Balinese: “put on a new behavior” (compare “repentance“: “to put on a new mind”)
Tzeltal: “cause one’s heart to return to God” (compare “repentance”: “to cause one’s heart to return because of one’s sin”)
Pedi: “retrace one’s step” (compare “repentance”: “to become untwisted”)
Uab Meto: “return” (compare “repentance”: “to turn the heart upside down”)
Northwestern Dinka: “turn oneself” (compare “repentance”: “to turn the heart”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
Central Mazahua: “change the heart” (compare “repentance”: “turn back the heart”) (source: Nida 1952, p. 40)
Western Kanjobal: “molt” (like a butterfly) (source: Nida 1952, p. 136)
Latvian: atgriezties (verb) / atgriešanās (noun) (“turn around / return”) which is also the same term being used for “repentance” (source: Katie Roth)
Isthmus Mixe: “look away from the teaching of one’s ancestors and follow the teachings of God”
Highland Popoluca: “leave one’s old beliefs to believe in Jesus” (source for thsi and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
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.”
Following are a number of back-translations of James 5:19:
Uma: “All my relatives! If there is a companion of ours who has circumvented/wandered-from from the true teaching, and there is one who guides him back to the Lord, he has done a good deed.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then, my brothers, remember this, if there is someone among you who no longer follows/obeys the true teaching and one of you can influence/bring him back again to follow/obey the true teaching, (that is) good.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Brothers, if any one of you departs from and forgets about the true doctrine and someone helps him so that he might return,” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Think-about this brothers. If there is someone among you who goes-far from the correct teaching or behavior that God wants and there is someone among you who advises him to cause-him-to-return to what is right,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “The final thing I have to say to you, my siblings in believing, is that if one of you will get led astray from the path of truth and there is also one who can cause him to return, that is really good.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Listen, my dear brethren, if there is anyone who has departed from the word which is true, let another person cause that he return again.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
James is now drawing the letter to a close. He does so by addressing his readers again as My brethren, indicating a shift in topic, and by making a general appeal to refrain from error.
My brethren: this final address is again inclusive and may be rendered “My friends” (Good News Translation, Revised English Bible), “My brothers and sisters” (New Revised Standard Version), or “My fellow believers.”
If any one among you wanders from the truth: the conditional clause immediately suggests that James is concerned about some members of the Christian community slipping away in their faith. The verb rendered “to wander” should not suggest that slipping away from the truth is accidental. It is a metaphor, comparing life to a road that the believer follows. To “wander away” is to go astray from the road. It is not an unconscious departure from the truth but a rejection of the will of God. It is to “err from the truth” (American Standard Version). Since the verb is passive in form, some translations in English render it in the passive with an uncertain agent, “If any one of you is led astray from the truth” (Goodspeed). But most translations interpret the verb to mean “wander away.” In languages that do not use that figure of speech, we may say something like “If any of you stops listening to the true word of the gospel.” See 2 Tim 4.4 for the similar idea, “will turn away from listening to the truth.” The word truth here does not refer to Christian doctrine but more likely to the truth of the gospel; see the discussion in 1.18 and 3.14. With the concern that James has about right living, truth here has to do with truthfulness in Christian conduct, not the correctness of Christian belief. The focus is more moral than intellectual.
And some one brings him back: James does not leave the person who has gone astray to care for himself or herself. It is the responsibility of the Christian community to bring him or her back. Notice the emphasis on responsibility for one another: If any one among you wanders … and some one (among you) brings him back. The verb “to bring back” basically means “to turn around.” It is “turning back a sinner from the error of his ways,” as explained in the next verse, and bringing that person back to the faith and truth from which he or she has gone astray. Another way to express this is “and another Christian [or, believer] helps [or, causes] him [or, them] to believe in the gospel again, ….”
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 .
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