The Hebrew and Greek that is transliterated as “Lot” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign that signifies “cousin,” referring to the fact that Lot is Abraham’s cousin (see Genesis 11:27). (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Peter 2:7:
Uma: “But he helped a person named Lot, he took him out of the way beforehand out of Sodom, for that Lot was an upright person. All the time Lot dwelt in those villages, his heart was sad seeing the wicked [lit., bent] and unseemly behavior of those villagers.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “When that place was burned Lot was saved by God. Lot was a good person and he was troubled in his mind because of the immoral people and those who broke God’s law there in his place.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “God also punished long ago the people in the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah. The only inhabitants there whom He saved were Lot and company, for Lot, by contrast, was righteous. Lot was tormented as he thought about the filthy behaviour of his law-breaking companions. Day after day it was evil behaviour which he could hear about and coud see, and because of that his breath became very painful. And because of those very wicked people, God burned their towns so that everyone might understand what His punishment is going to be in the future on those peopple who will not obey His commands.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “But he saved Lot who resided-with them, because the mind of that righteous person was daily burdened and saddened because of the filthy and evil-things that his wicked/cruel townsmates did which he saw and heard.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “But he did save Lot who was righteous/straight in his sight. For the evil of his fellow citizens of Sodoma grieved Lot very painfully, which was that they kept on indulging evil desires without any self-control at all.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “But God saved Lot. This one was a good man, his mind was wounded when he say the way the evil people live a life of evil.” (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 “upright(ness)” and “just(ice)”) 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.)
(San Mateo del Mar Huave: “completely good” (the translation does not imply sinless perfection)
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)
Makonde: “doing what God wants” (in a context of us doing) and “be good in God’s eyes” (in the context of being made righteous by God) (note that justify / justification is translated as “to be made good in the eyes of God.” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
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.)
German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): Gerechtheit, a neologism to differentiate it from the commonly-used Gerechtigkeit which can mean “righteousness” but is more often used in modern German as “fairness” (Berger / Nord especially use Gerechtheit in Letter to the Romans) or Gerechtestun, also a neologism, meaning “righteous deeds” (especially in Letter to the Ephesians)
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains in the following way: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, sukuidas-are-ru (救い出される) or “save out of” or “deliver” is used.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
In this verse and the next, Lot is singled out to show that God does make a distinction between righteous and wicked people, and that he does rescue the righteous from danger. The story of Lot is found in Gen 19.1-29.
Rescued can also mean “delivered,” “saved,” “preserved a person from someone or something,” “set free.” It is not the same word as “preserved” in verse 5.
Lot is here described as righteous, a word with many meanings but which in this context means “good” (Good News Translation), “upright,” or perhaps “doing God’s will.” Lot himself is not described as a good man in the Genesis account; in fact the actions recounted there show Lot not as righteous but as a person of questionable character. There are, however, references in some literature, both Jewish and Christian, that refer to Lot as righteous. The best-known passage is Wisdom of Solomon 10.6: “Wisdom rescued a righteous man when the ungodly were perishing; he escaped the fire that descended on the Five Cities.” The phrase righteous Lot (Good News Translation “Lot, a good man”) may be rendered in certain languages as “the good man Lot.”
Lot’s attitude toward the conditions of his environment is now described: he was greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked. This can be treated simply as a description of Lot or as a reason for Lot being regarded as righteous: he deserves to be called righteous because of his attitude toward evil; this latter possibility relates this verse to verse 8, which has further descriptions of Lot as a righteous man.
The expression greatly distressed is the passive form of a verb that means “subdue,” “torment,” “wear out,” “oppress,” “wear down.” In some languages this idea can be expressed idiomatically. Examples are “had a tormented heart or liver,” “his heart or liver was very heavy,” or “press hard upon his heart or liver.”
Licentiousness is the same word found in 2 Peter 2.2. See comments there for discussion.
The wicked translates a term that can mean “unprincipled,” “lawless” (Good News Translation), “morally corrupt,” and is used of people who disregarded divine and human laws and ordinances. This term is only used here and in 3.17 (“lawless”), and nowhere else in the New Testament.
Alternative translation models for this verse are:
• And if God rescued the good man Lot, whose heart (or, liver) was tormented by the indecent conduct of lawless men….
Or:
• God rescued the good man Lot, whose heart (or, liver) was every heavy when he saw the indecent actions of morally corrupt men.
Or:
• God rescued Lot, who, because he was good, had a very heavy heart (or, liver) when he saw …
Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Second Letter from Peter. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
There was only one man living in Sodom who was not wicked. That was Lot. The wicked way the other people living in Sodom behaved saddened him, and God rescued him from the city before he burned it.
2:7b
distressed: This is a strong word which means “very upset, troubled.” Try to find a strong idiom in your language.
depraved conduct: This is the same word that Berean Standard Bible translated as “depravity” in verse 2. See the note on 2:2a.
the lawless: This refers to people who ignored the laws (human laws and God’s laws) and behaved as they wanted to.
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.
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