complete verse (Revelation 3:15)

Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 3:15:

  • Uma: “He says: I know what you do. You are not cold, you also are not hot. It would be better if you were just cold, or if you were just hot.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “I do know your doings that you are between following me and not. You are figuratively like water that is neither hot nor cold. I wish/want that if you follow me, really follow, if not, na, then not at all.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “I know everything that you are doing. You are not hot and you are not also cold, which is to say, you are not My enemies and you are also not My followers.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “I know your way-of-life. You can-be-compared to lukewarm water which is not hot or cold. I wish you were hot or cold,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Really nothing is lost on me of all your doings. You don’t oppose me at all but also your believing/obeying me isn’t whole-hearted, but on the contrary, it’s terribly insipid. I wish your believing/obeying me were whole-hearted, for I really can’t accept believing which is not genuine, which is just talk (lit. only on the beak). Admittedly my anger/hatred is really big against those who don’t believe, but my anger is much greater against these who are making pretence.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “I know what all you are doing. I know that you are neither separating from me nor are you strengthening yourselves to follow my word. But it is needed that you decide what you are going to do, whether it be to separate from me or to strengthen yourselves to follow my word.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Revelation 3:15 – 3:16

I know your works: see comments at 2.2.

You are neither cold nor hot: this is a judgment on their spiritual condition. Three times the phrasecold nor hot appears in these two verses. In certain languages it will be necessary to dispense with the figurative language and say something like “You are neither unresponsive nor enthusiastic toward me.”

Would that: a wish can be expressed by “How I wish (that)” (Good News Translation, Revised English Bible), “I wish that” (New Revised Standard Version), or “I want you to be….”

You are lukewarm: in matters of spirit and Christian life, they are indifferent, ineffective, impotent. The symptoms of their spiritual indifference are given in verses 17-18. In some languages these metaphors of heat, cold, and lukewarmness may not make sense, and an appropriate figure must be used, or else the figurative language must be abandoned altogether; for example, “You are totally ineffective” or “You are only half-hearted in your faith.”

I will spew you out of my mouth: this is a figure of disgust and rejection. The glorified Christ will no longer tolerate such lukewarm, ineffective believers. They are like salt that has lost its saltiness, which will be thrown out as useless (Matt 5.13). Again, in some languages it will be necessary to abandon the metaphors or figurative language and say, for example, “I will reject you.”

In the verbal phrase I will spew, will represents a Greek verb that adds a note of urgency and divine authority (see 1.19).

An alternative translation model for these verses is:

• I know all the things that you have done. In your lives you are neither unresponsive nor enthusiastic toward me. I wish you were either of these. But, because you are only half-hearted in your belief in me, I will reject you.

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 .