truth

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.”

Translation commentary on Ecclesiastes 12:10

Elegant expression, deep and satisfying meaning—these were the goals of Qoheleth’s work as a thinker, a teacher, writer and collector of wisdom. The editor of Qoheleth’s writing acknowledges that fact.

The Preacher: refer to comments on 1.1.

Sought well describes Qoheleth’s attitude to his work. He used the term himself in 7.25, 28. We convey this commitment in a translation like “Qoheleth’s goal was to…,” “He was determined to…,” or more literally, “He tried hard to….”

To find pleasing words underlines Qoheleth’s search for “words that would bring pleasure.” The term “pleasure” occurs in 5.3; 12.1. It has a secondary meaning, “matter,” “thing,” but that is probably not suitable here. The sense seems to be “words that would give pleasure [to the listener]”—presumably because they were well phrased and elegant. Many languages will use a term like “sweet,” showing they are well spoken, though not necessarily easy to accept. When Good News Translation says they were “comforting,” this may be misleading, because to give comfort is not the point of the sage’s instruction. Rather he sets out to challenge and stir.

And uprightly he wrote words of truth: the initial conjunction may be contrastive, so we can say “but…” (Good News Translation). This makes clear that Qoheleth did not sacrifice content for the sake of elegance. He wrote is a Hebrew passive form with active meaning. Qoheleth was known for his honesty; he wrote uprightly, faithfully representing the truth as he saw it. He did not shrink from facing honestly the situations he encountered, and he attempted to derive sensible advice from them. Many languages may use a term related to “right,” or “straight,” to convey this meaning. New English Bible suggests “plainly.”

Words of truth are possible only if they reflect the real situations people have to deal with, and then give proper advice. They are words that contain the truth and so can be trusted. New English Bible catches the meaning with its “what he wrote was the honest truth.” In Pro 23.23 truth is used as a parallel to wisdom; such words are always just and right.

In some languages it may be redundant to express both uprightly and words of truth. If this is the case the two ideas can be combined: “When he wrote, he told the truth straightforwardly.” Or we can follow the New English Bible example above and turn the adverb “uprightly” into an adjective describing the words rather than how they were written.

Models for translation of the whole verse are:

• Qoheleth’s goal was to find words that would please, but when he wrote, he told the truth honestly.

• The Preacher sought hard to find pleasing words, but he always told the truth.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Ecclesiates. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .