swear, vow

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “swear (an oath)” or “vow” is translated as “God sees me, I tell the truth to you” (Tzeltal), “loading yourself down” (Huichol), “to speak-stay” (implying permanence of the utterance) (Sayula Popoluca), “to say what he could not take away” (San Blas Kuna), “because of the tight (i.e. “binding”) word which he had said to her face” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “strong promise” (North Alaskan Inupiatun) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida), “eat an oath” (Nyamwezi — source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext), or sswa nak/”drink an oath” (Jju — source: McKinney 2018, p. 31).

In Bauzi “swear” can be translated in various ways. In Hebrews 6:13, for instance, it is translated with “bones break apart and decisively speak.” (“No bones are literally broken but by saying ‘break bones’ it is like people swear by someone else in this case it is in relation to a rotting corpse’ bones falling apart. If you ‘break bones’ so to speak when you make an utterance, it is a true utterance.”) In other passages, such as in Matthew 26:72, it’s translated with an expression that implies taking ashes (“if a person wants everyone to know that he is telling the truth about a matter, he reaches down into the fireplace, scoops up some ashes and throws them while saying ‘I was not the one who did that.'”). So in Matthew 26:72 the Bauzi text is: “. . . Peter took ashes and defended himself saying, ‘I don’t know that Nazareth person.'” (Source: David Briley)

See also swear (promise) and Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’, or ‘No, No’.

Peter denies Jesus (image)

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Following is an painting by Wang Suda 王肅達 (1910-1963):

Copyright by the Catholic University Peking, China

Text under painting translated from Literary Chinese into English:
The Second Commandment
Peter swears he doesn’t know the Lord

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complete verse (Mark 14:71)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 14:71:

  • Uma: “Petrus swore and cursed himself, he said: ‘I indeed don’t know the person you’re talking about!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But Petros cursed himself and he swore. He said, ‘I really do not know the person you are talking about.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Then Peter swore a very strong oath, he said, ‘May God punish me if what I said is not true that I don’t know that person that you are talking about.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Whereupon Pedro swore-to-his-own-hurt saying, ‘May God punish-me if what I am saying is not true. I swear that I absolutely do not know the man you are talking-about.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “‘Expletive, certainly not! I swear that even if I die (Tagbanwa-style oath),’ said Pedro, ‘I really don’t know that fellow whom you mean.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Mark 14:71

Exegesis:

anathematizein (only here in Mark) ‘to invoke anathema,’ ‘to devote to destruction,’ ‘to put under the curse’: the verb means to pronounce anathema (Hebrew cherem), i.e. ‘devoted to destruction,’ upon someone, in this case on the speaker himself. ‘May I be accursed if (what I say is not true)!’ For instances of this cf. 1 Sam. 20.13; 2 Sam. 3.9; Acts 23.12.

omnunai (cf. 6.23) ‘to swear,’ ‘to put oneself on oath’: neither one of the two verbs here employed would suggest vulgarity or profanity on the part of Peter (cf. Gould); they are rather, on his part, expressive and solemn protestations of the truth of his assertion.

Translation:

In most societies there is some means whereby a person may put himself under a curse if his statement is not true, e.g. ‘said that he wanted God to punish him if it were not so’ (Central Pame). However, in some languages the description of such a process would take a paragraph, since curses are not normally invoked as proof of one’s veracity. In these instances, ‘declare with solemn words’ or ‘say with very strong words’ may be the closest parallel.

Curse and swear are distinct processes, even though the witness of God or supernatural sanctions are invoked in both instances. In the first case, God is asked to punish one for not telling the truth, and in the second, God is asked to be a witness of the truth, e.g. ‘God truly sees me that I don’t know the one you say’ (Tzeltal).

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .