Yakan: “the lonely place” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a land where no people lived” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “the place with no inhabitants” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).
The Hebrew and Greek that is typically translated as “sin” in English has a wide variety of translations.
The Greek ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō) carries the original verbatim meaning of “miss the mark.” Likewise, many translations contain the “connotation of moral responsibility.” Loma has (for certain types of sin) “leaving the road” (which “implies a definite standard, the transgression of which is sin”) or Navajo uses “that which is off to the side.” (Source: Bratcher / Nida). In Toraja-Sa’dan the translation is kasalan, which originally meant “transgression of a religious or moral rule” and has shifted its meaning in the context of the Bible to “transgression of God’s commandments.” (Source: H. van der Veen in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 21ff. ).
In Shipibo-Conibo the term is hocha. Nida (1952, p. 149) tells the story of its choosing: “In some instances a native expression for sin includes many connotations, and its full meaning must be completely understood before one ever attempts to use it. This was true, for example, of the term hocha first proposed by Shipibo-Conibo natives as an equivalent for ‘sin.’ The term seemed quite all right until one day the translator heard a girl say after having broken a little pottery jar that she was guilty of ‘hocha.’ Breaking such a little jar scarcely seemed to be sin. However, the Shipibos insisted that hocha was really sin, and they explained more fully the meaning of the word. It could be used of breaking a jar, but only if the jar belonged to someone else. Hocha was nothing more nor less than destroying the possessions of another, but the meaning did not stop with purely material possessions. In their belief God owns the world and all that is in it. Anyone who destroys the work and plan of God is guilty of hocha. Hence the murderer is of all men most guilty of hocha, for he has destroyed God’s most important possession in the world, namely, man. Any destructive and malevolent spirit is hocha, for it is antagonistic and harmful to God’s creation. Rather than being a feeble word for some accidental event, this word for sin turned out to be exceedingly rich in meaning and laid a foundation for the full presentation of the redemptive act of God.”
In Kaingang, the translation is “break God’s word” and in Sandawe the original meaning of the Greek term (see above) is perfectly reflected with “miss the mark.” (Source: Ursula Wiesemann in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 36ff., 43)
Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the DanishBibelen 2020, comments on the translation of this term: “We would explain terms, such that e.g. sin often became ‘doing what God does not want’ or ‘breaking God’s law’, ‘letting God down’, ‘disrespecting God’, ‘doing evil’, ‘acting stupidly’, ‘becoming guilty’. Now why couldn’t we just use the word sin? Well, sin in contemporary Danish, outside of the church, is mostly used about things such as delicious but unhealthy foods. Exquisite cakes and chocolates are what a sin is today.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations of Hebrews 3:17:
Uma: “That’s why he was angry with them during those forty years. They all died in the uninhabited prairie because of their sin.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Who were the people God was angry with in/during forty years, if not the people who sinned against him (and) therefore died there in the lonely place.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And who were those people that God become angry with long ago for forty years? They were these same descendants of Israel who sinned against God and because of this, He punished them and they died there in the land where no people live.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “And who are those with whom God was angry for forty years if not those who sinned who died in the place with no inhabitants?” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well who also are these God was angry with for the space of forty years? Was it not those who committed sin therefore they kept on dying (i.e. one after the other) in the wilderness place?” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “And you know that these are the people God became angry with because they committed sin during forty years. Therefore all of these people died there in the desert.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
In order to anticipate more clearly the response to the rhetorical question in verse 17, it may be useful to employ “Who were the people with whom God was angry for forty years?” There are, however, serious difficulties involved in the rhetorical questions found in verses 16, 17, and 18, for obviously the writer is not asking for information but is making emphatic statements by means of these rhetorical questions. In languages which do not employ such rhetorical questions, it may be necessary to use emphatic statements. For example, verse 17 may be rendered as “For forty years God was indeed angry with the people who sinned and who fell down dead in the desert.” Similar adaptations may be made in verses 16 and 18.
In quoting Psalm 95 in verses 9-10 (see discussion), the writer has separated for forty years from I was angry. Now, as he comments on the psalm, he brings them together and adds in support a quotation from Numbers 14.29. This shows that he has in mind not only Psalm 95 but also the Old Testament story to which it refers.
Who fell down dead brings out the meaning more clearly than Revised Standard Version‘s literal translation “whose bodies fell.” “Fall” does not mean merely “fall over”; destruction or death is implied, as in King James Version‘s “whose carcasses fell.” On desert, see discussion on Heb. 3.8.
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 .
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