complete verse (Hebrews 5:13)

Following are a number of back-translations of Hebrews 5:13:

  • Uma: “People who nurse, they are still babies. That means, their hearts are not yet clear [i.e., mature] to distinguish what is true and what is false.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “If a person is just always drinking milk, that means he is still a small child, he isn’t used yet to follow the good and to turn-his-back-on/reject the bad.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “When we (incl.) are still little children the only thing we can receive is milk, which is to say, we cannot yet know the teaching about righteousness.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The person like that, he is not able-to-distinguish correct and righteous behavior.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “That person who is still like a child, because milk is still his only food, he has no idea yet of whether actions are good or evil.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Concerning those who are nursing, they are babies at the breast and do not know the straight word or what isn’t.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

righteous, righteousness

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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:

  • Bambara, Southern Bobo Madaré, Chokwe (ululi), Amganad Ifugao, Chol, Eastern Maninkakan, Toraja-Sa’dan, Pamona, Batak Toba, Bilua, Tiv: “be straight”
  • Laka: “follow the straight way” or “to straight-straight” (a reduplicated form for emphasis)
  • Sayula Popoluca: “walk straight”
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl, Kekchí, Muna: “have a straight heart”
  • Kipsigis: “do the truth”
  • Mezquital Otomi: “do according to the truth”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “have truth”
  • Yine: “fulfill what one should do”
  • Indonesian: “be true”
  • Navajo (Dinė): “do just so”
  • Anuak: “do as it should be”
  • Mossi: “have a white stomach” (see also happiness / joy)
  • 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)
  • Central Subanen: “wise-good” (source: Robert Brichoux in OPTAT 1988/2, p. 80ff. )
  • Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac: “live well”
  • Mezquital Otomi: “goodness before the face of God” (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl: “the result of heart-straightening” (source: Nida 1947, p. 224)
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “entirely good” (when referred to God), “do good” or “not be a debtor as God sees one” (when referred to people)
  • Carib: “level”
  • Tzotzil: “straight-hearted”
  • Ojitlán Chinantec: “right and straight”
  • 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)
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “having sin taken away” (Source: Nida 1952, p. 144)
  • Nyamwezi: wa lole: “just” or “someone who follows the law of God” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Venda: “nothing wrong, OK” (Source: J.A. van Roy in The Bible Translator 1972, p. 418ff. )
  • 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)
  • “did what he should” (Eastern Highland Otomi)
  • “a clear man, good [man]” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter 2004)

See also respectable, righteous, righteous (person), devout, and She is more in the right(eous) than I.

Translation commentary on Hebrews 5:13 – 5:14

These verses expand the contrast in verse 12, but in the opposite order. Notice, by comparison with Revised Standard Version, how Good News Translation changes the structure of verse 13. This is in order to bring child closer to drink milk. In the Greek, “for he is a child” is emphasized by being placed in a clause of its own at the end of the sentence.

Has to drink milk implies what Revised Standard Version‘s “lives on milk” states explicitly, that the readers cannot “digest” solid food, and so take nothing but milk. Anyone who has to drink milk may be expressed as “Anyone who can only drink milk” or “Anyone who can consume only milk.” It is important in using a term for drink to make certain that this agrees with a term such as milk. In some languages, for example, one “eats milk” but “drinks water.”

In determining an appropriate word for child it is necessary to use an expression which refers to an individual before the age of weaning. Some translations state that the child is still unweaned, that is, is still a baby (Bijbel in Gewone Taal, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Moffatt “a mere babe”; Translator’s New Testament “infant”; compare Knox; Barclay, Jerusalem Bible “baby”). Many languages make an important distinction in age-grading between persons who are still unweaned and those who have been weaned, though in some societies complete weaning may not occur until a child is two or three years of age.

It is difficult to be sure of the exact meaning of the phrase which Revised Standard Version translates “the word of righteousness,” and Good News Translation the matter of right and wrong. For “word,” common language translations generally agree with Good News Bible in choosing a general translation, matter; Bible de Jérusalem has the more specific “teaching,” and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “reasoning.” Knox and Translator’s New Testament (see Translator’s New Testament Glossary) speak of a particular “message” or “account.” For “righteousness,” common language translations, New English Bible, and some other translations suggest a general, moral meaning such as right and wrong; compare Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch second edition “the language of adults.” Jerusalem Bible, Translator’s New Testament, and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible agree with Revised Standard Version in using religious words like “righteousness” and “righteous”; Knox and New American Bible suggest this quality more strongly by choosing terms related to holiness.

This section does not speak in detail about special Christian teaching, so the context favors a general meaning such as Good News Translation‘s the matter of right and wrong. An expanded translation or paraphrase of verses 13-14 might read as follows:

• 13 Anyone who lives on milk is a baby who does not know by experience what is right. 14 But mature people, on the other hand, can take solid food, because they have learned by practice and training to be sensitive to the difference between good and evil.

Without any experience in the matter of right and wrong might wrongly suggest that a small child has never done anything which is either right or wrong. Verses 13 and 14 obviously emphasize the recognition or knowledge of what is right or wrong. It may be appropriate to translate without any experience in the matter of right and wrong as “without being able to know the difference between right and wrong” or “without having learned, as yet, what the difference is between what is right and what is wrong.”

Verse 14 completes the contrast; see Revised Standard Version “But”; Bible en français courant “On the contrary.”

Solid food, on the other hand, is for adults may be expressed as “but in contrast with what happens to children, solid food is for those who are grown up” or “… for those who are already men and women.”

Good News Translation fourth edition, adults, who through practice…, smooths and simplifies the rather heavy translation of the first three editions: adults, who have trained and used their tastes to know the difference between good and evil, but the metaphor of athletic training is weakened. The Greek word for practice involves physical or mental fitness, for example, in Sirach 30.14, where it means that a person is “in good condition.” The rare word which Revised Standard Version translates “faculties” does not refer only to intellectual powers; in the Septuagint of Jeremiah 4.19 it includes emotional awareness.

There are certain dangers involved in a literal translation of who through practice are able to distinguish between good and evil, for this might be misunderstood to mean that only those who have done both good and evil would know the difference between good and evil. In other words, an individual must learn how to sin in order to know what sin is. Through practice might better be expressed in some languages as “by constantly using their minds,” “by repeatedly thinking in their hearts,” or “by carefully and repeatedly considering in their hearts.”

Distinguish means “make the right use of one’s powers or faculties” (so Moffatt, New American Bible, Barclay; New English Bible, Translator’s New Testament “perceptions”). Simpler words would be “senses” (Bijbel in Gewone Taal, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), “moral sense” (Bible de Jérusalem), and “minds” (Jerusalem Bible). In this context there does not seem any reason to see in the passive verb translated “trained” (Revised Standard Version) an implied reference to the activity of God.

To distinguish between good and evil may be rendered as “to tell the difference between what is good and what is evil” or “to decide in one’s heart that this is good and that is bad.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Hebrews 5:13

5:13–14

In 5:13–14, the author explained the figure of speech “You need milk, not solid food” (5:12c). People who do not know what God says about righteousness are like babies who only drink milk (5:13). Mature believers know the difference between right and wrong. They are like mature people who eat “solid food.” (5:14).

5:13a-b

For everyone who lives on milk is still an infant, inexperienced in the message of righteousness: This verse indicates that people who only pay attention to simple teaching are like babies who still drink only milk. They do not understand much about the word of righteousness.

In some languages it is necessary to make the comparison more explicit. For example:

for a person like that who lives only on the “milk” ⌊of simple teachings⌋ is like an infant. He does not know much about the word of righteousness.
-or-
A person ⌊who only understands simple teachings⌋ is like an infant living on milk. He is not trained in the teaching about righteousness.

5:13a

everyone who lives on milk is still an infant:
The phrase everyone who lives on milk is still an infant refers to someone who has no nourishment except milk because he is a baby. He cannot digest any food except milk until he becomes old enough to eat other food. In many cultures infants take only milk from their mother’s breast until they are ready to eat other food.

Another way to translate this meaning is

anyone who drinks/takes-in only milk because he is still ⌊like⌋ a baby

5:13b

inexperienced in the message of righteousness: The phrase inexperienced in the message of righteousness has several interpretations. The most likely interpretations are:

(1) It means that a person “is unskilled in the matter of what is right.” It indicates that he does not know how to decide what is right and what is wrong. For example:

without any experience in the matter of right and wrong (Good News Translation)

(Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation (2004))

(2) It means that a person “does not understand the teaching about righteousness.” It indicates that he does not understand the teaching about Christ as high priest atoning for his people’s sins and making them righteous. For example:

not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness (New International Version)

(New International Version, NET Bible, New Century Version)

(3) It means that a person “is not experienced in speaking about what is right.” For example:

lack the experience to talk about what is right (God’s Word)

(God’s Word)

Some English versions are ambiguous. It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). It fits best with the contrast in 5:14 with the mature who know how to discern between right and wrong. Another way to translate this meaning is:

is not able to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong

For more information, see just, sense C3, in Key Biblical Terms.

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