18Then the fear and dread of them fell on all the people, for they said, “There is no truth or justice in them, for they have violated the agreement and the oath that they swore.”
The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin that is translated as “justice” in English is translated in American Sign Language with a sign that describes the quality or principle of fairness, righteousness, and impartiality in treating other people. A literal back-translation of the signs are “FOLLOW(God is implied) ACTIONS, DECISIONS JUST-RIGHT”. A more idiomatic back-translation would be: “actions and decisions are right/fitting/just in accordance to God’s will.” The movement in the signs itself helps to indicate that this is a noun, not a verb. (Source: RuthAnna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Justice” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is usually translated in English as “truth” is translated in Luchazi with vusunga: “the quality of being straight” (source: E. Pearson in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 160ff. ), in Obolo as atikọ or “good/correct talk” (source: Enene Enene), and in Ekari as maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (esp. in John 14:6 and 17; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
The translation committee of the Malay “Good News Bible” (Alkitab Berita Baik, see here ) wrestled with the translation of “truth” in the Gospel of John (for more information click or tap here):
“Our Malay Committee also concluded that ‘truth’ as used in the Gospel of John was used either of God himself, or of God’s revelation of himself, or in an extended sense as a reference to those who had responded to God’s self-disclosure. In John 8:32 the New Malay translation reads ‘You will know the truth about God, and the truth about God will make you free.’ In John 8:44 this meaning is brought out by translating, ‘He has never been on the side of God, because there is no truth in him.’ Accordingly Jesus ‘tells the truth about God’ in 8:45, 46 (see also 16:7 and 8:37a). Then, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ becomes ‘I am the one who leads men to God, the one who reveals who and what God is, and the one who gives men life.” At 3:21 the translation reads ” … whoever obeys the truth, that is God himself, comes to the light …’; 16:13a appears as ‘he will lead you into the full truth about God’; and in 18:37 Jesus affirms ‘I came into the world to reveal the truth about God, and whoever obeys God listens to me.’ On this basis also 1:14 was translated ‘we saw his glory, the glory which he had as the Father’s only Son. Through him God has completely revealed himself (truth) and his love for us (grace)’; and 1:17 appears as ‘God gave the law through Moses; but through Jesus Christ he has completely revealed himself (truth) and his love for us (grace).'” (Source: Barclay Newman in The Bible Translator 1974, p. 432ff. )
Helen Evans (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) tells of the translation into Kui which usually is “true-thing.” In some instances however, such as in the second part of John 17:17 (“your word is truth” in English), the use of “true-thing” indicated that there might be other occasions when it’s not true, so here the translation was a a form of “pure, holy.”
Good News Bible places a paragraph break here, but it is not necessary.
Then the fear and dread of them fell upon all the people, for they said: Good News Bible expands the conjunction Then into “When this happened,” making the connection with the massacre of verse 16 a bit closer. The Greek word translated dread indicates physical signs of fear, such as shaking. The nouns fear and dread may be combined by using a strong verb such as “terrify.” Good News Bible says “were afraid,” which is weak. “Trembling with fear” (Contemporary English Version) is better. The pronoun them refers to Alcimus and Bacchides, which Good News Bible makes clear by naming them. Other languages may find this helpful. All the people refers to all the Jews, not necessarily just those who were nearby at the time of the massacre. Alternative models for the first half of this verse are “When this happened, all the Jews became terrified of Alcimus and Bacchides. They said…” and “All the Jews became terrified [or, trembled with fear] when they heard what Alcimus and Bacchides had done. They said….”
There is no truth or justice in them: Good News Bible says “They don’t know what truth or justice means,” which is a forceful English idiomatic expression. A better model is “We cannot believe anything those men say or count on them [or, expect them] to do what is right.”
For they have violated the agreement and the oath which they swore: The agreement and the oath refer to the same thing, the promise given in verse 15. The two words can easily be translated as one by rendering this clause as follows: “They have broken the solemn promise that they made.”
Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.
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