11For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated in English as “you shall not commit adultery” is translated in Toraja-Sa’dan with an established figure of speech: Da’ mupasandak salu lako rampanan kapa’ or “you shall not fathom the river of marriage” (i.e “approach the marriage relationship of another.”) (Source: H. van der Veen in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 21 ff. ).
It is translated as “practice illicit relationship with women” in Tzeltal, as “go in with other people’s wives” in Isthmus Zapotec, as “live with some one who isn’t your wife” in Huehuetla Tepehua, and as “sleep with a strange partner” in Central Tarahumara. (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “You shall not kill/murder” or similar in English is translated in Una as Ninyi ona mem: “Don’t kill people” because in Una an object needed to be added. (Source: Kroneman 2004, p. 407)
Following are a number of back-translations of James 2:11:
Uma: “For there is a command of the Lord that says: ‘Don’t commit-adultery.’ And there is another command of his that says: ‘Don’t kill.’ So, even though we don’t commit-adultery, but if we do murder, we are still breaking the Lord’s Law.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “For God says in his law, ‘Don’t commit adultery’ and he also says, ‘Do not kill.’ Even if you don’t commit adultery but if you kill you have just the same broken the law of God.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For the one who said, ‘Do not commit adultery against your spouse,’ he is also the one who said, ‘Do not murder.’ And even though you have not committed adultery against your spouse, if you have murdered, you have transgressed the whole Law, for the one who commanded all those laws is only one.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Because the God who commanded, ‘Don’t (sing.) commit-adultery,’ he also commanded, ‘Don’t (sing.) murder.’ So for-example, if you (pl.) have managed not to commit-adultery-with-women or commit-adultery-with-men but you have murdered one of your fellows, you have nevertheless already-broken the law.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “For example, God commanded saying, ‘Do not behave-immorally with one not your (sing.) spouse.’ And he too is the one who commanded, ‘Do not kill your (sing.) fellowman.’ Well, you (sing.) truly aren’t behaving-immorally, but supposing you (sing.) kill someone, of course you (sing.) are now a sinner, for you (sing.) have indeed broken the law.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “God himself said: ‘Do not commit adultery.’ And again he said, ‘Do not kill people.’ Then if a person does not commit adultery but kills, then he rejects what is said in the law.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The Greek that is translated in English as “Law” or “law” is translated in Mairasi as oro nasinggiei or “prohibited things” (source: Enggavoter 2004) and in Noongar with a capitalized form of the term for “words” (Warrinya) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
In Yucateco the phrase that is used for “law” is “ordered-word” (for “commandment,” it is “spoken-word”) (source: Nida 1947, p. 198) and in Central Tarahumara it is “writing-command.” (wsource: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
.
In this verse James proceeds to give an example of what he means when he says that the Law must be considered a unity, an indivisible whole. The individual commandments are all part of the unified whole, reflecting the will of one and the same God. Therefore no matter which commandment is broken, God’s will is violated.
For …: the particle indicates that James is continuing his explanation. It is causal and therefore may be rendered as “Because….” The construction he who said … said also shows that both commandments came from the same person, thus supporting the unity of the Law explained in the previous verse. The pronoun he refers to God. This may have to be made clearer in some languages; for example, “For the same God who said…” or “The same God who told us…” (Contemporary English Version).
The command Do not commit adultery (Exo 20.14) means basically “do not have intercourse with another man’s wife.” But in the New Testament context a more general term is needed that covers illicit sexual relations between people who are married to someone else; for example, “Do not have intercourse with another person’s spouse.” Most languages have euphemistic ways of talking about adultery: for example, “sleep with another person’s spouse,” “be with…,” “stay and eat with…,” and so on. And in some languages adultery may be translated as “be unfaithful to your spouse.”
Do not kill (Exo 20.13) forbids an Israelite to murder a fellow Jew. Here again a more inclusive rendering is preferable, such as simply “Do not commit murder” (Good News Translation). The expression chosen by translators for the word kill or “murder” should refer to deliberate or premeditated killing that is not condoned by society. So killing in warfare or defending tribal or clan rights, or even executions, should not be included in the term used for “murder.”
What James goes on to say is literally “but if you do not commit adultery, but kill.” The meaning of the argument is clear. In some translations the force of the first “but” is sometimes taken as a “now” (so Goodspeed, New Revised Standard Version), as a form of argument. But it is perhaps best to leave it untranslated. More important, however, is the force of If. It is best taken here in the sense of “Although” or “Even if” (so Good News Translation, New American Bible). The rendering of Good News Bible is the most natural structure in English. In some other languages, however, the order of the clauses in the Greek original, reflected in Revised Standard Version, is more natural; thus “Although you do not commit adultery, if you commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.”
Possible alternative translation models for this verse include:
• For the same God who said, “Do not commit adultery [or, have intercourse] with another person’s spouse,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” So even if you do not commit adultery, but commit murder, you have still disobeyed God’s Law.
• The same God who commanded us to be faithful to our spouses also commanded us not to murder. So even if you are faithful to your spouse, but murder someone, you still have broken God’s Law.
Quoted with permission from Loh, I-Jin and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Letter from James. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.