complete verse (Revelation 3:16)

Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 3:16:

  • Uma: “So, because you are just lukewarm [lit., sun-warm], you are not hot, you also are not cold, that is why I will spit/eject you out of my mouth.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But because your thinking/mind is vaccilating/doubting about me figuratively like water between hot and cold, therefore I will remove you/spit you out from my mouth.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “If only you were hot, or if not, then cold. But since you are only lukewarm, I spit you out.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “but since you are lukewarm, I will spit-you -out.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well, since you disgust me, I will just vomit you out like water in the mouth which is nauseating/makes-one-throw-up.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “But since halfheartedly you believe in me I am going to throw you out.” (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 .