sackcloth

The Hebrew or Greek which are translated into English as “sackcloth” are rendered into Chamula Tzotzil as “sad-heart clothes.” (Source: Robert Bascom)

Pohnpeian and Chuukese translate it as “clothing-of sadness,” Eastern Highland Otomi uses “clothing that hurts,” Central Mazahua “that which is scratchy,” and Tae’ and Zarma “rags.” (Source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)

“In Turkana, a woman removes her normal everyday skin clothes and ornaments and wears rather poor skins during the time of mourning. The whole custom is known as ngiboro. It is very difficult to translate putting on sackcloth because even material like sacking is unfamiliar. The Haya, on the other hand, have a mourning cloth made out of the bark of a tree; and the use of this cloth is similar to the Jewish use of sackcloth. It was found that in both the Turkana and Ruhaya common language translations, their traditional mourning ceremonies were used.” (Source: Rachel Konyoro in The Bible Translator 1985, p. 221ff. )

Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing what a sackcloth looked like in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)

See also mourning clothes and you have loosed my sackcloth.

miracle, miraculous power

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The Greek and Hebrew that are often translated as “miracles” or “miraculous powers” into English are translated as “thing which no one has ever seen before” (San Blas Kuna), “thing marveled at” (Tepeuxila Cuicatec), “breathtaking thing” (Ngäbere), “long-necked thing” (referring to the onlookers who stretch their necks to see) (Huautla Mazatec), “sign done by God’s power” (Mossi), “supernatural power” (Javanese), “thing that has heaven-strength” (Highland Totonac) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida), “amazing thing” (Muna) (source: René van den Berg), “sign no one else could do” (Tenango Otomi) (source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125), or “impossible thing” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter 2004).

See also wonder.

woe (to you)

The Greek that is translated as “woe to you” or similar in English is translated in Martu Wangka as “you sit as sorry ones.”

repent, repentance

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The Greek and Hebrew that is often translated as “repent” or “repentance” is (back-) translated in various ways (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight):

  • Western Kanjobal: “think in the soul”
  • Kekchí: “pain in the heart”
  • Northwestern Dinka: “turn the heart”
  • Pedi: “become untwisted”
  • Baoulé: “it hurts to make you quit it” (source for this and above: Nida 1952, p. 137)
  • Balinese: “putting on a new mind”
  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “be sorry on account of one’s sins”
  • Uab Meto: “turn the heart upside down” (source for this and the two above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Central Mazahua / Chichimeca-Jonaz: “turn back the heart” (source: Nida 1952, p. 40)
  • Suki: biaekwatrudap gjaeraesae: “turn with sorrow” (source: L. and E. Twyman in The Bible Translator 1953, p. 91ff. )
  • Yamba and Bulu: “turn over the heart” (source: W. Reyburn in The Bible Translator 1959, p. 1ff. )
  • Chichewa: kutembenuka mtima (“to be turned around in one’s heart”) (source: Ernst Wendland in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 319ff.)
  • Caribbean Javanese: mertobat (“tired of old life”)
  • Saramaccan: bia libi ko a Massa Gadu (“turn your life to the Lord God”)
  • Sranan Tongo: drai yu libi (“turn your life”) or kenki libi (“change life”)
  • Eastern Maroon Creole: dai yu libi (“turn your life”) (source for this and 3 above: Jabini 2015)
  • Eggon: “bow in the dust” (source: Kilgour, p. 80)
  • Embu: “change heart” (“2 Cor. 7:10 says ‘For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.’ In ordinary speech the terms ‘repent’ and ‘regret’ are used interchangeably in Embu, so that this verse comes out as: ‘godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no repentance,’ which is contradictory. The problem was solved by using ‘changing heart’ in the first, and ‘sadness’ in the second.”) (source: Jan Sterk)
  • Anuak: “liver falls down”
  • Kafa: “return from way of sin to God” (source for this and the one above: Loren Bliese)
  • Latvian: atgriezties (verb) / atgriešanās (noun) (“turn around / return” — see turn around / convert) (source: Katie Roth)
  • Obolo: igwugwu ikom: “turn back (from evil)” (source: Enene Enene)
  • Mairasi: make an end (of wrongdoing) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Luchazi: ku aluluka mutima: “turn in heart” (source: E. Pearson in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 160ff. )
  • Chokwe: kulinkonyeka: “fold back over” or “go back on oneself” (source D.B. Long in The Bible Translator 1953, p. 135ff. ).
  • Muna: dofetompa’ao dhosa bhe dodoli ne Lahata’ala: “radically-end sin and to turn to God” (source: René van den Berg)
  • Bacama: por-njiya: “fetch sand” (“Before the coming of Christianity 100 years ago, when the elders went to pray to the gods, they would take sand and throw it over each shoulder and down their backs while confessing their sins. Covering themselves with sand was a ritual to show that they were sorry for what they had done wrong, sort of like covering oneself with sackcloth and ashes. Now idol worship for the most part is abandoned in Bacama culture, but the Christian church has retained the phrase por-njiya to mean ‘repent, doing something to show sorrow for one’s sins’” — source: David Frank in this blog post .)
  • “In Tzotzil two reflexive verbs to communicate the biblical concept of repentance are used. Xca’i jba means to know or to reflect inwardly on one’s self. This self inquiry or self examination is similar to the attitude of the prodigal son where Luke 15:17 records that ‘he came to his senses.’ Broke, starving, and slopping hogs, the prodigal admitted to himself that he was in the wrong place. The second reflexive verb ‘jsutes jba’ means turning away from what one is and turning to something else. In a sense, it is deciding against one’s self and toward someone else. It is similar to the attitude of the prodigal son when he said, ‘I will get up and go to my father’ (v. 18).” (source: Aeilts, p. 118)
  • Enlhet “exchange innermosts.” “Innermost” or valhoc is a term that is frequently used in Enlhet to describe a large variety of emotions or states of mind (for other examples see here). (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )
  • San Blas Kuna: “sorry for wrong done in the heart” (source: Claudio and Marvel Iglesias in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 85ff. )
  • Desano: “change your bad deeds for good ones”
  • Isthmus Mixe: “put your hearts and minds on the good road”
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “change your thinking about evil and walk in the way of God”
  • San Mateo del Mar Huave: “just remember that you have done wicked, in order that you might do good”
  • Coatlán Mixe: “heart-return to God” (source for this and four above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Sierra de Juárez Zapotec: “get on the right road”
  • Isthmus Zapotec: “heart becomes soft” (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Tibetan: ‘gyod tshangs byed (འགྱོད་​ཚངས་​བྱེད།), lit. “regret + pure” (source: gSungrab website )

See also: convert / conversion / turn back and see Seat of the Mind for traditional views of “ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling.”

complete verse (Matthew 11:21)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 11:21:

  • Uma: “Yesus said: ‘Disaster to you Korazim and Betsaida people! Many indeed the miracles I did in your towns, but you still do not repent from your sins. If for example those miracles had been done in the towns of Tirus and Sidon, they would have long repented from their sins even though they are not Yahudi people. They would have taken gunny-sacks for clothes and sprinkled their heads with ashes, as a sign of their sorrow/regret.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “He said, ‘You are to be pitied, people of Korasin. You are to be pitied, people of Betsaida. For if I had done in the places Tiros and Sidon the wonder-causing doings that I did there at yours, the people there would long have regretted and left their sins and as is their custom would have dressed in sacks and bathed with ashes to show their regret.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “He said, ‘You people of Chorazin, you are greatly to be pitied. You people of Bethsaida, you are greatly to be pitied. The miracles that I showed in the villages of the Jews, if I did these in the villages of the people who aren’t Jews there in Tyre and Sidon, they would have clothed themselves in sacks, and they would have dusted their heads with ashes to show that they had done with their bad doings.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “He said, ‘Pitiful are you from-Korazin and likewise also you from-Betsaida! Because many are the amazing things I have done in your towns, but you didn’t repent of your sins. If it had been in Tiro and in Sidon where I had done these amazing things, they would have dressed-in sacks immediately and sprinkled their heads with ashes to show that they repented.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “He said, ‘Alas, really very hard is what is in store for you who are taga Corazin and taga Betsaida. Because just supposing it had been in Tiro and Sidon, whose people aren’t Judio, where these amazing things had been done which I did here where you are, it’s true that long ago the people from there would have dressed in rough (clothes) and been sitting in ashes, so as to cause to be recognized that they were truly repenting.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “‘How great will be the punishment of the people who live in the town of Chorazin. How great will be the punishment of the people who live in the town of Bethsaida. Because they did not believe when they saw the miracles I did where they lived. If the people who lived in the old time town of Tyre and also Sidon had seen these miracles then at once they would have separated from the evil in which they lived. They would have put ashes on themselves and worn the clothing worn by people who are in sorrow.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing his disciples and common people

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff.), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

Here, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.

In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.

Translation commentary on Matthew 11:21

Many languages will begin the sentence with a marker of direct speech or the phrase “He said.”

Woe or “Alas” is the rendering of most translations. A few attempt something dynamic: “How terrible it will be” (Good News Translation), “Tragic will be your fate” (Barclay), and “It will go ill with you” (New American Bible). Elsewhere Matthew utilizes this interjection in 18.7 (twice); 23.13, 15, 16, 23, 25, 27, 29; 24.19; 26.24. Woe is almost the opposite of “Blessed” or “Happy” in 5.3 and following. It means things are going to be bad for those towns, that they will receive God’s punishment. Thus possible translations are “Terrible things are in store for you” or “How awful are the things that will happen to you.”

Often it will be more natural to put Chorazin and Bethsaida at the beginning of the sentence, as in “Chorazin, terrible things will happen to you. Bethsaida, terrible things will happen to you.” It may be more natural to address them together, as in “Chorazin and Bethsaida, how awful is the fate that awaits you.”

In those languages where it is not natural to address a town, then translators will say “You people of Chorazin, you people of Bethsaida, the troubles coming to you are terrible.”

The town of Chorazin is mentioned in the Bible only here and in Luke 10.13; it is located about two miles northwest of Capernaum.

Bethsaida (literally “house of fish”) is probably a reference to the town of Bethsaida Julias, on the east bank of the Jordan, north of Lake Galilee. There is no mention in Matthew’s Gospel of Jesus’ having performed any miracles there. Mark alone mentions the healing of a blind man in Bethsaida (Mark 8.22-26).

Mighty works is the same expression used in verse 20; see comments on 7.22. If the passives done in you and had been done are not natural, then translators can say “if I had done the miracles in Tyre and Sidon that I did in your towns, these people…” or “if it had been in Tyre and Sidon that I performed the mighty works instead of your town, those people….”

Tyre and Sidon were towns along the Phoenician coastline. Especially during Old Testament times these two towns were notorious for their evil, and Israel’s prophets spoke against them (see Isa 23; Ezek 26–28; Amos 1.9, 10; Joel 3.4; Zech 9.2-4). Some translators feel this implicit information is important, and say “those evil towns of Tyre and Sidon.”

Sackcloth and ashes were signs of repentance and sorrow (see Isa 58.5; Jonah 3.6; Dan 9.3). Sackcloth was a coarse cloth that can be translated simply as “rough cloth.” The significance of the act can then be indicated, too, as in “the rough cloth that shows they have turned from their sins.” The sackcloth was worn, but the ashes were sprinkled on the head. Sentences that will convey the meaning of the actions clearly are “they would have repented long ago and worn the coarse cloth and sprinkled ashes on their heads to show it” and “long ago they would have worn the coarse cloth and put ashes on their heads to show they were turning from their sins.” Some translations have dropped the actual actions and said simply “long ago they would have shown to all that they were turning from their sins.” However, translators should try to retain these cultural actions in the text, since they were a common aspect of biblical culture.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .