16And the gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the gift following many trespasses brings justification.
The Greek that is often translated as “trespass” or “transgression” in English is translated as “missing the commandment” in Kipsigis and “to step beyond the law” in Navajo. (Source: Bratcher / Nida 1961)
In Tepeuxila Cuicatec it is translated as “thing not reached.” Marjorie Davis (in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 34ff. ) explains: “[This] implies that the goal was not reached, the task was not finished, or of finished, it was not satisfactorily done. According to the Cuicateco way of thinking of one does not what is expected of him, he offends [or: trespasses] and is an offence.”
The Hebrew and Greek that is typically translated as “sin” in English has a wide variety of translations.
The Greek ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō) carries the original verbatim meaning of “miss the mark.” Likewise, many translations contain the “connotation of moral responsibility.” Loma has (for certain types of sin) “leaving the road” (which “implies a definite standard, the transgression of which is sin”) or Navajo uses “that which is off to the side.” (Source: Bratcher / Nida). In Toraja-Sa’dan the translation is kasalan, which originally meant “transgression of a religious or moral rule” and has shifted its meaning in the context of the Bible to “transgression of God’s commandments.” (Source: H. van der Veen in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 21ff. ).
In Shipibo-Conibo the term is hocha. Nida (1952, p. 149) tells the story of its choosing: “In some instances a native expression for sin includes many connotations, and its full meaning must be completely understood before one ever attempts to use it. This was true, for example, of the term hocha first proposed by Shipibo-Conibo natives as an equivalent for ‘sin.’ The term seemed quite all right until one day the translator heard a girl say after having broken a little pottery jar that she was guilty of ‘hocha.’ Breaking such a little jar scarcely seemed to be sin. However, the Shipibos insisted that hocha was really sin, and they explained more fully the meaning of the word. It could be used of breaking a jar, but only if the jar belonged to someone else. Hocha was nothing more nor less than destroying the possessions of another, but the meaning did not stop with purely material possessions. In their belief God owns the world and all that is in it. Anyone who destroys the work and plan of God is guilty of hocha. Hence the murderer is of all men most guilty of hocha, for he has destroyed God’s most important possession in the world, namely, man. Any destructive and malevolent spirit is hocha, for it is antagonistic and harmful to God’s creation. Rather than being a feeble word for some accidental event, this word for sin turned out to be exceedingly rich in meaning and laid a foundation for the full presentation of the redemptive act of God.”
In Kaingang, the translation is “break God’s word” and in Sandawe the original meaning of the Greek term (see above) is perfectly reflected with “miss the mark.” (Source: Ursula Wiesemann in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 36ff., 43)
Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the DanishBibelen 2020, comments on the translation of this term: “We would explain terms, such that e.g. sin often became ‘doing what God does not want’ or ‘breaking God’s law’, ‘letting God down’, ‘disrespecting God’, ‘doing evil’, ‘acting stupidly’, ‘becoming guilty’. Now why couldn’t we just use the word sin? Well, sin in contemporary Danish, outside of the church, is mostly used about things such as delicious but unhealthy foods. Exquisite cakes and chocolates are what a sin is today.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 5:16:
Uma: “The gift of God to us is different than the sin of Adam. That one person transgressed God’s command, the result being all people are guilty in God’s sight and must be punished. But from the free gift of God to us he wiped out our transgressions and said that we were straight in his sight.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “The love-gift of God is-not-the-same as/cannot-be-compared-with the result of the sin of Apu’ Adam. The result of that one sin of Apu’ Adam is that judgment is dropped by God on all human-beings that they are sinful and ought to be punished. But this is the love-gift of God, even-though all people sin they are forgiven and considered straight by him.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “In the same way also, that which Jesus did because of the becoming righteous which God makes possible, was not like the transgression that the other man, Adam, did. Because of the transgression of Adam who was only one, the whole of mankind was judged to be punished by death. And at the time when the transgressions of people were very many, God showed His kindness and He made a way so that we (incl.) might be considered righteous, just as if we had never done any transgressions.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Another distinction between God’s gift and the result of one man’s sin is this. The result of that one sin was that all people were condemned to be punished, but because of God’s grace the many sins of all people can be forgiven and they can be counted as righteous in God’s sight.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “When sin began, God said that sin will have the payment of punishment. But when after very many people had committed sin, God said that he would do the favor of clearing people who have sin.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
In Greek this verse begins with a negative statement (see Revised Standard Version “and the free gift is not like the effect of that one man’s sin”), which is changed into a positive statement by the Good News Translation and others (and there is a difference between God’s gift and the sin of one man; see Jerusalem Bible “the results of the gift also outweigh the results of the one man’s sin”).
The first sentence of verse 16 is essentially similar to the second clause of verse 15 and may, in fact, be translated in essentially the same way, though with perhaps slightly different wording in order to avoid an apparent duplication. But the closest equivalent may simply be “the way in which God gives freely to men is very different from the way in which one man sinned.”
At this point the analogy with Adam breaks down. After his one sin came the judgment of “Guilty”; but after so many sins comes the undeserved gift of “Not guilty!” In this way Paul demonstrates the superiority of God’s grace over Adam’s sin. Grace had a much more difficult road to travel than sin had. To use an illustration from everyday life, it is much easier for an infection to spread than it is to cure the infection once it has spread throughout the body.
Many sins refers to the sins of those persons who lived after Adam, and not to the sins of Adam himself, and so confirms the judgment reached in verse 12 regarding the clause because all men sinned.
In relation to words such as sin, judgment, and gift, one may need to introduce participants and employ verb expressions—for example, “after Adam sinned God judged him as guilty; but after so many people have sinned God shows his grace to them by saying, You are not guilty” or “… God gives them what they do not deserve by saying to them, You are not guilty.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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