truth

The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is usually translated in English as “truth” is translated in Luchazi with vusunga: “the quality of being straight” (source: E. Pearson in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 160ff. ), in Obolo as atikọ or “good/correct talk” (source: Enene Enene), and in Ekari as maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (esp. in John 14:6 and 17; 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. ).

The translation committee of the Malay “Good News Bible” (Alkitab Berita Baik, see here ) wrestled with the translation of “truth” in the Gospel of John (for more information click or tap here):

“Our Malay Committee also concluded that ‘truth’ as used in the Gospel of John was used either of God himself, or of God’s revelation of himself, or in an extended sense as a reference to those who had responded to God’s self-disclosure. In John 8:32 the New Malay translation reads ‘You will know the truth about God, and the truth about God will make you free.’ In John 8:44 this meaning is brought out by translating, ‘He has never been on the side of God, because there is no truth in him.’ Accordingly Jesus ‘tells the truth about God’ in 8:45, 46 (see also 16:7 and 8:37a). Then, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ becomes ‘I am the one who leads men to God, the one who reveals who and what God is, and the one who gives men life.” At 3:21 the translation reads ” … whoever obeys the truth, that is God himself, comes to the light …’; 16:13a appears as ‘he will lead you into the full truth about God’; and in 18:37 Jesus affirms ‘I came into the world to reveal the truth about God, and whoever obeys God listens to me.’ On this basis also 1:14 was translated ‘we saw his glory, the glory which he had as the Father’s only Son. Through him God has completely revealed himself (truth) and his love for us (grace)’; and 1:17 appears as ‘God gave the law through Moses; but through Jesus Christ he has completely revealed himself (truth) and his love for us (grace).'” (Source: Barclay Newman in The Bible Translator 1974, p. 432ff. )

Helen Evans (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) tells of the translation into Kui which usually is “true-thing.” In some instances however, such as in the second part of John 17:17 (“your word is truth” in English), the use of “true-thing” indicated that there might be other occasions when it’s not true, so here the translation was a a form of “pure, holy.”

unleavened bread

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “unleavened bread” in English is translated in various ways:

  • Chichimeca-Jonaz: “bread that doesn’t have its medicine that makes it puff up”
  • Teutila Cuicatec: “bread without its sour”
  • Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “bread that has no mother” (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Mairasi: “bread without other ingredient” (source: Enggavoter 2004)

wickedness

The Greek that is translated as “wickedness” or similar in English is translated as “delight in doing things against people” in Yatzachi Zapotec. (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (1Cor. 5:8)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, translators typically select the inclusive form (including the addressee).

Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.

complete verse (1 Corinthians 5:8)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Corinthians 5:8:

  • Uma: “So, come let us throw-out the old yeast, we throw-out our former behavior, like a dark heart and evil behavior. Let us worship God with our whole hearts [lit., with clean-clean hearts].” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Therefore because we (dual) trust in Isa Almasi, we (dual) should leave our (dual) bad customs and our (dual) sinful doings. And our (incl.) customs should be really good and we (dual) should wholeheartedly follow the true teaching.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And because of this, we also have our own celebration of the Feast of the Passover, and it’s necessary that we no longer use that old bread which has yeast, which is the evil and filthy activity, but rather the bread that we now use is bread without yeast, which is to say, the obeying of the true doctrine and telling the truth.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Therefore in our participating-in-the-fiesta, let us not eat bread that has yeast. What I mean to say is, in our lives as believers, let us not follow bad behavior but rather what is good and true in which is mixed absolutely no evil.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Therefore let us also include-ourselves in the fulfillment of this fiesta. What the Jews did in the past was, (they) removed from their houses all raising-agent for bread, that being like a picture of sin in their lives. Well just like that, let us also remove from our lives all evil and disgusting deeds. And this is what would be good for us to make-a-habit-of, concentrating our whole mind/inner-being on obeying the truth which comes from God.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Therefore it is necessary that truly you separate from evil, walk in all that is good.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on 1 Corinthians 5:8

The Greek for therefore (Good News Bible‘s “then”), as in 1.7; 3.7, 21; 4.5, introduces the conclusion of this part of Paul’s argument. Paul draws a moral and spiritual lesson from the fact that the Passover had to be celebrated by eating bread without leaven, or yeast.

Celebrate is a present tense in Greek as in English, but it should not be translated as “Let us keep on celebrating this feast.” The verb refers to the celebration of any feast, but the context indicates that the reference is to the Passover.

Good News Bible‘s “bread having” is implicit in the Greek text. The text is literally “not with old yeast nor with yeast of evil and wickedness.” The second phrase explains the first. Good News Bible is correct to combine these two phrases. The words malice and evil have very similar meanings here, thus Good News Bible‘s rendering “sin and wickedness.” Paul used two different words to make a good stylistic effect. Again Paul is using metaphors that in many languages need to be changed to similes. The bread with the leaven of malice and evil refers to lives full of malice and evil. The unleavened bread of sincerity and truth refers to lives that are full of these virtues. The meaning of the word that is translated sincerity is given in 2 Cor 2.17, where it refers to sincerity in speaking. Truth may have the wider meaning of “dependability” or even “being worthy of trust” (honesty). “Speaking the truth” is more likely to be the meaning here. An alternative way of restructuring 5.8 is: “When we celebrate our Passover, let us not do it with malice and evil, which are like bread made with yeast, but rather use sincerity and truthfulness, which are like unleavened bread.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .