selfish ambition

The term rendered “selfish ambition” in many English versions is translated as “they want to make themselves come out on top” in Kahua. (Source: David Clark)

In Tzeltal it is translated “raise themselves before God.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)

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.”

complete verse (James 3:14)

Following are a number of back-translations of James 3:14:

  • Uma: “But if there is something in our hearts that is envious of others and that wants to put ourselves forward, let’s not make our hearts high [proud], and let’s not say that we do have clear hearts [i.e., are wise]. For our character is-in-conflict/differs with true teaching.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But if you put-down/criticize your companion(s) in order to make yourselves great and if that is only what you think of, yourselves and don’t think of your companions, na, really don’t boast that your thoughts are deep/that you are wise. You are simply lying and you are not following/obeying the true teaching.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “But if he is jealous and he holds himself high, he must not boast about his wisdom and his good works, for wisdom like that is false, and it transgresses the true doctrine.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But if you are jealous and selfish and your own selves being made high is what is in your minds, kindly don’t (lit. even-if you don’t) boast-about your kind-of-wisdom, because if you do that, you are opposing/contradicting the truth-of-the-matter.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But if what is still dominant in your mind/inner-being is severe envy and the habit of excessively causing yourself to be dominant, then don’t say that you have understanding/wisdom, because you’re lying.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “There is another word now. The person who is jealous, a quarreler, who hunts for ways of making people look up to him, this is a person who does not truly have wisdom.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on James 3:14

James goes on to set up a contrast between a person who is meek and one who is jealous and ambitious, and he introduces the contrast by a pair of conjunctions, But and if.

The pair of terms in Greek for jealousy and selfish ambition appears in Paul’s lists of vices (translated “jealousy” and “selfishness” in 2 Cor 12.20; Gal 5.20). The word rendered jealousy, literally “zeal,” was originally a neutral term. But the predominant meaning in the New Testament is the negative sense of a desire to promote your own opinion from a selfish motive. It is a zeal that is fanatical (Barclay), and therefore may be rendered as “envy” (Translator’s New Testament, New International Version, New Revised Standard Version). James qualifies jealousy with the adjective bitter, thus intensifying the feeling of a contentious spirit, in contrast to humility and gentleness. Bitter in this context means “biting,” “intense,” or “severe.” Some other ways to express bitter jealousy are: “a heart full of intense jealousy,” “have a heart hot with jealousy,” or “have an inordinate desire to get what other people have.” Selfish ambition, one word in Greek, is a rare word sometimes used of the attitude of greedy politicians putting their own interests above everything else, often resulting in rivalry and partisan spirit. It may therefore be rendered as “spirit of rivalry” (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible en français courant, Revised English Bible). We may also express it as “desire to be better than others.” In some languages this is described idiomatically in terms of the heart; for example, “have a black heart,” or “have a narrow heart.” As James sees it, the problem of jealousy and rivalry is not external, it is in your hearts, the inner feelings a person may have that are not publicly known. For the meaning of hearts see the discussion in 1.26.

In spite of the fact that the verse begins with the conditional clause But if you have …, the prohibition do not boast remains valid, whether or not the condition is realized. In other words boasting and lying are wrong and should be prohibited, whether they spring from jealousy and ambition or not.

Do not boast and be false to the truth: the meaning of this prohibition is not very clear. To boast is to praise oneself, especially in comparison with someone or something else, thus to have “pride” (Goodspeed) or to “brag” (Contemporary English Version). But what is the object of bragging? There are a number of possibilities.
(1) The first possibility is to take the verb boast absolutely without any object, referring to a person’s attitude and disposition. In this case the negative not goes with both verbs, and a comma or period is usually placed after the verb boast to separate the two clauses (so Japanese colloquial version), making boasting and lying two actions. This is seen in the renderings like “glory not, and lie not against the truth” (King James Version), and “do not be boastful, nor lie against the truth” (so CUV, Japanese New Interconfessional Translation). The boasting is sometimes understood in relation to others (for example, “you must not treat others with arrogant conceit” [Barclay]), and sometimes in relation to yourself (thus “do not make false claims for yourselves” [Translator’s New Testament]).
(2) Another possibility is to take the truth as the object. In this case the truth is understood to be the object of both verbs, to boast and to be false to. This would probably be the assumed meaning for ordinary readers who follow a literal rendering like that of the Revised Standard Version. In this case what James is saying appears to be “Do not be boastful about the truth or lie against it.” Contemporary English Version expresses this as “Don’t brag or lie to cover up the truth.”
(3) Still another possibility is to take the truth as the object, but to interpret do not boast and be false to the truth as a hendiadys, that is to take boasting and lying to be one idea or event. This is reflected in a rendering like “stop making false claims in defiance of the truth” (Revised English Bible).
(4) One more possibility is to take wisdom in verse 13 as the object of boasting. This is seen in renderings like “do not boast about it or deny the truth” (New International Version), and “do not pride yourselves on it and thus belie the truth” (Goodspeed). The pronoun “it” in both cases most likely refers back to “wisdom.” What James is saying here, then, would be that unjustifiable boasting about wisdom will result in denying or lying against the truth.
(5) A final possibility is to identify “wisdom” as the object of the verb “to boast” and to take the boasting of wisdom as the means of lying against the truth. This interpretation is seen in the Good News Translation rendering, “don’t sin against the truth by boasting of your wisdom.” Boasting about wisdom while being jealous and ambitious is, in fact, lying or sinning against the truth. This interpretation appears to fit the context best, and in fact makes the best sense, and is therefore the option recommended by this Handbook.

The expression be false to the truth appears redundant to some people if the truth is understood as “truthfulness.” For this reason some scholars suggest that the truth should be taken in the objective sense of “the truth revealed through Christ,” namely the gospel, or the Christian faith. It is also possible, however, to take it as referring to that which is true and real as against that which is false and unreal. James’ thinking then is this: “True wisdom is associated with humility. This is the truth. If so, to boast about wisdom when you are jealous and ambitious is a contradiction in terms; it cannot be true.” This is supported by what James goes on to say in the next verse.

The following alternative translation for verses 13 and 14 will bring this meaning out clearly:
• Are any of you truly wise? If you are, you must show it by living a right life and by being humble and wise in everything you do. This is true wisdom. But if you have a heart full of jealousy and a desire to be better than other people, you must not boast that you are a wise person [or, have spiritual understanding]. If you do that you turn what is true into a lie.

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 .