The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin terms that are typically translated as “mercy” (or “compassion” or “kindness”) in English are translated in various ways. Bratcher / Nida classify them in (1) those based on the quality of heart, or other psychological center, (2) those which introduce the concept of weeping or extreme sorrow, (3) those which involve willingness to look upon and recognize the condition of others, or (4) those which involve a variety of intense feelings.
While the Englishmercy originates from the Latinmerces, originally “price paid,” Romance languages (Italian, Spanish, Corsican, Catalan) and other Germanic languages (German, Swedish, Danish — Barmherzigkeit, barmhärtighet and barmhjertighed, respectively) tend to follow the Latin misericordia, lit. “misery-heart.”
The Greek that is translated in English as “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” is translated in Martu Wangka as “I came to the earth to teach bad people who are like those sick ones so that they can hear the Father’s word and become his relatives. I didn’t come for the good people — no.” (Source: Carl Gross)
In El Nayar Cora it is translated as “I came not to call those who think they language are good people, but those who think they are sinners.” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
In Huixtán Tzotzil, the first part is “those who mistakenly think their hearts are straight.” 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, p. 6ff.)
The Greek that is translated as “sacrifice” in English is translated in Huba as hatǝmachi or “shoot misfortune.”
David Frank (in this blog post ) explains: “How is it that ‘shoot misfortune’ comes to mean sacrifice, I wanted to know? Here is the story: It is a traditional term. Whenever there were persistent problems such as a drought, or a rash of sickness or death, the king (or his religious advisor) would set aside a day and call on everyone to prepare food, such as the traditional mash made from sorghum, or perhaps even goat. The food had to be put together outside. The king or his religious advisor would give an address stating what the problem was and what they were doing about it. Then an elder representing the people would take a handful of that food and throw it, probably repeating that action several times, until it was considered to be enough to atone for all the misfortune they had been having. With this action he was ‘shooting (or casting off) misfortune’ to restore well-being to his people. As he threw the food, he would say that this is to remove the misfortune that had fallen on his people, and everybody would respond by saying aɗǝmja, ‘let it be so.’ People could eat some of this food, but they could not bring the food into their houses, because that would mean that they were bringing misfortune into their house. There is still a minority of people in this linguistic and cultural group that practices the traditional religion, but the shooting of misfortune is no longer practiced, and the term ‘shoot misfortune’ is used now in Bible translation to refer to offering a sacrifice. Aɗǝmja is how they translate ‘amen.'”
The Greek that is translated as “sinner” in English is translated as “people with bad hearts” (“it is not enough to call them ‘people who do bad things,’ for though actions do reflect the heart, yet it is the hearts with which God is primarily concerned — see Matt. 15:19”) in Western Kanjobal, “people who are doing wrong things in their hearts” in San Blas Kuna (source: Nida 1952, p. 148), “people with bad stomachs” in Q’anjob’al (source: Newberry and Kittie Cox in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. ), “those others who don’t fully obey our laws” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation), or “people with dirty hearts” or “people who are called ‘bad'” in Mairasi (source: Enggavoter 2004).
In Central Mazahua and Teutila Cuicatec it is translated as “(person who) owes sin.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 9:13:
Uma: “I do not come to call people whose behavior is straight. My coming, I call sinners so they repent from their sins. So, examine first what is the meaning of the Word of God that is written like this: ‘I do not request livestock that you use-as-worship-gift to me. What I request, [is that] you love others.’ ‘” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Study as to what the meaning of these words are that are written in the holy-book, it says, ‘Sacrifices are not valuable to me. But that is what I wish/want that you have pity/mercy on your companions.’ ‘ Isa said yet, ‘I have not come to look for the straight/righteous people but I came to look for the sinful people.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Find out the meaning of the written word of God which says, ‘Your sacrifice is not what I want. Rather, what I want is your showing mercy to each other.’ ‘ Then Jesus said again, ‘As for me, I didn’t come here to stop righteous people from doing evil, but rather those who transgress against God.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “I did not come to go call the righteous people but rather the sinners. Therefore go learn the correct meaning of what God caused-to-be-written that says, ‘Your having-mercy on your companions is more valuable to me than your offering animals to me.’ ‘” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “It would be good if you try-to-understand the meaning of these utterances of God which say, ‘I want you (pl.) to be merciful/generous. As long as you are not merciful/generous, I don’t want your sacrifices with which you ask for forgiveness.’ For like me. My purpose in coming here wasn’t to call straight/righteous ones, but on the contrary sinners who need to submit-to-the-rule of God.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Study the meaning of the word which is written in the Holy Book which says: ‘I want that you have mercy, because that is more valuable than the sacrifices you make,’ it says. I have come concerning the people who have sins, that I tell them to separate from evil, it is not the people who say that they live good that I came to call.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The Greek, Hebrew, and Latin terms that are translated in English mostly as “righteous” as an adjective or personified noun or “righteousness” (also as “justice”) are most commonly expressed with concept of “straightness,” though this may be expressed in a number of ways. (Click or tap here to see the details)
Following is a list of (back-) translations of various languages:
Paasaal: “white heart” (source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Nuer: “way of right” (“there is a complex concept of “right” vs. ‘left’ in Nuer where ‘right’ indicates that which is masculine, strong, good, and moral, and ‘left’ denotes what is feminine, weak, and sinful (a strictly masculine viewpoint!) The ‘way of right’ is therefore righteousness, but of course women may also attain this way, for the opposition is more classificatory than descriptive.”) (This and all above from Bratcher / Nida except for Bilua: Carl Gross; Tiv: Rob Koops; Muna: René van den Berg)
Yatzachi Zapotec: “walk straight” (source for this and four previous: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22)
Aari: The Pauline word for “righteous” is generally rendered by “makes one without sin” in the Aari, sometimes “before God” is added for clarity. (Source: Loren Bliese)
Ekari: maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (the same word that is also used for “truth“; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
Guhu-Samane: pobi or “right” (also: “right (side),” “(legal) right,” “straightness,” “correction,” “south,” “possession,” “pertinence,” “kingdom,” “fame,” “information,” or “speech” — “According to [Guhu-Samane] thinking there is a common core of meaning among all these glosses. Even from an English point of view the first five can be seen to be closely related, simply because of their similarity in English. However, from that point the nuances of meaning are not so apparent. They relate in some such a fashion as this: As one faces the morning sun, south lies to the right hand (as north lies to the left); then at one’s right hand are his possessions and whatever pertains to him; thus, a rich man’s many possessions and scope of power and influence is his kingdom; so, the rich and other important people encounter fame; and all of this spreads as information and forms most of the framework of the people’s speech.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in Notes on Translation 1964, p. 11ff.)
Go and learn what this means is a formula frequently used by Jewish teachers when referring someone to a passage of Scripture. Good News Translation has “… what is meant by the scripture that says,” thereby making a bridge to the Scripture quotation which follows. In such a context it is obvious that Go is not to be taken literally, and in some languages it may be advisable to drop it from translation so as not to convey the wrong meaning.
The I in the citation refers to God, but if translators are not careful, it could seem to refer to Jesus. To avoid this, some translations have “… what is meant in God’s Scriptures” or “… what is meant where God says in his Scriptures.” Another way is “Go and learn what it means when God says in his book ‘I want…’ ” or “… that he wants.” Without some kind of bridge, modern readers may not recognize that Jesus is quoting the Scriptures here.
I desire mercy, and not sacrifice is a quotation from Hosea 6.6. The same remark is used again in 12.7, and in each instance it correctly follows both the Hebrew and the Greek Old Testament. The word mercy (Good News Translation “kindness”) is placed in the position of emphasis in the Greek text, “Mercy I want.” Sacrifice is to be understood as “animal sacrifices” (Good News Translation).
It may not be possible to desire something like mercy or “kindness.” In such cases translators can say “I want people to be merciful (or, kind), not to make sacrifices (to me)” or “What I want from people is that they have mercy (on others), not that they offer me sacrifices.”
Mercy can also be translated “kindness” or “compassion.”
The Greek word meaning For shows that there is a logical relationship with what precedes, and it suggests that the meal that Jesus is sharing with the tax collectors and other outcasts is a fulfillment of the Hosea passage. The English For wrongly suggests that what follows is the reason or cause of what precedes, and so Good News Translation omits it and allows the logical relationship to be clearly implicit.
For also shows that at this point the Hosea citation is finished, and Jesus is speaking of himself again. To make this clear, sometimes translators render For as “That’s why I came…” or “It’s because of that I came.” It can also be “So I say to you that I came….”
Call clearly means “call to be my followers.” Barclay has “bring an invitation to.”
The righteous (Good News Translation “respectable people”) is one of Matthew’s favorite expressions. See comments on 1.19 and 5.45. New English Bible has “virtuous people” (Jerusalem Bible “the virtuous”), New American Bible “the self-righteous,” and Barclay “those who are good.” The righteous means persons accepted within the Jewish religious structure. They are here contrasted with sinners, that is, persons not accepted within that structure. As in verse 10, so here also Good News Translation uses “outcasts” in place of sinners.
Quite often translators try to show what Matthew means by the righteous by saying “those people who obey the Law of Moses.”
The sentence may need to be restructured slightly, as in “The people I came to invite to follow me are the sinners, not the good people” or “I didn’t come to call the good people to be my followers, but the sinners.”
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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