adultery

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The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “adultery” in English (here etymologically meaning “to alter”) is typically understood as “marital infidelity.” It is (back-) translated in the following ways:

  • Highland Totonac: “to do something together”
  • Yucateco: “pair-sin”
  • Ngäbere: “robbing another’s half self-possession” (compare “fornication” which is “robbing self-possession,” that is, to rob what belongs to a person)
  • Kaqchikel, Chol: “to act like a dog” (see also licentiousness)
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: “to measure the depth of the river of (another’s) marriage”
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “married people using what is not theirs” (compare “fornication” which is “unmarried people using what is not theirs”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Purari: “play hands with” or “play eyes with”
  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “talk secretly with spouses of our fellows”
  • Isthmus Zapotec: “go in with other people’s spouses”
  • Tzeltal: “practice illicit relationship with women”
  • Huehuetla Tepehua: “live with some one who isn’t your wife”
  • Central Tarahumara: “sleep with a strange partner”
  • Hopi: “tamper with marriage” (source for this and seven above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • German: Ehebrecher or “marriage breaker” / Ehe brechen or “breaking of marriage” (source: Zetzsche)
  • In Falam Chin the term for “adultery” is the phrase for “to share breast” which relates to adultery by either sex. (Source: David Clark)
  • In Ixcatlán Mazatec a specification needs to be made to include both genders. (Source: Robert Bascom)
  • Likewise in Hiligaynon: “commit-adultery-with-a-man or commit-adultery-with-a-woman” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

See also adultery, adulterer, adulteress, and you shall not commit adultery.

complete verse (Deuteronomy 5:18)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 5:18:

  • Kupsabiny: “Do (sing.) not commit adultery.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Do not commit adultery. ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘ ‘You (plur.) shall- not -commit-adultery.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Do not commit adultery/have sex with anyone other than your spouse.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 5:18

Neither shall you commit adultery: it is not necessary to begin with Neither, a literal translation of the common Hebrew conjunction waw that may be translated “and,” “but,” “also,” “neither,” and so on, depending on the immediate context. However, in languages where using a conjunction will be natural style, a translator may choose to include it. To commit adultery is for a married individual to have sexual relations with some person who is not his or her spouse. In the context the commandment is directed to men, and adultery was to have relations with another man’s wife or with a woman who was promised in marriage to another man (see 22.22-25).

In translation the prohibition should apply to both sexes. If an equivalent term cannot be found in a language, it may be necessary to say, for example, “You shall not sleep with someone else’s spouse.” Care must be taken not to use a term that is considered crude or vulgar; euphemisms or polite ways of referring to sexual intercourse can be readily found in most languages; and many languages have their own standard idioms or euphemisms for adultery.

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 .