wisdom

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Ge’ez, Latin, and Greek that is translated as “wisdom” in English is rendered in various ways:

  • Amganad Ifugao / Tabasco Chontal: “(big) mind”
  • Bulu / Yamba: “heart-thinking”
  • Tae’: “cleverness of heart” (source for this and all above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Palauan: “bright spirit (innermost)” (source: Bratcher / Hatton)
  • Ixcatlán Mazatec: “with your best/biggest thinking” (source: Robert Bascom)
  • Noongar: dwangka-boola, lit. “ear much” (source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018 — see also remember)
  • Kwere “to know how to live well” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Dobel: “their ear holes are long-lasting” (in Acts 6:3) (source: Jock Hughes)
  • Gbaya: iŋa-mgbara-mɔ or “knowing-about-things” (note that in comparison to that, “knowledge” is translated as iŋa-mɔ or “knowing things”) (source: Philip Noss in The Bible Translator 2001, p. 114ff. )
  • Chichewa: nzeru, meaning both “knowledge” and “wisdom” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Uma: “clearness” (source: Uma Back Translation)

In Hungarian Sign Language it is translated with a hand gesture referring to God to indicate a human quality to communicate that wisdom does not originate from man but is linked to and connected with the fear of God (source: Jenjelvi Biblia and Andrea Bokros):


“Wisdom” in Hungarian Sign Language (source )

See also wisdom (Proverbs) and knowledge.

Translation commentary on Wisdom 10:8

For because they passed wisdom by: For because connects this line as the reason for what follows in the verse (see the model below for restructuring this). Good News Translation does well to introduce “The people of those cities” as the subject. The verb passed … by may be translated “ignored” (Good News Translation), “paid no attention to,” “had no use for,” or even “rejected.”

They not only were hindered from recognizing the good: They couldn’t recognize what was good when they saw it. Good News Translation states this in terms of not being able to “tell right from wrong”; Contemporary English Version has “became blind to what was right.”

But also left for mankind a reminder of their folly: This refers to the smoking landscape and the pillar of salt. Mankind is literally “life”; Winston translates left for mankind as “left behind for the world,” which is a good approach. Good News Translation expresses the idea of reminder or “monument” (New English Bible) as a verb: “the remnants of their cities still remind us….”

So that their failures could never go unnoticed may be rendered “so that the world can never forget how badly they failed.”

There are several ways that the four lines of this verse can be translated in order to preserve their relation to each other in Greek. Good News Translation shows one. We suggest the following alternative model:

• Those people ignored Wisdom. That is why they could not tell right from wrong. Not only that, but the ruins of their cities are a constant reminder of their foolishness, so that the world can never forget how badly they failed.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Wisdom of Solomon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2004. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.