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.”

Translation commentary on 1 Esdras 4:35

Is he not great who does these things?: The Greek text here is ambiguous. It is not clear whether the pronoun for he refers to the sun or to God as we discussed under question number 3 above. This rhetorical question can be translated “Is he not great who makes these things [that is, the earth, sky, and sun].” Contemporary English Version so interprets it, saying “God must be extremely strong to have created these things.” The Greek verb for does is in the present tense, but one would expect a reference to God’s creation to be in a past tense. However, that is not a conclusive proof against a reference to God here. In the next verse there is a textual problem that we must discuss at this point. In verse 35 Revised Standard Version has a footnote on “All God’s works,” saying that the Greek is literally “All the works.” God is not mentioned there in the Greek text. Near the end of verse 35 there occurs the phrase “with him.” There is a textual problem with this phrase, since many Greek manuscripts have a feminine pronoun here, saying “with her.” The pronoun “her” refers to “truth” (which is feminine in Greek). Considering that the paragraph continues speaking of truth (note especially “With her” in verse 39), we believe the best course is to work on the assumption that God is not mentioned until the climax in verse 40. This is certainly more satisfying from a literary point of view. So the rhetorical question Is not he great who does these things is better understood as referring to the sun, not to God (so Good News Bible, Revised English Bible). In verse 36 we will recommend the text “with her” instead of “with him” (so Good News Bible, Contemporary English Version, Revised English Bible). This question may be rendered “In order to do all this, the sun must be very great!”

But truth is great, and stronger than all things: For the meaning of truth as “reliability,” see our answer to question number 1 above. Here reliability is said to be great, like God, but also stronger than all things. In the story of the contest this is the first time that the expression stronger than all things is used, which is composed of the Greek adjective meaning “stronger” and the noun phrase meaning “all things.” Before this only a Greek verb meaning “to be stronger” was used. Not until now has the writer said that anyone or anything is stronger than all things. As discussed at 1 Esd 3.5, the problem with things is that one cannot, at least in English, refer to the king or to women as things. The Greek does not have a problem here, and many other languages will not either. We must beware of using any expression here which would include God (implying that reliability is greater than God), since the climax of the story is the affirmation that God is the most powerful of all forces. A model for this sentence that avoids this misunderstanding is “But reliability is great also, and it is the most powerful force on earth.”

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Esdras. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.