42“If any of you cause one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.
“The word ‘offend’ as a translation of the Greek skandalizó seems to cause all sorts of trouble for translators. The difficulty is that the meaning of this word covers such a wide area. The basic meaning of the Greek is ‘to cause to stumble by putting some impediment in the way.’ The present central meaning of English ‘offend’ is often quite different. In some languages there is no metaphorical value in a translation ‘to cause someone to stumble.’ If the language permits no such metaphor, the translator should not attempt to force it. In Highland Totonac, the metaphor ‘to show the wrong road to’ is used in a manner almost exactly parallel to the Greek idiom.” (Source: Nida 1947)
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “millstone” in English is illustrated for use in Bible translations in East Africa by Pioneer Bible Translators like this:
Image owned by PBT and Jonathan McDaniel and licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 9:42:
Uma: “‘But who[ever] causes one small child like this child to fall with the result that they no longer believe in me, God’s punishment on that person will indeed be big. It would be far better for a big sharpening stone to be fastened to his neck and him be thrown into the sea.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “‘But whoever causes-to-sin one little child like this that believes in me, it would have been better for him to have a big stone hung around his neck and be thrown into the sea, just so that he would not be able to influence to sin.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “But if there is a person who by means of him, one of these children is successfully tempted, it is better for that person if a large grindstone is tied to his neck and he is thrown into the middle of the sea rather than through him one of these children is successfully tempted.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “‘Whoever tempts so-that even one of these lowest people who believe in me will sin, it would be better if his neck were tied-to with a heavy stone and then he were thrown into the ocean than his continuing-with his temptation.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “But well, whoever will cause to fall (into sin, fig.) a humble one like this child who believes in me, it would really be better if he were just weighted with a large milling stone and just dropped into the middle of the ocean. (That would be) better than that he would go through with such big evil.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Choapan Zapotec: “‘If people want to direct children who believe in me to not follow me anymore, there would be less penalty for them if, before they do what they want, people were to tie heavy grindstones around their necks and throw them into a river.'” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Translations of the Greek pistis and its various forms that are typically translated as “faith” in English (itself deriving from Latin “fides,” meaning “trust, faith, confidence, reliance, credence”) and “believe” (from Old English belyfan: “to have faith or confidence in a person”) cover a wide range of approaches.
Bratcher and Nida say this (1961, p. 38) (click or tap here to read more):
“Since belief or faith is so essentially an intimate psychological experience, it is not strange that so many terms denoting faith should be highly figurative and represent an almost unlimited range of emotional ‘centers’ and descriptions of relationships, e.g. ‘steadfast his heart’ (Chol), ‘to arrive on the inside’ (Chicahuaxtla Triqui), ‘to conform with the heart’ (Uab Meto), ‘to join the word to the body’ (Uduk), ‘to hear in the insides’ (or ‘to hear within one’s self and not let go’ – Nida 1952) (Laka), ‘to make the mind big for something’ (Sapo), ‘to make the heart straight about’ (Mitla Zapotec), ‘to cause a word to enter the insides’ (Lacandon), ‘to leave one’s heart with’ (Baniwa), ‘to catch in the mind’ (Ngäbere), ‘that which one leans on’ (Vai), ‘to be strong on’ (Shipibo-Conibo), ‘to have no doubts’ (San Blas Kuna), ‘to hear and take into the insides’ (Kare), ‘to accept’ (Pamona).”
Following is a list of (back-) translations from other languages (click or tap here to read more):
Limos Kalinga: manuttuwa. Wiens (2013) explains: “It goes back to the word for ‘truth’ which is ‘tuttuwa.’ When used as a verb this term is commonly used to mean ‘believe’ as well as ‘obey.'”
Ngiemboon: “turn one’s back on someone” (and trusting one won’t be taken advantage of) (source: Stephen Anderson in Holzhausen 1991, p. 42)
Mwera uses the same word for “hope” and “faith”: ngulupai (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Yala: ɔtū che or “place heart” (in John 5:24; 5:45; 6:35; 6:47; 12:36; 14:1); other translations include chɛ̄ or “to agree/accept” and chɛ̄ku or “to agree with/accept with/take side with” (source: Linus Otronyi)
Awabakal: ngurruliko: “to know, to perceive by the ear” (as distinct from knowing by sight or by touch — source: Lake, p. 70) (click or tap here to read more)
“[The missionary translator] Lancelot Threlkeld learned that Awabakal, like many Australian languages, made no distinction between knowing and believing. Of course the distinction only needs to be made where there are rival systems of knowing. The Awabakal language expressed a seamless world. But as the stress on ‘belief’ itself suggests, Christianity has always existed in pluralist settings. Conversion involves deep conviction, not just intellectual assent or understanding. (…) Translating such texts posed a great challenge in Australia. Threlkeld and [his indigenous colleague] Biraban debated the possibilities at length. In the end they opted not to introduce a new term for belief, but to use the Awabakal ngurruliko, meaning ‘to know, to perceive by the ear,’ as distinct from knowing by sight or by touch.”
Language in southern Nigeria: a word based on the idiom “lose feathers.” Randy Groff in Wycliffe Bible Translators 2016, p. 65 explains (click or tap here to read more):
What does losing feathers have to do with faith? [The translator] explained that there is a species of bird in his area that, upon hatching its eggs, loses its feathers. During this molting phase, the mother bird is no longer able to fly away from the nest and look for food for her hungry hatchlings. She has to remain in the nest where she and her babies are completely dependent upon the male bird to bring them food. Without the diligent, dependable work of the male bird, the mother and babies would all die. This scenario was the basis for the word for faith in his language.
Teribe: mär: “pick one thing and one thing only” (source: Andy Keener)
Tiv: na jighjigh: “give trust” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
Luba-Katanga: Twi tabilo: “echo” (click or tap here to read more)
“Luba-Katanga word for ‘Faith’ in its New Testament connotation is Twi tabilo. This word means ‘echo,’ and the way in which it came to be adapted to the New Testament meaning gives a very good idea of the way in which the translator goes to work. One day a missionary was on a journey through wild and mountainous country. At midday he called his African porters to halt, and as they lay resting in the shade from the merciless heat of the sun. an African picked up a stone and sent it ricocheting down the mountain-side into the ravine below. After some seconds the hollow silence was broken by a plunging, splashing sound from the depths of the dark river-bed. As the echo died away the African said in a wondering whisper ‘Twi tabilo, listen to it.’ So was a precious word captured for the service of the Gospel in its Luba Christian form. Twi tabilo — ‘faith which is the echo of God’s voice in the depths of human sinful hearts, awakened by God Himself, the answer to his own importunate call.’ The faith that is called into being by the divine initiative, God’s own gift to the responsive heart! (Source: Wilfred Bradnock in The Bible Translator 1953, p. 49ff. )
J.A. van Roy (in The Bible Translator 1972, p. 418ff. ) discusses how a translation of “faith” in a an earlier translation into Venda created difficult perceptions of the concept of faith (click or tap here):
The Venda term u tenda, lutendo. This term corresponds to the terms ho dumela (Southern Sotho), and ku pfumela (Tsonga) that have been used in these translations of the Bible, and means “to assent,” “to agree to a suggestion.” It is important to understand this term in the context of the character of the people who use it.
The way in which the Venda use this term reveals much about the priority of interpersonal relationships among them. They place a much higher priority on responding in the way they think they are expected to respond than on telling the truth. Smooth interpersonal relationships, especially with a dominant individual or group, take precedence over everything else.
It is therefore regarded as bad form to refuse directly when asked for something one does not in fact intend to give. The correct way is to agree, u tenda, and then forget about it or find some excuse for not keeping to the agreement. Thus u tenda does not necessarily convey the information that one means what one says. One can tenda verbally while heartily disagreeing with the statement made or having no intention whatsoever to carry out what one has just promised to do. This is not regarded as dishonesty, but is a matter of politeness.
The term u sokou tenda, “to consent reluctantly,” is often used for expressing the fatalistic attitude of the Venda in the face of misfortune or force which he is unable to resist.
The form lutendo was introduced by missionaries to express “faith.”
According to the rules of derivations and their meanings in the lu-class, it should mean “the habit of readily consenting to everything.” But since it is a coined word which does not have a clearly defined set of meanings in everyday speech, it has acquired in church language a meaning of “steadfastness in the Christian life.” Una lutendo means something like “he is steadfast in the face of persecution.” It is quite clear that the term u tenda has no element of “trust” in it. (…)
In “The Christian Minister” of July 1969 we find the following statement about faith by Albert N. Martin: “We must never forget that one of the great issues which the Reformers brought into focus was that faith was something more than an ‘assensus,’ a mere nodding of the head to the body of truth presented by the church as ‘the faith.’ The Reformers set forth the biblical concept that faith was ‘fiducia.’ They made plain that saving faith involved trust, commitment, a trust and commitment involving the whole man with the truth which was believed and with the Christ who was the focus of that truth. The time has come when we need to spell this out clearly in categorical statements so that people will realize that a mere nodding of assent to the doctrines that they are exposed to is not the essence of saving faith. They need to be brought to the understanding that saving faith involves the commitment of the whole man to the whole Christ, as Prophet, Priest and King as he is set forth in the gospel.”
We quote at length from this article because what Martin says of the current concept of faith in the Church is even to a greater extent true of the Venda Church, and because the terms used for communicating that concept in the Venda Bible cannot be expected to communicate anything more than “a mere nodding of assent”. I have during many years of evangelistic work hardly ever come across a Venda who, when confronted with the gospel, would not say, Ndi khou tenda, “I admit the truth of what you say.” What they really mean when saying this amounts to, “I believe that God exists, and I have no objection to the fact that he exists. I suppose that the rest of what you are talking about is also true.” They would often add, Ndi sa tendi hani-hani? “Just imagine my not believing such an obvious fact!” To the experienced evangelist this is a clear indication that his message is rejected in so far as it has been understood at all! To get a negative answer, one would have to press on for a promise that the “convert” will attend the baptism class and come to church on Sundays, and even then he will most probably just tenda in order to get rid of the evangelist, whether he intends to come or not. Isn’t that what u tenda means? So when an inexperienced and gullible white man ventures out on an evangelistic campaign with great enthusiasm, and with great rejoicing returns with a list of hundreds of names of persons who “believed”, he should not afterwards blame the Venda when only one tenth of those who were supposed to be converts actually turn up for baptismal instruction.
Moreover, it is not surprising at all that one often comes across church members of many years’ standing who do not have any assurance of their salvation or even realise that it is possible to have that assurance. They are vhatendi, “consenters.” They have consented to a new way of life, to abandoning (some of) the old customs. Lutendo means to them at most some steadfastness in that new way of life.
The concept of faith in religion is strange to Africa. It is an essential part of a religion of revelation such as Christianity or Islam, but not of a naturalistic religion such as Venda religion, in which not faith and belief are important, but ritual, and not so much the content of the word as the power of it.
The terms employed in the Venda Bible for this vital Christian concept have done nothing to effect a change in the approach of the Venda to religion.
It is a pity that not only in the Venda translation has this been the case, but in all the other Southern Bantu languages. In the Nguni languages the term ukukholwa, “to believe a fact,” has been used for pisteuo, and ukholo, the deverbative of ukukholwa, for pistis. In some of the older Protestant translations in Zulu, but not in the new translation, the term ithemba, “trust”, has been used.
Some languages, including Santali, have two terms — like English (see above) — to differentiate a noun from a verb form. Biswạs is used for faith, whereas pạtiạu for “believe.” R.M. Macphail (in The Bible Translator 1961, p. 36ff. ) explains this choice: “While there is little difference between the meaning and use of the two in everyday Santali, in which any word may be used as a verb, we felt that in this way we enriched the translation while making a useful distinction, roughly corresponding to that between ‘faith’ and ‘to believe’ in English.”
Likewise, in Noongar, koort-karni or “heart truth” is used for the noun (“faith”) and djinang-karni or “see true” for the verb (“believe”) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
After tōn pisteuontōn ‘those who believe’ Textus Receptus and Kilpatrick add eis eme ‘in me,’ which is omitted by all other modern editions of the Greek text.
Exegesis:
skandalisē (cf. 4.17) ‘he should cause to stumble’ (Montgomery, Manson, O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada); ‘cause to fall’ (Goodspeed, Translator’s New Testament ‘cause to fall away’; The Modern Speech New Testament ‘occasion the fall of’); ‘is a hindrance’ (Moffatt). ‘Cause to (fall into) sin’ (Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale, Revised Standard Version) is too specific a translation of skandalizō.
hena tōn mikrōn toutōn tōn pisteuontōn ‘one of these little ones who believe’: perhaps, ‘one of the least of these who believe.’ The Revised Standard Version addition ‘in me’ is not part of the genuine text, in the opinion of most editors of the Greek text.
kalon estin (cf. 4.8) ‘it is good’: the use of the absolute form ‘good’ for the comparative ‘better’ appears to be thoroughly Semitic.
mallon (cf. 5.26) ‘rather,’ ‘instead.’
ei perikeitai … kai beblētai ‘if it had been placed … and he had been thrown’: the two perfects (the verb perikeimai is itself a perfect, meaning ‘to have been placed’ – cf. Souter) are here used with the force of past perfects: it would be better if, before causing a little one to stumble, he had had a millstone hung around his neck and had been thrown into the sea.
mulos onikos (only here in Mark) ‘a large millstone’ i.e. the large upper millstone that required an ass to turn it, instead of being hand-turned, as in the case of the small mills.
Translation:
Clauses introduced by whoever must be shifted to conditional clauses in some languages, e.g. ‘if a man does … it would be better….’
Little ones is ‘little children,’ to be understood in this context as being a reference to the child of verses 36 and 37.
Though the better texts all have only ‘believe,’ it is necessary in many languages to have some object to the verb of believing, and hence ‘in me’ is a very natural addition (cf. Textus Receptus and the Revised Standard Version).
Causes … to stumble is only rarely translatable in a literal manner. In one instance this was done, and the people were utterly surprised that Jesus would speak of such a dire penalty for anyone playing a practical joke. In this particular language the translation had to be changed to read ‘to cause his heart to be spoiled,’ for only this type of expression would convey the idea of moral offense. In Tzeltal the appropriate equivalent is ‘to cause to go wrong’ and in Highland Totonac one must say ‘to show such little children the wrong road.’ In Tabasco Chontal the correct idiom is ‘to cause them to leave the way’; in Toraja-Sa’dan the translation is ‘whoever causes that one of these little ones come into misfortune through sin.’
Great millstone is more meaningfully translated in many languages than in English, for so few English speaking people really know from personal experience what millstones are. In Tzeltal the equivalent expression is ‘large metate’ (metate is the name for the indigenous type of grinding stone). In some languages however, grinding stones are not used, and hence one must say simply ‘a big rock’ (Barrow Eskimo). Toraja-Sa’dan must render ‘large stone which is placed under the piles on which the house rests,’ while Batak Toba has ‘stone block in which the rice is beaten’ (to remove the husks).
One must make certain that the stone is not literally ‘hung round his neck,’ for in one language the people were intrigued by this kind of stone, which could be put as a wreath around a person’s neck. An appropriate equivalent may be ‘tied round his neck’ or ‘tied to him, with a rope around his neck.’
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 .
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