fact that he had not worked to gain God’s favor,” “despite his not working in order to be accepted by God,” or “despite his not having done anything so that God would accept him as righteous.”

In speaking of works, Paul has reference to one’s obedience to the commands of the Law by which one hopes to put God in one’s debt, and so earn one’s own salvation. This approach is, of course, opposite to what Paul talks about when he speaks about a man being put right with God through faith. Through works one seeks to earn salvation as the workman earns his wages; through faith one accepts salvation as a free gift from God, and so experiences God’s forgiveness.

In the psalm that Paul quotes, the word rendered wrongs literally means “acts of lawlessness” (see New English Bible “lawless deeds”) and is rendered “crimes” by the Jerusalem Bible. It is not the usual word for sin, though it is used often in a way almost synonymous with the word rendered “sins.” The word should be understood primarily in terms of one’s attitude toward the commands of God, rather than toward the laws of society. For this reason An American Translation* renders “violations of the Law.” The exclamatory form of the two clauses in verse 7 may be expressed in some languages as merely a strong affirmation—for example, “those whose bad deeds God has forgiven are truly happy. These are the persons whose sins have been covered.” It is important in rendering verse 7 not to imply that there are two different kinds of persons who are happy—those whose evil deeds have been forgiven and those whose sins have been covered over. The two relative clauses are completely parallel and essentially synonymous; they simply reinforce each other.

In a number of languages it is necessary to avoid completely the expression of “sins being covered over,” since this may be merely a way of talking about surreptitious sinning or hiding one’s sins. If one retains such an expression as covered over, it may be necessary to specify “covered over by God.” It is frequently necessary, however, to change covered over to “blotted out,” “removed,” or “forgiven.”

Will not keep account of may be rendered in a number of ways: “will not keep adding up,” “will not keep marking down,” or even “will not keep reciting each day.”

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 4:7

4:7a

Blessed are they whose lawless acts are forgiven: This clause moves the phrase Blessed are to the beginning for poetic effect. In some languages, doing that is not natural. If that is true in your language:

• Use a poetic structure that your language has.

• Use normal word order with a passive clause. For example:

Those whose lawless deeds are forgiven are blessed

• Use normal word order with an active clause. For example:

⌊God⌋ blesses those whose lawless deeds are forgiven

they whose lawless acts are forgiven: This clause is passive. Some languages must use an active clause here. For example:

those whom ⌊God/he⌋ forgives their lawless acts

lawless acts: This phrase refers to acts that break the law. Here the word “law” can refer to God’s laws in the OT or more generally to laws where you live. Here are some ways to translate this word:

law-breaking acts
-or-
breaking the law

4:7b

whose sins are covered: The phrase “blessed are those” is implied from 4:7a. In some languages this phrase must be made explicit for the correct meaning. For example:

and ⌊blessed are those⌋ whose sins are covered

This clause is passive. Some languages must use an active clause here. For example:

whom ⌊God⌋ covers their sins

sins: This word refers to doing something that God said is wrong to do, or not doing something that God said they should do. See how you translated this word in 3:9.

are covered: Here the word covered is a figure of speech. It indicates that God no longer considers those sins as a problem. They are out of his sight as if he had buried them in the ground. The meaning is similar to “forgiven.” Here are some ways to translate the figure of speech:

• Use a figure of speech. For example:

are put out of sight (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
are blotted out (Revised English Bible)

• Translate without using a figure of speech. For example:

are pardoned (Good News Translation)
-or-
are forgotten (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
he is no longer bringing-to-mind

General Comment on 4:7a–b

4:7b is similar in meaning to “whose lawless acts are forgiven” in 4:7a. Hebrew poetry (as here) repeats meaning to emphasize it. In some languages repeating meaning implies a different meaning, such as expressing anger. If that is true in your language, translate in a way that emphasizes the correct meaning. For example:

Blessed are those whose lawless acts and sins are indeed covered and forgiven

Also, in some languages “lawless acts” and “sins” would be translated by the same term. If that is true in your language, use only the one term. For example:

Blessed are those whose sins are indeed covered and forgiven

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