sin

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. )
  • Kaingang: “break God’s word”
  • 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.”

In Warao it is translated as “bad obojona.” Obojona is a term that “includes the concepts of consciousness, will, attitude, attention and a few other miscellaneous notions.” (Source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. ). See other occurrences of Obojona in the Warao New Testament.

Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the Danish Bibelen 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. )

See also sinner.

complete verse (Job 24:19)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 24:19:

  • Kupsabiny: “Sinners will be lost/disappear in this world
    as the heavy fog disappears.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Just as dryness and heat dry out melted snow,
    just like that the grave will destroy sinners.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “As ice melts and vanishes in the heat, the sinners will- also -vanish from the earth.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Job 24:19

Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters: some interpreters think verse 19 is a proverbial saying. Whether that is true or not, it represents a sudden change of subject. Other examples of sayings in Job are found in 5.7 and 14.11-12. The two lines are not balanced, the second line being very short. Good News Translation fills out the comparison with “As snow vanishes in heat and drought, so a sinner vanishes….” Revised Standard Version translates the line quite literally. The verb snatch has to do service for both lines. However, in English snatch does not describe the action of heat on snow, which involves gradual disappearance as in melting. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translates “in the heat of the drought, the snow melts.” Good News Translation attempts to build the parallel around a common verb “vanish” in both lines and does it well. Bible en français courant does not attempt to have a single verb in both lines but allows the implication of disappearance in the simile: “Like snow in the sun, so they (that is, all who are guilty, as mentioned in the next line) disappear into the world of the dead.” All of these are adequate translation models. In languages in which snow is unknown and a borrowed word is not sufficiently understood by readers and listeners, it may be possible to substitute frost, hail, or dew. In such cases the simile will need to be shifted to say, for example, “Just as frost (hail, dew) disappears in the heat and drought….”

So does Sheol those who have sinned: this line has two words in the Hebrew, “Sheol (those) sinning.” The parallel event is pictured as Sheol snatching away the sinner (the verb being supplied from line a). This requires treating Sheol as a living being. Most modern translations adjust this line as noted above. According to the expression suggested for the first line, this line may be rendered, for example, “in the same way those who have sinned disappear into Sheol.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .