sin

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” and likewise, many translations contain the “connotation of moral responsibility.”

  • Loma: “leaving the road” (which “implies a definite standard, the transgression of which is sin”)
  • Navajo (Dinė): “that which is off to the side” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: kasalan, originally meaning “transgression of a religious or moral rule” and in the context of the Bible “transgression of God’s commandments” (source: H. van der Veen in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 21ff. )
  • Kaingang: “break God’s word”
  • Bariai: “bad behavior” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Sandawe: “miss the mark” (like the original meaning of the Greek term) (source for this and above: Ursula Wiesemann in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 36ff., 43)

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 Warao it is translated as “bad obojona.” Obojona is a term that “includes the concepts of consciousness, will, attitude, attention and a few other miscellaneous notions.” (Source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. ). See other occurrences of Obojona in the Warao New Testament.

Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the Danish Bibelen 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. )

See also sinner.

Translation commentary on 2 Maccabees 12:42

And they turned to prayer, beseeching that the sin which had been committed might be wholly blotted out: The soldiers realized that their comrades deserved God’s judgment, but they still honored them as valiant soldiers who fought for the Jewish way of life, so they prayed that God would not hold this sin of idolatry against those who had died. Good News Bible omits and they turned to prayer, assuming that this has already been implied with “they praised the ways of the Lord” (verse 41) and “they begged him,” but this is not quite the way the Greek text presents it. The men praised God’s judgment (verse 41), but turned to prayer afterward (verse 42). The first half of this verse may be rendered “They then began to pray to the Lord, begging him to completely blot out this sin that the men had committed” or “… begging him, ‘Please forgive completely the sin that these men have committed.’”

And the noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin: For the noble Judas, Good News Bible has “Judas, that great man,” and Contemporary English Version says “Judas, that wonderful man,” because an adjective modifying a person’s name is rather awkward in English; but it will certainly be possible in many other languages. Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin means he urged them not to sin, because now they knew what the penalty would be. The people is literally “the multitude.” It may be translated “everyone” or “all the soldiers” (similarly New American Bible).

For they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen: See the model below.

An alternative model for this verse is:

• They then offered a prayer, begging God to forgive completely the sin these men had committed. The noble Judas then urged all the soldiers not to commit any sins, because they had seen for themselves that those who had sinned were killed in the battle [or, died fighting the enemy].

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.