adultery

The Greek that is translated as “adultery” (typically understood as “marital infidelity”) in English is (back-) translated in the following ways:

  • Highland Totonac: “to do something together”
  • Yucateco: “pair-sin”
  • Ngäbere: “robbing another’s half self-possession” (compare “fornication” which is “robbing self-possession,” that is, to rob what belongs to a person)
  • Kaqchikel, Chol: “to act like a dog”
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: “to measure the depth of the river of (another’s) marriage.”
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “married people using what is not theirs” (compare “fornication” which is “unmarried people using what is not theirs”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • In Purari: “play hands with” or “play eyes with”
  • In Hakha Chin the usual term for “adultery” applies only to women, so the translation for the Greek term that is translated into English as “adultery” was translated in Hakha Chin as “do not take another man’s wife and do not commit adultery.”
  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “talk secretly with spouses of our fellows”
  • Isthmus Zapotec: “go in with other people’s spouses”
  • Hopi: “tamper with marriage” (source for this and two above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • In Falam Chin the term for “adultery” is the phrase for “to share breast” which relates to adultery by either sex. (Source for this and three above: David Clark)
  • In Ixcatlán Mazatec a specification needs to be made to include both genders. (Source: Robert Bascom)

See also adulterer, adulteress, and you shall not commit adultery.

complete verse (Matthew 5:28)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 5:28:

  • Uma: “But I say: whoever looks at a woman and he has a heart desiring her, he commits adultery in his heart.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But I, I say: whoever looks at a woman and thinks bad, he has already committed adultery with that woman in his liver.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “But my teaching is that a man who just looks at a woman and is sexually aroused, that man has already committed adultery against his wife.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But I say to you that the one who looks at a woman to crave her has already committed-adultery with her in his mind.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But now/today, I am the one saying to you that whoever stares at a woman with a motive in his mind, it’s like he has already acted-immorally.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “But I tell you that whoever looks at a woman and it comes to his heart that he wants to fornicate with her, it comes out that it is the same that he had truly fornicated with the woman he looked at.” (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 5:28

But I say to you is the same statement that introduces verse 22.

Every one who looks at a woman lustfully is translated in a number of different ways; for example, Good News Translation has “anyone who looks at a woman and wants to possess her”; Moffatt “anyone who even looks with lust at a woman”; and Barclay “if anyone looks at a woman in such a way as deliberately to awaken within himself the forbidden desire for her.”

It is important to note that this verse does not just refer to noticing a woman as attractive, or even to a brief recognition that she is sexually appealing. It refers instead to actually contemplating having sex with her, that is, to having the intention of doing so. Thus, for looks … lustfully translators can say “wants to sleep with her,” “wants sex with her,” or “looks at her with the intention of sleeping with her.”

Has already committed adultery with her (so also New English Bible, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible) translates a Greek aorist; but for English speakers the perfect tense adequately and accurately expresses the meaning.

Since heart refers to the realm of thought, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates in his heart as “in thought.” In many cultures, in his heart would only be understood to refer to the emotions, so that “in his thought” or “in his thinking” are better translations.

Some translators have used a translation like “it is as if he is already guilty of committing adultery with her.” This would be wrong because Jesus does not say it as if he were guilty, but affirms that he is guilty already. Thus the sin of adultery is not in the act but in the lust or desire to do so.

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 .