divorce

In Ghari different words are used for a husband divorcing a wife and a wife divorcing a husband. (Source: David Clark)

In Mairasi the term that is used means “discard.” (Source: Enggavoter 2004)

adultery

The Greek that is translated as “adultery” (typically understood as “marital infidelity”) in English is (back-) translated in the following ways:

  • Highland Totonac: “to do something together”
  • Yucateco: “pair-sin”
  • Ngäbere: “robbing another’s half self-possession” (compare “fornication” which is “robbing self-possession,” that is, to rob what belongs to a person)
  • Kaqchikel, Chol: “to act like a dog”
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: “to measure the depth of the river of (another’s) marriage.”
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “married people using what is not theirs” (compare “fornication” which is “unmarried people using what is not theirs”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • In Purari: “play hands with” or “play eyes with”
  • In Hakha Chin the usual term for “adultery” applies only to women, so the translation for the Greek term that is translated into English as “adultery” was translated in Hakha Chin as “do not take another man’s wife and do not commit adultery.”
  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “talk secretly with spouses of our fellows”
  • Isthmus Zapotec: “go in with other people’s spouses”
  • Hopi: “tamper with marriage” (source for this and two above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • In Falam Chin the term for “adultery” is the phrase for “to share breast” which relates to adultery by either sex. (Source for this and three above: David Clark)
  • In Ixcatlán Mazatec a specification needs to be made to include both genders. (Source: Robert Bascom)

See also adulterer, adulteress, and you shall not commit adultery.

complete verse (Luke 16:18)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 16:18:

  • Noongar: “‘If a man divorces his wife and takes another woman, this man is sinning; and the man who marries that woman, he is also sinning.'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries with another woman commits adultery. And the person who marries [takes-as-wife] the divorced-wife of another, he also commits adultery.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Isa said yet, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another one, he commits adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman, he commits adultery.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus said again, ‘If there is a man and he divorces his wife and marries again, this man has sinned against his former wife; and a man sins also when he marries a woman who has been divorced by her husband.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Jesus also said, ‘Whatever man divorces his spouse and then marries another woman sins by committing-adultery (lit. woman-with). It’s the same with the man who marries a woman who is divorced, he just the same sins by committing-adultery.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Like what was commanded about marriage. Whoever man will divorce his wife and marry someone else, he really has behaved-immorally. And also the one who marries that woman who was divorced, he too has behaved-immorally.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Luke 16:18

Exegesis:

pas ho apoluōn tēn gunaika autou kai gamōn heteran moicheuei ‘everyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery.’ As this teaching is not found in the Old Testament law (cf. Mk. 10.1-12), v. 18 is not to be regarded as an exemplification of v. 17. The relationship between the two participial clauses is that the latter presupposes the former: he who after divorcing his wife remarries, commits adultery.

apoluō ‘to send away,’ here ‘to divorce.’

moicheuō (also 18.20) ‘to be an adulterer,’ ‘to commit adultery.’

he apolelumenēn apo andros gamōn ‘he who marries a woman divorced from, or, by her husband.’ The former is preferable though no presumption is implied as to the initiative in bringing about the divorce. The perfect tense of the participle apolelumenēn points to a situation in which a woman finds herself after having been divorced from her husband.

Translation:

Every one who divorces, for the construction cf. on 9.24. A formal, legal separation is probably meant here (cf. Mk. 10.4). Balinese expresses this by, ‘break-off having-a-wife.’

Marries another (or, another woman), or, ‘marries again.’ To marry, see 14.20.

Commits adultery, or, ‘is (or, acts as) an adulterer,’ ‘breaks the marriage’ (Sranan Tongo).

And, or here, ‘so,’ ‘similarly.’

A woman divorced from her husband, or, where the prepositional phrase would sound unduly redundant, ‘a woman who has been divorced,’ or simply, ‘a-divorced-one’ (Balinese, her sex to be understood from the context).

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.