The phrase that is translated as “there is no fear in love” in English has been translated in Huautla Mazatec as “he who really loves forgets to be afraid.” “The concepts of love and fear must be expressed by verbs, not nouns, and hence an actor must be expressed. Furthermore, the relationship indicated by the English ‘in’ must be radically altered, for though in can express the relationship of objects to each other in Huautla Mazatec, it does not show the relationship of events, as it does in English.” (Source: Nida 1964, p. 196).
Translator Lee Bramlett submitted this on the translation of the Greek word that is translated into English as “love” (referring to God’s love). This letter was then reposted by Wycliffe Bible Translators (see here ):
“Translator Lee Bramlett was confident that God had left His mark on the Hdi culture somewhere, but though he searched, he could not find it. Where was the footprint of God in the history or daily life of these Cameroonian people? What clue had He planted to let the Hdi know who He was and how He wanted to relate to them?
“Then one night in a dream, God prompted Lee to look again at the Hdi word for ‘love.’ Lee and his wife, Tammi, had learned that verbs in Hdi consistently end in one of three vowels. For almost every verb, they could find forms ending in i, a, and u. But when it came to the word for love, they could only find i and a. Why no u?
“Lee asked the Hdi translation committee, which included the most influential leaders in the community, ‘Could you ‘ɗvi’ your wife?’ ‘Yes,’ they said. That would mean that the wife had been loved but the love was gone.
“‘Could you ‘ɗva’ your wife?’ ‘Yes,’ they said. That kind of love depended on the wife’s actions. She would be loved as long as she remained faithful and cared for her husband well.
“‘Could you ‘ɗvu’ your wife?’ Everyone laughed. ‘Of course not! If you said that, you would have to keep loving your wife no matter what she did, even if she never got you water, never made you meals. Even if she committed adultery, you would be compelled to just keep on loving her. No, we would never say ‘ɗvu.’ It just doesn’t exist.’
“Lee sat quietly for a while, thinking about John 3:16, and then he asked, ‘Could God ‘ɗvu’ people?’
“There was complete silence for three or four minutes; then tears started to trickle down the weathered faces of these elderly men. Finally they responded. ‘Do you know what this would mean? This would mean that God kept loving us over and over, millennia after millennia, while all that time we rejected His great love. He is compelled to love us, even though we have sinned more than any people.’
“One simple vowel and the meaning was changed from ‘I love you based on what you do and who you are,’ to ‘I love you, based on Who I am. I love you because of Me and NOT because of you.’
“God had encoded the story of His unconditional love right into their language. For centuries, the little word was there — unused but available, grammatically correct and quite understandable. When the word was finally spoken, it called into question their entire belief system. If God was like that, did they need the spirits of the ancestors to intercede for them? Did they need sorcery to relate to the spirits? Many decided the answer was no, and the number of Christ-followers quickly grew from a few hundred to several thousand.
“The New Testament in Hdi is ready to be printed now, and 29,000 speakers will soon be able to feel the impact of passages like Ephesians 5:25: ‘Husbands, ‘ɗvu’ your wives, just as Christ ‘ɗvu’-d the church…'”
In Hawai’i Creole English the love that God has is often translated as love an aloha. Aloha has a variety of meanings, including “hello,” “goodbye,” “love,” “thank you,” etc.
The Philippine languages of Cebuano, Tagalog, and Pampanga use a word (gugma, pag-ibig, and lugud respectively) that is also used for a “noble, refined love of people for each other,” distinct from romantic love. (Source: G. Henry Waterman in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 24ff. )
In Mairasi, the term that is used for love by God, for God and for people is the same: “desire one’s face.” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
The Greek that is typically translated with a generic expressions such as “he who,” “whoever,” or “if anyone” in English is translated with the plural form (“they”) in Daga. “A literal translation of these conveys the idea that one specific unnamed individual is being dis cussed. Thus, for instance, in John 5:24 ‘he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life’ meant in Daga that there was one fortunate individual to whom it applied.”
Following are a number of back-translations of 1 John 4:18:
Uma: “If we really know God’s love to us, we are no longer afraid of God. His complete love strengthens our heart so that we are no longer afraid. If we fear that God will punish [us], its meaning, we do not yet really know his love for us.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “True love is not mixed with fear because if we (dual) truly love God our (dual) fear disappears. Whoever fears, his love is not yet complete, because he is afraid that perhaps he will be punished by God.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Anyone who loves God, it is not necessary that he be afraid of God, and since God’s love for us has no lack, he has removed already our fear of Him. The reason a person is afraid is because he expects God’s punishment on him, but as for that person who is afraid of God, God’s love for him has not yet been drawn tight in his mind.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “So long as there is love, it not possible that it be added-to with fear, because the love which has no lack, it blocks fear. So the person who is afraid because he is thinking about God’s punishment, that is the evidence that his love is still lacking.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “For as long as our holding dear of God and valuing of our fellowman is true, we no longer have fear of punishment. Because, as for complete holding dear, it’s like it can bury/cover up this fear. Because what people really fear is, to be punished. Therefore if we are still afraid of being punished, it’s clear that our holding dear and valuing is still lacking.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “The person who loves God from the heart does not then fear that God will be angry with him. How can you go on fearing when from the heart you love? A person fears that God will be angry at him when he doesn’t love from the heart.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Yatzachi Zapotec: “If we love God there is nothing for us to fear. And if we love God as we ought, there is nothing left for us to fear, because it is like a punishment for us when we are afraid. And if we fear anything, we do not love God as we ought.”
Eastern Highland Otomi: “He who fears the judgment, he fears it because he hasn’t yet known well the love that God does to him. God’s love removes fear. When we fear, we think God will punish us.”
Tzotzil: “If we believe that God loves us, therefore we are not afraid. Because if we are afraid, it is because we think that God is going to punish us. If we believe that God really and truly loves us, not thus we think. Therefore if we are afraid it is because we have not believed that God loves us.”
Sayula Popoluca: “He who loves God, doesn’t fear. Because he who truly loves God will not fear anything. Because he who fears will suffer. He who fears, he doesn’t truly love God.” (Source for this and three above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.
Eastern Arrernte “The person who knows that God loves him does not fear God. But the person who fears that God will punish him, he does not yet know that God loves him very much.” (Source: Carl Gross)
There is no fear in love, or ‘fear does not go with love,’ ‘where there is love there is no fear.’ When verb forms are required, one may say ‘one who is loved (or one whom God loves) does not fear,’ ‘if we are loved (or if God loves us), we do not fear,’ taking God as the implied agent; or ‘one who loves does not fear,’ taking the believer who is inspired by God’s love as the implied agent (compare the remarks on “love for God” in 2.5). The former interpretation seems to be the more probable one.
Fear refers here to man’s fear of the judgment, or of God as judge. In some languages the concept is rendered by an idiomatic phrase; for example, ‘to shiver in the liver,’ ‘to feel him creep,’ ‘to have a little (or a light, or a trembling) heart.’
But here indicates climax rather than contrast; hence renderings like ‘yes,’ ‘indeed,’ ‘even,’ ‘rather.’ In some cases the required meaning can best be expressed by the omission of a connective between the two sentences.
Perfect love casts out fear: as in verse 17a this clause is preferably interpreted as referring to God’s love, which is truly and fully working in man’s heart. If love and fear are to be rendered by verb forms, it may be possible to say ‘one who is loved perfectly cannot fear,’ ‘the fact that God loves us perfectly makes it impossible for us to fear (or be afraid).’
For perfect compare the related verb in 2.5. Some renderings used here are ‘complete,’ “fully-developed” (Phillips), ‘real,’ ‘true,’ ‘having full measure,’ ‘with all the heart.’ “To cast out,” or ‘to chase away,’ ‘to get rid of’ expresses complete, radical removal.
For indicates expansion of the argument rather than the reason for what precedes. In some versions it is not expressly translated.
Fear has to do with punishment, literally “fear has/holds punishment”: the sentence may mean “fear includes punishment,” “fear in itself is punishment,” which implies a reference to punishment beginning in the present. Or it may be interpreted as “fear anticipates punishment,” namely, the punishment to be assigned at the day of judgment. The two do not exclude each other, since anticipating future punishment naturally affects the present feelings of the person concerned. Where verb forms are to be used, one may say something like ‘when a person fears, it is as though he is being punished already.’
Punishment, or “chastisement,” renders a Greek noun that is found in the New Testament only here and in Matt 25.46. The two passages speak of the Last Judgment. Compare also 2 Peter 2.9, where the related verb is used.
To render the concept “to punish,” one should employ a noun or verb referring to official, legal sanctions, and avoid terms implying personal retaliation or revenge. If the rendering to be used is more generic, for example, ‘to cause to suffer,’ ‘to make feel pain,’ one should make explicit the connection with the Last Judgment; compare New English Bible‘s “the pains of judgement.”
He who fears is not perfected in love: the clause need not be dependent upon “for.” It forms the counterpart of verse 17a and should be translated in accordance with it; for example, ‘if a person fears, God’s love does not come to perfection in him,’ or ‘when a person is afraid, it does not come to perfection in him that God loves him.’
The main theme of verses 19-21 is that love for God always means love for the brothers at the same time. In 5.1a the discussion of another theme seems to start; the verse is therefore often taken as the beginning of a new paragraph ( 5.1-4 or 5). But since in 5.1b and 2 the theme of 4.19-21 is continued again, the present authors prefer to take them with what precedes.
Quoted with permission from Haas, C., de Jonge, M. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on The First Letter of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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