neighbor

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The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “neighbor” in English is rendered into Babatana as “different man,” i.e. someone who is not one of your relatives. (Source: David Clark)

In North Alaskan Inupiatun, it is rendered as “a person outside of your building,” in Tzeltal as “your back and side” (implying position of the dwellings), in Indonesian and in Tae’ as “your fellow-man,” in Toraja-Sa’dan it is “your fellow earth-dweller,” in Shona (translation of 1966) as “another person like you,” in Kekchí “younger-brother-older-brother” (a compound which means all one’s neighbors in a community) (sources: Bratcher / Nida and Reiling / Swellengrebel), in Mairasi “your people” (source: Enggavoter 2004), in Mezquital Otomi as “fellow being,” in Tzeltal as “companion,” in Isthmus Zapotec as “another,” in Teutila Cuicatec as “all people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), and in most modern German translations as Mitmensch or “fellow human being” (lit. “with + human being”).

In Matt 19:19, Matt 22:39, Mark 12:31, Mark 12:33, Luke 10:27, Luke 10:29 it is translated into Ixcatlán Mazatec with a term that refers to a person who is socially/physically near. Ixcatlán Mazatec also has a another term for “neighbor” that means “fellow humans-outsiders” which was not chosen for these passages. (Source: Robert Bascom)

In Noongar it is translated as moorta-boordak or “people nearby” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

complete verse (Deuteronomy 22:26)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 22:26:

  • Kupsabiny: “Do not do anything to the girl, because she has no mistake that makes her deserve to be killed. The girl is like a person who was murdered.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “To the woman, however, nothing must be done. She has not done anything for which she needs to be killed. This is like some person attacking and killing his Israelite neighbor.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “You (plur.) do- no -harm the woman; she has- not -sinned that she should be-punished of death. This case is just like a case of a man who attacked his fellowman and killed him.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “You must not punish the young woman, because she did not do anything for which she deserves to be executed. This case is like when one man attacks another man in the countryside and murders him,” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 22:26

To the young woman you shall do nothing: Good News Translation has “nothing is to be done to the girl,” and Contemporary English Version is more direct, with “Do not punish the woman at all.”

No offense punishable by death: not a capital offense (see 21.22).

This case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor: the raped woman is like the murdered man; she is the innocent party, she is the victim.

Neighbor: a fellow Israelite. Good News Translation and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh have “another man [or, person].”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .