complete verse (Revelation 14:5)

Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 14:5:

  • Uma: “They do not lie, there is also not even a little their wrong.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “They have not been heard lying. They don’t have any sin.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “They have never been heard lying; they have never done anything bad.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “They absolutely hadn’t lied, because they have no faults/lacks.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Really not even once, they haven’t lied, really nothing can be criticized-negatively in them.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “These are the people who have never lied. God finds nothing in them to be angry about.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Revelation 14:5

In their mouth no lie was found: this translates the Greek text quite literally, but it is most unnatural English. Something like “they never lied” or Good News Translation “They have never been known to lie” expresses the meaning in a more natural way. This may be the writer’s way of saying that these people never denied they were Christians, as some may have done in an attempt to avoid persecution and martyrdom. The translation, however, must state quite precisely what the Greek text says. On the translation of lie see comments on “false” in 2.2. Some languages will express lie idiomatically; for example, “weave the mouth” (Yapese).

For they are spotless: this has to do with moral or spiritual purity. The same Greek word is used of Christ in Heb 9.14 and 1 Peter 1.19, and of people in Phil 2.15; Col 1.22; Jude 24. Some English translations have “blameless”; New American Bible, Revised has “unblemished,” and Barclay translates “faultless in their purity.” One may also express this as “they have never done any evil things.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .