sin

The Hebrew 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”
  • 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)

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 5:13)

Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 5:13:

  • Uma: “Long ago, before there was the Lord’s Law that was delivered by Musa, all men were indeed sinful/sinning. But if there is no law given to mankind, they cannot be called into account over their sins.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “The law had not yet been given to Musa, beforehand already the people were sinning. But if there is no law, nobody can be accused of having broken the law.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Long time ago before God gave the Law, the behavior of people was already evil. But, since there was not yet any Law, God did not consider that he would punish them.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Even before God gave his law to Moses, people were sinning, but their sins were not counted as their breaking the law.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Concerning the people who lived before the law which Moses wrote was known, all committed sin. The people cannot say they didn’t know what good it was necessary for them to do.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

law

The Greek that is translated in English as “Law” or “law” is translated in Mairasi as oro nasinggiei or “prohibited things” (source: Enggavoter 2004) and in Noongar with a capitalized form of the term for “words” (Warrinya) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

In Yucateco the phrase that is used for “law” is “ordered-word” (for “commandment,” it is “spoken-word”) (source: Nida 1947, p. 198) and in Central Tarahumara it is “writing-command.” (wsource: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)

See also teaching / law (of God) (Japanese honorifics).

Translation commentary on Romans 5:13 – 5:14

These verses are difficult to fit into Paul’s argument, though as far as the exegetical matters relating to translation are concerned, verse 13 is not difficult. Most translators assume that the Law referred to in this verse is the Jewish Law, and so indicate this by using a capital “L”, however, the New English Bible takes law in a more general sense (“before there was law”).

The first clause of verse 13 may be quite easily rendered by making “people” the subject of sin—for example, “before the Law was given, people in the world sinned.” In order to make specific an interpretation of the Law as being the Law of Moses, one may say “before the Law was given to Moses” or “before God gave the Law by means of Moses.”

The verb rendered account is kept was a term used in business and referred to the entering of accounts into a ledger. If, in the receptor language, this passive verb has to be rendered by an active one, then God in the one who did not keep account of sins.

Paul’s reasoning is here difficult to follow. If no account is kept of sins, why then did death rule over all men from the time of Adam to the time of Moses? Somehow Paul seems to imply that no record could be kept of sin, unless it was sin against a specific command of God, such as the specific command given to Adam or the specific commands contained in the Mosaic Law. But even though all men did not sin as Adam did by disobeying God’s command (that is, by disobeying a specific command of God; see New English Bible “by disobeying a direct command”), all men did sin. And since all men did sin, death ruled over all men. Fortunately, the translator does not have to answer all of these difficult questions; but in order to deal adequately with the meaning of the passage, he should at least know the basic problems involved.

Most translations take Paul’s literal words (Revised Standard Version “whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam”) in a way similar to what the Good News Translation does. The rendering of the New English Bible has already been given; An American Translation* has “who had not sinned as Adam had, in the face of an express command”; while the Jerusalem Bible has “even though their sin, unlike that of Adam, was not a matter of breaking a law.”

The expression from the time of Adam to the time of Moses may cause certain difficulties in some languages because of the necessity of recasting the relations and relating these to death—for example, “all the people who lived from the time Adam lived until the time Moses lived, all had to die”; or, in relation to the following clause, “all people who followed after Adam, and all those who lived until Moses lived, had to die, even those persons who did not sin just as Adam sinned when he disobeyed the very command which God had given him”; or “… when he disobeyed the very words that God had spoken to him.”

Paul begins by saying Adam was a figure of the one who was to come. The word rendered figure is difficult to translate; the Revised Standard Version has merely transliterated (“a type”). Several modern translations render this noun either by the verb “prefigure” (Jerusalem Bible “Adam prefigured the One to come”; Moffatt “Adam prefigured Him who was to come”) or by the verb “foreshadow” (New English Bible “Adam foreshadows the Man who was to come”; An American Translation* “Adam foreshadowed the one who was to come”). Phillips has “Adam, the first man, corresponds in some degree to the man who was to come.” This word figure is used in a variety of ways in the New Testament and in other early Christian literature outside the New Testament. Paul himself uses it in 1 Corinthians 10.6 with the meaning of “example,” and in 1 Corinthians 10.11 the adverbial form made from this root is used with the meaning of “by way of example.” The best explanation of the precise meaning of this word in the present passage is to be found in the series of analogies and contrasts listed in the verses following (15-17).

For languages which lack a term for “figure,” “type,” or “foreshadow,” one may employ terms denoting similarly—for example, “Adam was in some regards similar to the one who was to come.” In some languages one must indicate both the similarity and the contrast—for example, “Adam was in some ways like and in some ways different from the person who was destined to come.”

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 .