devil

The Greek that is translated in English as “devil” is sometimes translated with indigenous specific names, such as “the avaricious one” in Tetelcingo Nahuatl, “the malicious deity” in Toraja-Sa’dan (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel), or in Yoruba as èṣù. “Èṣù is thought of as bringing evil, but also as giving protection. The birth of a child may be attributed to him, as the names given to some babies show, Èṣùbiyi (Èṣù brought this forth), and Èṣùtoyin (Èṣù is worthy of praise).” (Source: John Hargreaves in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 39ff. )

Other translations include:

  • Muna: Kafeompu’ando seetani or “Master of the evil-spirits” (source: René van den Berg)
  • Mairasi: owe er epar nan or “headman of malevolent spirits” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Central Subanen: Palin or “Perverter” (incl. in 2 Cor. 6:15) (source: Robert Brichoux in OPTAT 1988/2, p. 80ff. )
  • Huehuetla Tepehua: “chief of demons”
  • Ojitlán Chinantec: as “head of the worldlings” (source for the last two: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125).
  • Mandarin Chinese móguǐ (魔鬼), literally “magical ghost.” This is a term that was adopted from Buddhist sources into early Catholic writings and later also by Protestant translators. (Source: Zetzsche 1996, p. 32)
In Lak and Shughni it is translated with terms of feminine gender. Vitaly Voinov tells this story (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight):

“In the Lak language of Dagestan, the names ‘Iblis’ and ‘sheytan’ (referring to Satan and his minions, respectively) in this language were borrowed from the Arabic Islamic tradition, but they entered Lak as feminine nouns, not masculine nouns. This means that they grammatically function like nouns referring to females in Lak; in other words, Laks are likely to think of Iblis as a woman, not a man, because of the obligatory grammatical patterning of Lak noun classes. Thus, when the team explained (in Russian) what the Lak translation of Jesus’ wilderness temptation narrative at the beginning of Matthew 4 said, it sounded something like the following: ‘After this, the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Iblis… .The temptress came to Jesus, and she said to Him…’

“Since this information (that the devil is a female spirit) is part of the very name used for Satan in Lak, nothing can really be done about this in the translation. The Lak translator did not think that the feminine gender of Iblis should cause any serious misunderstandings among readers, so we agreed to leave it in the translation. Prior to this, I had never heard about languages in which the devil is pictured as a woman, but recently I was told by a speaker of the Shughni language that in their language Sheytan is also feminine. This puts an interesting spin on things. The devil is of course a spirit, neither male nor female in a biologically-meaningful sense. But Bible translators are by nature very risk-aversive and, where possible, want to avoid any translation that might feed misleading information to readers. So what can a translator do about this? In many cases, such as the present one, one has to just accept the existing language structure and go on.”

tempt, temptation

The Greek that is typically translated as “tempt” or “temptation” in English is translated in Noongar as djona-karra or “reveal conduct” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang) and in Tibetan as nyams sad (ཉམས་​སད།), lit. “soul + test,” or in some cases as slu (སླུ།) or “lure / lead astray” (for instance in 1 Cor. 7:5 or Gal 6:1) (source: gSungrab website )

See also tempted by Satan.

complete verse (Luke 4:13)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 4:13:

  • Noongar: “When the Devil finished testing Jesus in every way, he went away. Jesus starts working in Galilee.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “After the King of Evil-ones tempted Yesus with all those temptations, he left waiting for a good opportunity.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “After the leader of demons had finished all different kinds of temptation for Isa, he left Isa for a while.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when Satan understood that he could not tempt Jesus, he left him for awhile.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “When Satanas had done all of-which-he-was-capable to successfully-tempt koma (i.e., he was not successful) Jesus, then he left (him) until a future day (lit. addition of days).” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “After Satanas had finished all kinds of tests of Jesus, he left him. He would wait till he got another chance/time.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Luke 4:13

Exegesis:

suntelesas panta peirasmon ‘having brought to an end every (i.e. every kind of) temptation.’ For sunteleō cf. on v. 2; it is best rendered in a neutral sense without implications of completing a prearranged plan.

peirasmos ‘temptation,’ here in the active sense, ‘tempting.’

achri kairou lit. ‘until a moment of time’ is interpreted variously: (1) ‘until a certain time,’ i.e. “for a while”, “for a time” (Williams); (2) “until an opportune time” (Revised Standard Version, La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée), i.e. “till a fit opportunity arrived” (Moffatt); (3) ‘until a fixed time,’ i.e. “until the appointed time” (Translator’s New Testament, Nieuwe Vertaling, Willibrord, Bible de Jérusalem). The first interpretation seems preferable (cf. Acts 13.11).

Translation:

When the devil had ended every temptation. In some cases it is necessary to add a reference to the actor or/and the goal of the tempting, e.g. ‘all the temptations against him’ (Bahasa Indonesia), ‘all the temptations with which he tempted him’ (Sranan Tongo), ‘the devil’s tricks to seduce Jesus’ (Tae’ 1933). A shift to a verbal construction leads to a rendering such as, ‘after the devil had tempted him/Jesus in every way’; and the conative aspect may better be made explicit as in, “when the devil had tried every kind of temptation” (An American Translation), ‘then the devil gave up all his attempts at seducing Him’ (Willibrord).

Until an opportune time, or, following the interpretation preferred in Exegesis, “till another time” (An American Translation, similarly Kituba), ‘for the time being’ (Leyden, Tae’ 1933), or, in a more expanded wording, ‘he (i.e. the devil) said to himself, “There will be another day yet for that” ’ (Tboli).

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.