25“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
The Greek and Hebrew terms that are translated as “hypocrite” in English typically have a counterpart in most languages. According to Bratcher / Nida (1961, p. 225), they can be categorized into the following categories:
those which employ some concept of “two” or “double”
those which make use of some expression of “mouth” or “speaking”
those which are based upon some special cultural feature
those which employ a non-metaphorical phrase
Following is a list of (back-) translations from some languages:
Mazahua: “have a swollen mouth” (from too much speaking)
Tai Dam: “have a straight mouth and a crooked heart”
Kongo: “the bitterness of white” (an idiom based on the fact that white-wash looks nice but tastes bitter)
Malagasy: “spread a clean carpet” (an expression used in Madagascar to describe one who covers up the dirt of an unswept floor just before the arrival of guests)
Zanaki: “those who make themselves out to be good”
Tetelcingo Nahuatl: “those who deceive” (this and all examples above acc. to Bratcher / Nida 1961, p. 225)
Kafa: “one who makes as if his belly is clean” (source: Loren Bliese)
Bauzi: “good on top person” (source: David Briley in Kroneman (2004), p. 502)
Tibetan: kha chos pa (ཁ་ཆོས་པ།), lit. “mouth + religion + person” (used for instance in Matt. 7:5) or sgyu zog can (སྒྱུ་ཟོག་ཅན།), lit. “deception + fraud + person” (used for instance in Matt. 24:51) (source: gSungrab website )
Low German: “actor in a comedy” (translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006)
Lélé: ne kub so or “make mouth two” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
The English version of Sarah Ruden (2021) uses “play-actor.” She explains (p. li): “A hupokrites is fundamentally an actor. The word has deep negativity in the Gospels on two counts: professional actors were not respectable people in the ancient world, and traditional Judaism did not countenance any kind of playacting. I write ‘play-actor’ throughout.”
The Greek that is a transliteration of the Hebrew Pərūšīm and is typically transliterated into English as “Pharisee” is transliterated in Mandarin Chinese as Fǎlìsài (法利賽 / 法利赛) (Protestant) or Fǎlìsāi (法利塞) (Catholic). In Chinese, transliterations can typically be done with a great number of different and identical-sounding characters. Often the meaning of the characters are not relevant, unless they are chosen carefully as in these cases. The Protestant Fǎlìsài can mean something like “Competition for the profit of the law” and the Catholic Fǎlìsāi “Stuffed by/with the profit of the law.” (Source: Zetzsche 1996, p. 51)
In Finnish Sign Language it is translated with the sign signifying “prayer shawl”. (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023) translates it into English as Observant. He explains (p. 302): “Pharisee has become a public, universal pejorative term for a hypocrite. Pharisees were observant of the interpretation of the Covenant Code called the ‘tradition of the elders.’ They conformed their behaviors to the interpretation. Among the various groups of Jews at the time of Jesus, they were perhaps closest to Jesus in their overall concern to make a radical commitment to the will of God (as they understood it).”
The Greek that is usually translated as “scribe” in English “were more than mere writers of the law. They were the trained interpreters of the law and expounders of tradition.”
Tboli: “one who taught the law God before caused Moses to write” (or “one who taught the law of Moses”) (source for this and 5 above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
Noongar: Mammarapa-Warrinyang or “law man” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Mairasi: “one who writes and explains Great Above One’s (=God’s) prohibitions” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Chichewa: “teacher of Laws” (source: Ernst Wendland)
Lalana Chinantec: “one who is a teacher of the law which God gave to Moses back then”
Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “one who know well the law” (Source for this and four above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Huixtán Tzotzil: “one who mistakenly thought he was teaching God’s commandments”(Huixtán Tzotzil frequently uses the verb -cuy to express “to mistakenly think something” from the point of view of the speaker; source: Marion M. Cowan in Notes on Translation 20/1966, pp. 6ff.)
Germandas Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022): “theologian”
English translation by Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023): Covenant Code scholar
In British Sign Language it is translated with a sign that combines the signs for “expert” and “law.” (Source: Anna Smith)
“Scribe” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 23:25:
Uma: “‘Disaster on you, you religious teachers and Parisi people! You are just good on the outside! You are like people who clean cups and plates only on the outside, but on the inside they are still dirty. Religious customs that are only visible on the outside you really follow. But in your hears you are greedy/gluttonous and desire other peoples’ things.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “‘You are to be pitied teachers of the religious law and Pariseo because God will punish you. You only pretend to follow God. You wash the cups and the plates but what is in it/them is unclean (ritually) because you got that food because of your deceiving and your greed.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Pity you, teachers of the law and you Pharisees, because your faith in God is a lie. You carefully observe your own customs, but in your minds and in your breath there is greediness and wickedness. You are like a cup or a dish which is cleaned on the outside but is filthy on the inside.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “‘Pitiful are you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like a person who washes only the outside (lit. trunk/body) of a cup and the back of a plate, because you are showing good behavior/character to the people, but your mind/thoughts, it is full of greed and plans to cheat your fellows.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Really extremely hard is being reserved for you, you explainers of law and Pariseo who pretend to believe/obey God. You clean your cups and plates according to the law, but what you put into them is disgusting. For what you use to get that food of yours is wholly gotten-by-overcharging and keeping-more-than-one’s share.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Listen, you teachers of the law and Pharisees, how great is the suffering you will have, for it is not true that you are good people. Because just on the outside it appears that you are good people, yet in your hearts you are thieves and just what other people have is what you set your hearts on getting.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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.
The custom of cleaning the cups and plates was for religious as well as for sanitary reasons. But that can’t really be included in the translation. Cleanse should be translated as simply “wash” or “clean.” Something of the irony of Jesus’ accusation may be captured with a phrase like “for you are so careful to wash (or, clean) the outside of your cups and plates” or “for you clean so carefully.”
Full of extortion and rapacity (New International Version “full of greed and self-indulgence”) may leave the wrong impression with the reader. In Greek the preposition of is literally “from,” which here has the meaning “resulting from” or “gotten from.” The meaning is accurately expressed by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch: “But what you eat and drink out of it you have acquired by your greed.” Good News Translation has “full of what you have gotten by violence and selfishness.” Even clearer renderings are “but the food and drink that are in them you got by means of violence and selfishness” and “but you fill them with food and drink that you got through force and greed.”
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 .
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