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.

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 (Revelation 2:22)

Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 2:22:

  • Uma: “So, I will strike her with a disease, and people who follow her deeds I will strike with big suffering, if they do not stop following those deeds of hers.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Listen, I will send her a sickness that will lay her on her back. All her companions who committed fornication/adultery (with her) I will also cause great/severe difficulties. If they don’t regret and leave their doings with that woman, I will really send this soon to them.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And now I will make her lie down because I will punish her with sickness. And you who join her in her vulgar behavior, I will punish you also with bitter torment if you do not abandon the works of this woman.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Therefore I will make-her extremely -sick so that she is not able-to-get-up from her bed. I will also exceedingly hardship those who have sinned-with her if they don’t repent of their having joined in her filthy (i.e. immoral/indecent) behavior.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Therefore I will now punish her. She will become diseased. So will those people who are her companions in doing those disgusting things. Really hard is what I will cause them to experience as long as they don’t repent and let go of those evil things they are doing.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Therefore I will cause that she will be put in bed and will be sick. I will cause that very much will be her suffering. And concerning all whom she deceived to commit fornication, if they do not turn their hearts to separate from the evil they do, I will also cause them to suffer very much.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Revelation 2:22

Behold: see 1.7. New Revised Standard Version now has “Beware, I am throwing her on a bed,” which is a rather strange use of the verb “Beware.” Probably “Look now” or “Pay attention” would be better. However, in English and many other languages, it will be stylistically more natural to omit an attention-getting word or phrase in this context and say something like Good News Translation, “And so,” “Therefore,” or something similar.

I will throw her on a sickbed: the Greek text says only “I throw her on a bed,” but this is obviously a punishment in the form of an illness; Revised English Bible translates “a bed of pain.” The Greek present tense of the verb “to throw” indicates that this will happen soon. It may be better to translate “I will punish her with an illness” or “I will make her sick.”

And those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation: in the Greek text the verb “to throw” is not repeated but is clearly implied. As the Revised Standard Version literal equivalence shows, the text may be read as two separate actions: “I will throw her on a bed and (I will throw) into great suffering those who commit adultery with her.” But it is possible that the text means that Christ will inflict the same punishment on Jezebel and on those who commit adultery with her. So Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “Look, I throw her on a bed of sharp distress, as well as her partners in adultery” (so also Good News Translation, Phillips). In other languages this will be expressed as “I will make her sick, and I will cause the ones who commit adultery with her to suffer terribly” or “I will throw both her and those who sleep with her onto a sleeping mat where they will suffer terribly.”

Again, it is possible that commit adultery here is worship of idols (as the related Greek word translated “practice sexual immorality” in 2.14 can mean); but the translation must be “commit adultery.” For the word translated tribulation see 1.9; it means suffering or distress.

Unless they repent of her doings: for repent see 2.5. The text, strictly speaking, refers only to Jezebel’s lovers, and they are told to repent of her evil doings. It is impossible for one person to repent of another’s sin. Her doings here refers to what they, at her bidding, are doing with her. So Barclay translates “unless they realize how wrong her conduct is, and stop participating in it.”

Alternate translation models for this verse are:

• Look! I will throw her on a bed (or, sleeping mat) where she will become ill. And I will cause those who commit adultery with her to suffer terribly, unless they are willing to stop (or, repent of) the evil things they are doing (with her).

Or:

• Therefore, I will cause her to become ill, and those who sleep with her to suffer terribly unless they repent of the 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 .