neighbor

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The Greek that is translated as “neighbor” in English is rendered into Babatana as “different man,” i.e. someone who is not one of your relatives. (Source: David Clark)

In North Alaskan Inupiatun, it is rendered as “a person outside of your building,” in Tzeltal as “your back and side” (implying position of the dwellings), in Indonesian and in Tae’ as “your fellow-man,” in Toraja-Sa’dan it is “your fellow earth-dweller,” in Shona (translation of 1966) as “another person like you,” in Kekchí “younger-brother-older-brother” (a compound which means all one’s neighbors in a community) (sources: Bratcher / Nida and Reiling / Swellengrebel), in Mairasi “your people” (source: Enggavoter 2004), in Mezquital Otomi as “fellow being,” in Tzeltal as “companion,” in Isthmus Zapotec as “another,” in Teutila Cuicatec as “all people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), and in most modern German translations as Mitmensch or “fellow human being” (lit. “with + human being”).

In Matt 19:19, Matt 22:39, Mark 12:31, Mark 12:33, Luke 10:27, Luke 10:29 it is translated into Ixcatlán Mazatec with a term that refers to a person who is socially/physically near. Ixcatlán Mazatec also has a another term for “neighbor” that means “fellow humans-outsiders” which was not chosen for these passages. (Source: Robert Bascom)

In Noongar it is translated as moorta-boordak or “people nearby” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

Translation commentary on Sirach 31:14

Do not reach out your hand for everything you see, and do not crowd your neighbor at the dish: This verse refers to a show of greediness at the dinner. There is a grammatical problem here. The Greek text literally reads “Wherever he looks, do not stretch out [your] hand and do not crowd him at the dish.” The pronouns “he” and “him” refer to the same person, but who is that person? Some scholars reverse verses 14 and 15 in order to make the pronouns in this verse refer back to the “neighbor” of verse 15. There is no textual ground for this, however. Some manuscripts read “you look” instead of “he looks”; this is followed by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. But the problem does not disappear; it is only postponed until the next line. We may as well face it here and read the usual Greek text. We suggest this approach for the verse:

• Do not grab at what someone else has his eye on, and don’t elbow [or, crowd/push] a person out of the way to get at the food.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Sirach. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.