The Greek that is often translated as “trespass” or “transgression” in English is translated as “missing the commandment” in Kipsigis and “to step beyond the law” in Navajo (Dinė). (Source: Bratcher / Nida 1961)
In Tepeuxila Cuicatec it is translated as “thing not reached.” Marjorie Davis (in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 34ff. ) explains: “[This] implies that the goal was not reached, the task was not finished, or of finished, it was not satisfactorily done. According to the Cuicateco way of thinking of one does not what is expected of him, he offends [or: trespasses] and is an offence.”
The terms in the verse in 2 Corinthians that are translated as “death” and “life” in English are translated in Ixcatlán Mazatec as “physical death” and “spiritual life.”
The verse in Ephesians (in English: “dead”) is comparably translated as “spiritually dead.”
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. )
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.”
Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the DanishBibelen 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. )
The translation in Yatzachi Zapotec had to make the inclusion of the writer in these verse explicit by changing the second person plural pronoun (“you”) to an inclusive first person plural pronoun (“we,” including the group that is addressed in the letter). Otherwise the writer of the letter would have been specifically excluded. (Source: Inez Butler in Notes on Translation 16, 1965, p. 4-5)
Following are a number of back-translations of Ephesians 2:1:
Uma: “Previously, before you believed in Yesus, it was like you were already dead, you did not-yet have life that is from God because you sinned and transgressed the commands of God.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Na, you formerly, you had no new life from God; you were figuratively like dead people because of your bad doings and your sins.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Long time ago it was as if you were dead because you did not yet have life forever, because you did not yet at that time obey the commands of God and because of your evil behavior.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Previously, before you believed, it was as if you were dead concerning God on account of your sins.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Really as for you in the past, an example of you was, like dead in the sight of God through the big-size of your sin which was contrary to his will. There was nothing at all which came into your mind concerning acknowledging him.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “In past times it was very evil that we did. It could be said that it was as though we were dead because of the sins we had.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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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 choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
The readers’ condition In the past is described as that of (spiritual) death because of their disobedience and sins. The Greek noun translated disobedience is the plural form of “transgression” (see 1.7; Revised Standard Version “trespasses”), and it means the departure from a way or norm, in this case, of course, God’s law. The Greek noun for “sin” occurs only here in Ephesians.
In place of a phrase such as In the past, many languages use a past tense indicating a past state of being, for example, “You used to be.”
Spiritually dead is sometimes rendered as “dead, so to speak, as far as your spirits are concerned” or “… were concerned.” In rendering this rather bold figure of speech it is often necessary to mark it as a simile with an expression such as “as though it were” or “like.” In some instances it is also possible to translate spiritually dead as “dead, so to speak, as far as responding to God’s Spirit is concerned,” or “with regard to matters relating to God, you were as though you were dead.”
Because disobedience and sins must often be expressed by verb phrases, it may be necessary to restructure the phrase because of your disobedience and sins as “you were this way because you disobeyed God and sinned.”
Verse 2 continues without a break from verse 1: “in which (that is, ‘your sins’ of verse 1) you once walked….” The Greek verb “to walk” is often used in the figurative sense of manner of life, conduct, morality (also in 2.10; 4.1, 17; 5.2, 8, 15).
The temporal phrase At that time may be rendered in some languages as a so-called continuative past tense equivalent to “that is what you used to do.” At that time you followed the world’s evil way may often be expressed as “you used to follow the world’s evil way.”
The readers’ past conduct was controlled by (1) the world’s evil way (“the aiōn of this world”); the Greek noun, meaning “age, era, epoch” (see 1.21), is here practically personified (see its use further in 3.9 and Col 1.26), as it is in other places in Greek literature. Most translations, however, have “the way of this world” (Jerusalem Bible) or something similar.
Though in English the idea of “following a way” seems to be a perfectly legitimate manner in which to talk about behavior, such a phrase may mean nothing in some languages. Therefore, one may translate you followed the world’s evil way as “you lived just like evil people in the world live.” But this does not do full justice to the characterization of the world’s pattern of life as being essentially evil. Therefore it is better to translate “you lived in an evil way just like the people of this world live in an evil way.”
(2) “The prince of the authority of the air” (Revised Standard Version) is a way of speaking of evil spiritual forces, which were thought of as inhabiting the region between the earth and the sky; for the word “ruler” used of evil forces, see Mark 3.22; Matthew 12.24; John 12.31.
You obeyed the ruler of the spiritual powers in space may be rendered as “you obeyed the one who rules over the spirits in the sky.” But it is possible that such a rendering would be confused with a statement about Jesus ruling over the various supernatural rulers, authorities, powers, and lords mentioned in 1.21. Therefore it may be necessary to be rather specific in rendering this clause as “you obeyed the evil ruler who governs the evil spirits in the sky.”
(3) “The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Revised Standard Version); the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God (Good News Translation): by strict grammatical rules the word “spirit” should be in the accusative case parallel with the accusative of “ruler,” but it is in the genitive case, parallel with “authority,” and so some take it to mean “according to the ruler of the spirit….” Most, however, take this phrase to be independent of and parallel with the preceding one, the genitive case being explained as the result of the attraction of the preceding genitive phrase. This “spirit” is clearly the Devil, the ruler of all evil spiritual forces; it is not necessary, however, to use the word for “Devil” here. “The sons of disobedience” is a Semitic phrase, the word “sons” being used to express nature, character; it means the people who disobey God. Good News Translationcontrols translates the verb “at work in” (see its use in 1.11, 20); it describes such people as being dominated by the evil spirit.
Because of the problem of the appositional phrase in the final statement of verse 2, namely, the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God, it may be best to translate this statement as “this is the spirit who now rules the people who disobey God.” In some instances disobey is rendered quite literally as “refuse to do what someone says,” but in many instances the closest equivalent of disobey is “to refuse to listen to.”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1982. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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®).
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