eternity, forever, forever and ever

The Greek that is typically translated as “eternity,” “forever,” or “forever and ever” in English are translated in Mairasi as “mashed out infinitely.” Lloyd Peckham explains: “Bark cloth required pounding. It got longer and wider as it got pounded. Similarly, life gets pounded or mashed to lengthen it into infinity. Tubers also get mashed into the standard way of serving the staple food, like the fufu of Uganda, or like poi of Hawaii. It spreads out into infinity.” (Source: Lloyd Peckham)

In Lisu the phrase “forever and ever” is translated as ꓕꓲꓽ ꓞꓲꓼ ꓕꓲ ꓑ — thi tsi thi pa, verbatim translated as “one – lifetime – one – world.” This construction follows a traditional four-couplet construct in oral Lisu poetry that is usually in the form ABAC or ABCB. (Source: Arrington 2020, p. 57f.)

See also forever, eternal life and salvation.

fornication, sexual immorality

The Greek that is translated as “sexual immorality” or “fornication” or similar is translated much more specifically in some languages. Morelos Nahuatl has “let a man not yield himself to another woman except only to his wife. Also let a woman not yield herself to another man except only to her husband” or in Lalana Chinantec as “not proper for them to mix themselves with other women. The same is true of women for other men also.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

In Low German as Hurenkram or “things related to prostitution (and/or sleeping around)” (translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006).

Gomorrah

The Hebrew, Greek and Latin that is transliterated as “Gomorrah” in English is transliterated in Mandarin Chinese as émólā (蛾摩拉) in the Protestant tradition. This is an interesting transliteration because the first character é (蛾) has a negative connotation with the meaning of “moth.” This character is only used here in the Protestant Chinese Bible. For many other transliterations the more neutral character 俄 with the same pronunciation is used. (Source: Zetzsche)

complete verse (Jude 1:7)

Following are a number of back-translations of Jude 1:7:

  • Uma: “Remember also the towns of Sodom and Gomora long ago with the towns around them. Those townspeople did evil deeds like what was done by the angels [we talked about] earlier. They behaved wrong [implies sexual behavior], and they did deeds that were so evil, to the point that their towns were wiped-out with fire. God’s punishing of the people of Sodom and Gomora is/became an example to all people, and can be compared to the fire of hell that never dies-down, that punishes all God’s enemies.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Remember also the people in Sodom and Gomora and in the surrounding towns. They were like those angels because their doings were not right/fitting. It wasn’t just women who were their companions in ‘doing-things’ (immoral things understood) but even with their fellow males did they do dirty things. They were sent unextinguishable fire to punish them, so that all mankind would have an example.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Consider also the inhabitants in the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah and the towns nearby them. They became like those angels, for their doings were excessively evil. As for the men there, it was not only women that they meddled with, but rather, they lusted for each other being completely male, and because of that they were punished with fire. And that became a warning of God to all in the future whom he will punish with fire which cannot be extinguished.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Remember also those who resided in Sodoma and Gomorra and the neighboring (lit. mutually-across-the-way) towns. Their sins, they were similar to the sinning of those-aforementioned angels who slept-with those whom they had no right to sleep-with, because they were-sleeping-with those who were not their spouses, and the men among them, they were craving to sleep-with their fellow men. Therefore God burned them and their towns, and that is what serves-as-a-warning to us that those who don’t believe, God will punish them in/with fire that is never extinguished.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Consider also what happened to the people of Sodoma and Gomorra and their neighboring towns, for they sinned like those angels. Because they really got themselves used to immoral-behavior with ones who were not their spouse, and far more disgusting, being unnatural. Those towns and all the people from there were all burned up, because that was their punishment. Well as for that, it’s like a dissuasion for us, for it’s an illustration of the fire that never dies down, which is the certain punishment which will be arrived at by the sinful.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “And remember what God did to the inhabitants of the city of Sodom and the city of Gomorrah along with other cities round about them. People lived in them who committed adultery like the people who are among you commit adultery. There were some of them who committed sexual acts with other men as though they were women. But the cities burned in order that all who commit sin would know that there is a punishment with fire forever.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Jude 1:7

A third example is now given, namely, the account of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which is regarded by biblical writers as the best example of divine judgment of the wicked. The Gospels contain references to Jesus using this illustration (for example, Matt 10.15; 11.24; Mark 7.11; Luke 10.12; 17.29). The reference here is to Gen 19.11-28, which relates how the men of Sodom had demanded that Lot should surrender to them the angels who had visited him, so that the men of Sodom could have sexual relations with them. This story has similarities with that in verse 6: the presence of angels, sexual immorality, and eternal punishment.

The surrounding cities include Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar, but Zoar was spared God’s punishment (see Gen 19.20-22). In some cultures there are no human settlements that are the equivalent of cities and “towns” (Good News Translation), but people live in villages or small groups of houses. In such cases it will be necessary to refer to a city or town as “a large group of houses surrounded by a strong wall,” or perhaps as “the large (or, chief) village.” There are small island cultures, however, which have only one word for “place” or “land.” In cases like this the equivalent for “city” will be “a place where many people live surrounded by a strong fence.” The first clause of this verse can then be rendered as “Remember the big places of Sodom and Gomorrah surrounded by high fences, and the other places nearby where many people lived.”

Acted immorally can be understood in a general sense as referring to all forms of sexual sin. The first meaning of immorally is “not conforming to established patterns of social conduct and ethics,” which is the sin for which Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, according to (Ezekiel 16.48-51); the secondary sin of excessive sexual misconduct occurs in addition to the primary sin of immorality, and should carry no more weight than that (in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah), while indulged in unnatural lust can be understood as referring to a particular kind of sexual immorality. Likewise refers back to the angels in verse 6 and indicates that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are being compared to the angels; that is, they indulged in the same evil acts that were committed by the angels, a fact made clear in Good News Translation. Translators need to investigate the range of vocabulary in their language in so far as “sexual immorality” is concerned. Possible models are “licentious sexual behavior” or “unlawful sexual intercourse.”

But what does the expression unnatural lust refer to? The Greek simply has “other flesh,” or “different flesh.” Some scholars have understood this to mean having sexual relations with people of the same sex, as, for example, men with men (see Rom 1.26-27; 1 Cor 6.9). Others take the position that the focus here is not on homosexual acts but on the parallel between the angels and the men of Sodom and Gomorrah; in much the same way that the angels had sexual relations with human beings, so also the men of Sodom wanted to have sexual relations with angels. This latter point of view seems preferable because of the close relation between these two verses. However, it seems that in most languages, as in Good News Translation, unnatural lust will be rendered as “sexual perversion,” “perverted sexual activity,” or “abnormal sexual activity,” without being more specific as to the nature of the sexual activity.

The result of such sexual immorality is now revealed as undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. The verb for undergoing is in the present tense, which means that the inhabitants of Sodom are at the moment going through their punishment. Some scholars suggest that there may be a reference here to the Dead Sea, which is 30 miles from Jerusalem and 1,280 feet below sea level. In Jewish tradition the Dead Sea is a result of the destruction by fire of Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities; it is even believed that these cities continue to burn underground. This is easy to explain, since the Dead Sea is very hot, with the water getting hotter because of hot springs from the bottom. While it is possible and even likely that Jude had this tradition of the Dead Sea in mind, yet he is primarily referring here to the eternal fires of hell, where the people of these cities continue to suffer; this again relates verse 7 with verse 6, which speaks of the “nether gloom.” The word translated example is literally “sample”; that is, here is an actual case of sinners being punished; this serves both as proof and as warning to future generations of the reality of divine punishment (note Good News Translation “plain warning”).

Eternal fire is the same expression used in some literature of the period leading up to the New Testament (for example, 4 Maccabees 12.12) and in the New Testament itself (for example, Matt 18.8; 25.41). There is a problem of interpretation with regard to the positioning of this expression. The problem can be put simply: does eternal fire go with example or with punishment? In other words, is Jude saying that the burning of the cities is an example of how the wicked will be punished with eternal fire, or that the eternal burning of the cities is an example of how the wicked are going to be punished? Either of these interpretations is possible. Some translations follow the first interpretation, as, for example, Moffatt, “exhibited as a warning of the everlasting fire.” But more translations reflect the position taken by Good News Translation, “they suffer the punishment of eternal fire as a plain warning to all.” This relates this statement to the tradition that these cities continue to burn. Another possible translation model is “They undergo punishment by being burned with fire eternally (or, forever), as an example to warn other people what can happen to them.”

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Letter from Jude. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .