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 (John 15:24)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 15:24:

  • Uma: “‘In the midst of the people/crowds I did miracles that no-one else had ever done. If I had not done like that, they would not have been wrong. But they saw what I did, and they still hated me, and they also hated my Father.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “The deeds that I did in their presence no person has ever been able to do. If I had not done those deeds their sin would not hep be clear. But they were able to see my deeds and they hate me and my Father.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “They saw the miracles which I did which cannot be done by any human being. If they hadn’t seen these, they could not be blamed because of their bad actions to me. But they have seen them and in spite of this, they are against me and my Father.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “It would also not have been their sin if I had not shown them the amazing-things that no one else has done. But here-now they have seen all those, and they still hate me and my Father.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “If supposing I hadn’t done the deeds/works which took-place before their eyes of them all, which hadn’t been done by anyone at all in all this length of time, they would have nothing to answer for about the sin of rejecting me. But well, they really did see me, and it’s like they also have seen my Father through these deeds/works of mine which took place before their eyes. But in-spite-of-that, they hate me, including my Father.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “There wouldn’t be any sentence if I had not done any sign among them and what I do no one can do. Even though the people saw all the things I did, still they hated me and also my Father.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Father (address for God)

The Greek that is translated with the capitalized “Father” in English when referring to God is translated in Highland Totonac with the regular word for (biological) father to which a suffix is added to indicate respect. The same also is used for “Lord” when referring to Jesus. (Source: Hermann Aschmann in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 171ff. )

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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. In the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017, God the Father is addressed with mi-chichi (御父). This form has the “divine” honorific prefix mi– preceding the archaic honorific form chichi for “father.”

If, however, Jesus addresses his Father, he is using chichi-o (父を) which is also highly respectful but does not have the “divine” honorific. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also Lord and my / our Father.

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also pronoun for “God”.

Translation commentary on John 15:24

Good News Translation inverts the sentence order in the first part of this verse. In Greek it literally reads “If I had not done the works among them that no one else did, they would not have sin.” Here again the inversion of the sentence order is simply for the sake of attaining a more natural English style. As in verse 22, the phrase “to have sin” is taken by most commentators and translators with the meaning “to be guilty of sin.” For the translational difficulties in the first part of verse 24, see comments on verse 22, which is essentially parallel.

As it is translates the same two particles mentioned in verse 22.

In Greek the verb seen has no object expressed. Good News Translation supplies what I did, referring to the things earlier in the sentence. Jerusalem Bible (“they have seen all this”), Zürcher Bibel, Luther, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, and the alternative reading of New English Bible all follow this exegesis. However, some translations (Moffatt, Goodspeed, New English Bible, Phillips, Revised Standard Version, and La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée) take both “Jesus” and “my Father” as the objects of the verbs seen and hated. For example, New English Bible has “they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .