16Do you not know that, if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
The Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, and Greek that is translated in English typically as “obedience” or “obey” is translated in Tepeuxila Cuicatec as “thing hearing.” “For to hear is to obey.” (Source: Marjorie Davis in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 34ff. )
In Huba it is translated as hya nǝu nyacha: “follow (his) mouth.” (Source: David Frank in this blog post )
In Central Mazahua it is translated as “listen-obey” and in Huehuetla Tepehua as “believe-obey” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), and in Noongar as dwangka-don, lit. “hear do” (source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018).
In Kadiwéu, it is not possible to use a rhetorical question for the purpose of linking subjects as is done in this case in the Greek (and English) text. Instead, the translators translated this by altering the question to “What shall we do?” and retaining the following question. (Source: Glyn Griffiths in Notes on Translation June 1986, p. 25ff.)
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. )
The translation in Yatzachi Zapotec had to make the inclusion of the writer in these verse explicit by changing the second person plural pronoun (“you”) to an inclusive first person plural pronoun (“we,” including the group that is addressed in the letter). Otherwise the warnings would have not applied to the author of the letter as well. (Source: Inez Butler in Notes on Translation 16, 1965, p. 4-5)
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 6:16:
Uma: “Certainly you know, relatives: if for example we submit to a person and follow his commands, we become the slave of that person. So also with sin: if we keep on following the evil desires of our heart, we are enslaved by sin. The end result is we receive death that separates us from God. But if we submit to God, we are enslaved by God and he says we are straight in his sight.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “You (pl.) really know that if we (dual) are willing to be enslaved by a person, it means we (dual) really follow all his commandments. That person is our (dual) master/patron now and we (dual) are his slaves. Sin is like that also. If we (dual) habitually sin/are addicted to sinning, figuratively sin is our (dual) master and we (dual) now are its slave because we (dual) follow its commands. Finally we (dual) die and go to hell. But if God is the one we (dual) follow/obey, he becomes our (dual) master and he forgives us (dual) and considers us (dual) straight.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For you know that if we (incl.) subject ourselves to anyone so that he controls us, we have already become his slaves. And it’s just like that also with anyone who chooses as his master evil desires. He will be punished with death which has no end. But the person, by contrast, who subjects himself to God, God will consider him to be righteous.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “You ought to know that if you have-yourself-enslaved by a person in order to obey him, he of course is your master. So if sin is what you obey, sin just the same is your master and the result is that you will be separated from God to be punished. But if what you are following is your obedience to God, it will lead to your righteousness.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “You know that if we hunt for a boss to rule us, we are then in the hand of that boss. Therefore if we make sin to rule us, then we must die. But if we make God our ruler, then our sins are cleared.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The Greek, Hebrew, and Latin terms that are translated in English mostly as “righteous” as an adjective or personified noun or “righteousness” (also as “justice”) are most commonly expressed with concept of “straightness,” though this may be expressed in a number of ways. (Click or tap here to see the details)
Following is a list of (back-) translations of various languages:
Paasaal: “white heart” (source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Nuer: “way of right” (“there is a complex concept of “right” vs. ‘left’ in Nuer where ‘right’ indicates that which is masculine, strong, good, and moral, and ‘left’ denotes what is feminine, weak, and sinful (a strictly masculine viewpoint!) The ‘way of right’ is therefore righteousness, but of course women may also attain this way, for the opposition is more classificatory than descriptive.”) (This and all above from Bratcher / Nida except for Bilua: Carl Gross; Tiv: Rob Koops; Muna: René van den Berg)
Yatzachi Zapotec: “walk straight” (source for this and four previous: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22)
Aari: The Pauline word for “righteous” is generally rendered by “makes one without sin” in the Aari, sometimes “before God” is added for clarity. (Source: Loren Bliese)
Ekari: maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (the same word that is also used for “truth“; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
Guhu-Samane: pobi or “right” (also: “right (side),” “(legal) right,” “straightness,” “correction,” “south,” “possession,” “pertinence,” “kingdom,” “fame,” “information,” or “speech” — “According to [Guhu-Samane] thinking there is a common core of meaning among all these glosses. Even from an English point of view the first five can be seen to be closely related, simply because of their similarity in English. However, from that point the nuances of meaning are not so apparent. They relate in some such a fashion as this: As one faces the morning sun, south lies to the right hand (as north lies to the left); then at one’s right hand are his possessions and whatever pertains to him; thus, a rich man’s many possessions and scope of power and influence is his kingdom; so, the rich and other important people encounter fame; and all of this spreads as information and forms most of the framework of the people’s speech.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in Notes on Translation 1964, p. 11ff.)
The question with which Paul introduces this verse (see Revised Standard Version “do you not know?”) is emphatic and expects a positive answer; for this reason the Good News Translation has rendered the question by a statement: Surely you know that (see also New English Bible “You know well enough that” and New American Bible “You must realize that”).
The total content of this verse is a bit difficult because Paul tries to include so much in it. The meaning, however, is clear and comes out essentially the same in all translations. The first half of the verse is a reflection on a custom prevalent in Paul’s day, according to which a man would sell himself into slavery in order to survive; the second half of the verse (separated in the Good News Translation from the first part by a dash) takes up the idea of slavery and applies it both to the concepts of sin and obedience. Obedience in this verse must be understood in terms of obedience to God.
One should note that Paul uses the word death in at least three senses in his writings: (1) the biological fact of death as the judgment of God upon all human life (Romans 5.12-14); (2) the “spiritual death” of all men in their pre-Christian state (see Ephesians 2.1; Colossians 2.13); (3) eternal death as the final judgment of God on the life of sin (6.16).
Surrender yourselves as slaves may be translated as “give yourselves to people to become slaves of them,” “make yourselves slaves of others,” or “cause yourself to be a slave to someone.” Since, however, such a surrendering of one’s self as a slave is, in this context, more a condition than a temporal event, it may be more effectively expressed in some languages by an “if” clause—for example, “if you surrender yourself to a person to be his slave, and as such obey him, you are, in fact, a slave of the master whom you obey.” The second part of verse 16 may then be rendered as “you either obey sin and this causes your death, or you obey God and this causes you to be put right with him” or “… you obey God and as a result he puts you right with himself.”
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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