The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin that is translated as “soul” in English is translated in Chol with a term that refers to the invisible aspects of human beings (source: Robert Bascom), in Yagaria with oune or “shadow, reflection” (source: Renck, p. 81), and in Elhomwe as “heart” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext).
The Mandarin Chineselínghún (靈魂 / 灵魂), literally “spirit-soul,” is often used for “soul” (along with xīn [心] or “heart”). This is a term that was adopted from Buddhist sources into early Catholic writings and later also by Protestant translators. (Source: Zetzsche 1996, p. 32, see also Clara Ho-yan Chan in this article )
In Chichewa, moyo means both “soul” and “life.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Peter 2:8:
Uma: “In the midst of that kind of people, his heart continually hurt [i.e., was aggravated or sad], for he was an upright person, but every day he saw and heard their evil actions.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Every day he was grieved/sad in his liver when he heard and saw the bad that they were doing.” (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: “Since Lot was a righteous person, he really couldn’t accept that evil which he was observing every day from when he moved-there-to-live.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “This good man lived among the evil people, day by day his heart suffered because of what he heard and what he himself saw of all the evil the people did.” (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)
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®).
As indicated in Revised Standard Version, this verse is a sort of a parenthetical statement. Its purpose is to further describe Lot’s attitude toward the evil people in Sodom. As in the previous verses, Good News Translation has converted this verse into a complete sentence.
That righteous man refers of course to Lot. For righteous, see 2 Peter 2.7 above.
The verse mentions three events with Lot as the doer or agent:
1. He lived among them, with them referring to the wicked people. This seems to be a general statement of setting.
2. He saw and heard what at the end of the verse is described as their lawless deeds. This describes Lot’s daily experience. Lawless deeds (Good News Translation “evil actions”) may also be expressed as “criminal behavior,” or “bad behavior.”
3. As a result of what he saw and heard, he was vexed in his righteous soul. This is actually an expansion of “greatly distressed” in verse 7. The verb for vexed can also mean “tormented,” “disturbed,” or “tortured,” either in a physical or in a mental sense. Here it focuses on the latter, since Lot did not suffer physically but mentally as a result of the wickedness of the people around him. Righteous soul has the same meaning as righteous man, and therefore in translation these can be combined, as Good News Translation has done under “That good man.” Righteous soul refers to the person himself, or to the person’s inner self, hence “his good heart,” “that good man’s heart” (New English Bible), “a good man suffering spiritual agonies” (Phillips).
This verse has the only occurrence of the phrase day after day in the New Testament. In some languages translators will find idiomatic expressions like the English, but in others it may be necessary to use an expression like “day and night.”
A model for this is as follows:
• While this good man lived among them, day after day (or, day and night) he was tormented in his heart because of their evil actions.
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 .
This verse describes more about how Lot felt about his wicked neighbors. The wicked actions he saw and heard “tormented” his heart. “Tormented” is even stronger than “distressed” in verse 7.
lawless deeds: Although the Greek word for lawless that Peter used here is different from the one he used in 2:7b, the meaning is the same. (The Berean Standard Bible translates both Greek words as “lawless”. These were the actions of people who did not fear or respect God.
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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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