repent, repentance

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The Greek and Hebrew that is often translated as “repent” or “repentance” is (back-) translated in various ways (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight):

  • Western Kanjobal: “think in the soul”
  • Kekchí: “pain in the heart”
  • Northwestern Dinka: “turn the heart”
  • Pedi: “become untwisted”
  • Baoulé: “it hurts to make you quit it” (source for this and above: Nida 1952, p. 137)
  • Balinese: “putting on a new mind”
  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “be sorry on account of one’s sins”
  • Uab Meto: “turn the heart upside down” (source for this and the two above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Central Mazahua / Chichimeca-Jonaz: “turn back the heart” (source: Nida 1952, p. 40)
  • Suki: biaekwatrudap gjaeraesae: “turn with sorrow” (source: L. and E. Twyman in The Bible Translator 1953, p. 91ff. )
  • Yamba and Bulu: “turn over the heart” (source: W. Reyburn in The Bible Translator 1959, p. 1ff. )
  • Chichewa: kutembenuka mtima (“to be turned around in one’s heart”) (source: Ernst Wendland in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 319ff.)
  • Caribbean Javanese: mertobat (“tired of old life”)
  • Saramaccan: bia libi ko a Massa Gadu (“turn your life to the Lord God”)
  • Sranan Tongo: drai yu libi (“turn your life”) or kenki libi (“change life”)
  • Eastern Maroon Creole: dai yu libi (“turn your life”) (source for this and 3 above: Jabini 2015)
  • Eggon: “bow in the dust” (source: Kilgour, p. 80)
  • Embu: “change heart” (“2 Cor. 7:10 says ‘For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.’ In ordinary speech the terms ‘repent’ and ‘regret’ are used interchangeably in Embu, so that this verse comes out as: ‘godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no repentance,’ which is contradictory. The problem was solved by using ‘changing heart’ in the first, and ‘sadness’ in the second.”) (source: Jan Sterk)
  • Anuak: “liver falls down”
  • Kafa: “return from way of sin to God” (source for this and the one above: Loren Bliese)
  • Latvian: atgriezties (verb) / atgriešanās (noun) (“turn around / return” — see turn around / convert) (source: Katie Roth)
  • Obolo: igwugwu ikom: “turn back (from evil)” (source: Enene Enene)
  • Mairasi: make an end (of wrongdoing) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Luchazi: ku aluluka mutima: “turn in heart” (source: E. Pearson in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 160ff. )
  • Chokwe: kulinkonyeka: “fold back over” or “go back on oneself” (source D.B. Long in The Bible Translator 1953, p. 135ff. ).
  • Muna: dofetompa’ao dhosa bhe dodoli ne Lahata’ala: “radically-end sin and to turn to God” (source: René van den Berg)
  • Bacama: por-njiya: “fetch sand” (“Before the coming of Christianity 100 years ago, when the elders went to pray to the gods, they would take sand and throw it over each shoulder and down their backs while confessing their sins. Covering themselves with sand was a ritual to show that they were sorry for what they had done wrong, sort of like covering oneself with sackcloth and ashes. Now idol worship for the most part is abandoned in Bacama culture, but the Christian church has retained the phrase por-njiya to mean ‘repent, doing something to show sorrow for one’s sins’” — source: David Frank in this blog post .)
  • “In Tzotzil two reflexive verbs to communicate the biblical concept of repentance are used. Xca’i jba means to know or to reflect inwardly on one’s self. This self inquiry or self examination is similar to the attitude of the prodigal son where Luke 15:17 records that ‘he came to his senses.’ Broke, starving, and slopping hogs, the prodigal admitted to himself that he was in the wrong place. The second reflexive verb ‘jsutes jba’ means turning away from what one is and turning to something else. In a sense, it is deciding against one’s self and toward someone else. It is similar to the attitude of the prodigal son when he said, ‘I will get up and go to my father’ (v. 18).” (source: Aeilts, p. 118)
  • Enlhet “exchange innermosts.” “Innermost” or valhoc is a term that is frequently used in Enlhet to describe a large variety of emotions or states of mind (for other examples see here). (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )
  • San Blas Kuna: “sorry for wrong done in the heart” (source: Claudio and Marvel Iglesias in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 85ff. )
  • Desano: “change your bad deeds for good ones”
  • Isthmus Mixe: “put your hearts and minds on the good road”
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “change your thinking about evil and walk in the way of God”
  • San Mateo del Mar Huave: “just remember that you have done wicked, in order that you might do good”
  • Coatlán Mixe: “heart-return to God” (source for this and four above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Sierra de Juárez Zapotec: “get on the right road”
  • Isthmus Zapotec: “heart becomes soft” (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Tibetan: ‘gyod tshangs byed (འགྱོད་​ཚངས་​བྱེད།), lit. “regret + pure” (source: gSungrab website )

See also: convert / conversion / turn back and see Seat of the Mind for traditional views of “ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling.”

complete verse (Hebrews 12:17)

Following are a number of back-translations of Hebrews 12:17:

  • Uma: “You know the story, afterwards he did desire to get the blessing from his father, but he was no longer given it. For even though he wept requesting it, there was no longer any way for him to repair/make-good his wrong.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “You know that after some time he wanted that his father should ask blessing for him from God but his wish was not fulfilled/followed because he could no longer change what he had done. He could not get back what he had exchanged even when he wept a lot.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And after a long time, he thought about it, that it would be good if he the eldest were the one to be blessed by his father so that God might bless him. However, it was no longer possible because it was no longer possible for him to take back that which he had already traded, even though he wept begging.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “We know that when that was finished, Esau regretted what he had done for he strongly-desired to receive his father’s blessing which was part of his right as firstborn. But even though he pleaded with him crying, it was not possible, because he had no way to change the results of what he had done.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “You know don’t you that, after doing that, he was asking his father anyway that he would cause-to-pierce his body the words which cause-grace/mercy which are really for the oldest-child? But he was now refused because what his father had already said could not be made-new, no matter how much more (was) Esau’s forcing and his tears.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “You know what Esau did afterwards. Very much did he want to get back what was to have been his from his father, yet he couldn’t accomplish it. Even though he cried much, yet he couldn’t change what he had brought about.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Hebrews 12:17

See Genesis 27.30-40, especially verse 38. On receive, see 1.4 and 6.12.

There are two main problems in translating this verse. First, what is the meaning of the word which Revised Standard Version translates “to repent,” and Good News Translation to change what he had done? Second, what did Esau look for … in tears?

The first problem is the more complicated one. The Greek is literally “a place of repentance.” “Place” often has the meaning “opportunity,” for example, in Acts 25.16, and this is likely here. “Repentance” means a change of mind or heart which results in a change of behavior and life (see comments on 6.1, 6). The translator has first to decide whether the change is in Esau himself, as most people think, or in his father, Isaac (Segond text “he found no means of bringing his father to change his mind”; Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale and Jerusalem Bible). It seems unlikely that Isaac would be introduced without this being shown more clearly; in the first part of the sentence, his father’s is not in the Greek but is implied. If the reference is to Esau himself, the translator has next to decide whether the writer is concerned (i) with a change in Esau’s mind, as in Bijbel in Gewone Taal “he got no more chance to show sorrow”; Revised Standard Version and Moffatt “no chance to repent”; Phillips “He never afterward found the way of repentance”; or (ii) with Esau’s desire to change the results of his decision to sell his birthright, as in most common language translations; Translator’s New Testament “undoing what he had done”; Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente “change his situation.” Some translations, for example New American Bible, “alter his choice,” leave the matter rather vague; Barclay makes both possibilities explicit with “There was no possibility for him to think again, although he tried with tears to undo what he had done.” There is evidence that the phrase translated way to change what he had done may have the legal sense of “opportunity to change a former decision,” almost “leave to appeal” against a judgment. This fits Genesis 27.30-40 very well and would suggest that Esau was looking for a way of changing his own decision, or more probably Isaac’s decision. But since a word, once given, was thought of as taking on a life of its own (see Isa 55.11), the situation could not be reversed. Meaning (ii) is therefore to be preferred.

The second problem is simpler. (i) Knox, New American Bible, Translator’s New Testament think that what Esau looked for … in tears was his father’s blessing. This interpretation fits in better with Genesis 27. Note that way or “chance” (Revised Standard Version) can not grammatically be what he looked for in Greek. (ii) Good News Translation and other translations think it was “repentance” that he sought, in one or another of the senses discussed earlier. In favor of this interpretation is the fact that the writer is accustomed to drawing from Old Testament stories a moral different from the main message or intention of the original story. Also, in Greek, “repentance” is closer than blessing to the phrase looked for it with tears. Note also that the writer is concerned in other places with the impossibility of repentance after certain particularly serious sins (note 6.4, and “repentance” in 6.6). Finally, if it is the blessing he sought, the clause “he found no chance to repent” would be an awkward parenthetical expression, spoiling the contrast between “found” and “sought.” The weight of evidence seems to support (ii), but (i) may be mentioned in a footnote.

Though in English the separation of Afterward from the rest of the clause by inserting the parenthetical expression you know seems perfectly natural and satisfactory, in many languages this would lead to misunderstanding. Therefore in some languages the order must be changed to “You know that later he wanted.”

He wanted to receive his father’s blessing may be rendered as “he wanted his father to bless him.”

But he was turned back may be rendered as “but he was refused.” An even more general expression may be employed; for example, “but this was impossible.”

The clause which introduces cause, namely, because he could not find any way to change what he had done, may be expressed in some languages as “because he could not find a way to undo what he had done,” or “… to make invalid what he had done,” or “… to reverse what he had done,” or “… to make what he had done seem as though he had never done it.”

Looked for may have its usual meaning of “tried to find,” but in this context it more probably means “tried to obtain.”

In tears: see Genesis 27.34, 38. Even though in tears he looked for it may be expressed as “even though he cried as he was trying to find a way to change what he had done” or “even though in trying to change what he did he cried” or “… wept.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .