discharge

The Hebrew that is translated as “discharge” or similar in English is translated in Kalanga with tjigwele, a term that refers to sexually transmitted diseases. (Source: project-specific notes in Paratext)

In Kwere, the term ufila is used which implies pus (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext) and in Newari it is translated as “disease of the semen.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)

leprosy, leprous

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The Greek and Hebrew terms that are often translated as “leprosy (or: defiling/skin disease)” or “leprous (person)” in English is translated in Mairasi as “the bad sickness,” since “leprosy is very common in the Mairasi area” (source: Enggavoter 2004).

Following are various other translations:

  • Shilluk: “disease of animals”
  • San Mateo Del Mar Huave: “devil sore” (this and the above are indigenous expressions)
  • Inupiaq: “decaying sores”
  • Kaqchikel: “skin-rotting disease” (source for this and three above: Eugene Nida in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 34f. )
  • Noongar: “bad skin disease” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Usila Chinantec “sickness like mal de pinta” (a skin disease involving discoloration by loss of pigment) (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Hiligaynon: “dangerous skin disease” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “fearful skin disease” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “terrible rotting” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Newari: “infectious skin disease” (source: Newari Back Translation)

Targumim (or: Targums) are translations of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic. They were translated and used when Jewish congregations increasingly could not understand the biblical Hebrew anymore. Targum Onqelos (also: Onkelos) is the name of the Aramaic translation of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) probably composed in Israel/Palestine in the 1st or 2nd century CE and later edited in Babylon in the 4th or 5th century, making it reflect Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. It is the most famous Aramaic translation and was widely used throughout the Jewish communities. In Leviticus 13 and 14 it translates tzaraat as a “quarantining affliction” — focusing “on what occurs to individuals after they suffer the affliction; the person is isolated from the community.” (Source: Israel Drazin in this article ). Similarly, the English Jewish Orthodox ArtScroll Tanach translation (publ. 2011) transliterates it as tzaraat affliction.

See also stricken and leprosy healed.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Leprosy (Word Study) and Bible Translations Are for People .

Aaron

The name that is transliterated as “Aaron” in English is translated in Catalan Sign Language and Spanish Sign Language as “stones on chest plate” (according to Exodus 28:15-30) (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. )


“Aaron” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

In Colombian Sign Language, Honduras Sign Language, and American Sign Language, the chest plate is outlined (in ASL it is outlined using the letter “A”):


“Aaron” in ASL (source )

For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .

See also Moses, more information on Aaron , and this lectionary in The Christian Century .

complete verse (Leviticus 22:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Leviticus 22:4:

  • Kupsabiny: “It is not allowed for any person from the house of Aaron who has a serious skin disease or who has been dripping pus to eat that food which is given (as a gift) until he has been cleansed. Any person who has touched a corpse or anything that has touched a corpse is not clean. Nor is he clean if he has had an emission of semen,” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “’When any of Aaron’s sons has a contagious skin disease or a semen disease, he must not eat any holy item brought as an offering as long as he is unclean. One who touches a corpse, one who touches one who has had a discharge of semen, and ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “None of any one/[lit. whoever] of you (plur.) can-eat the offering if he has a dangerous disease on the skin, or there-is (something) is-coming-out from his genitals/sexual-organ because of his disease, or he touched/grasped an object which is- dirty/unclean because this (object) has-touched/has-contacted the dead, or he has-had-an- emission/[lit. has-come-out] of semen, or he has-touched an animal or person who is- considered dirty/unclean. He can- only -eat the offerings if he has- already -bathed, but he is-to-wait until afternoon when the sun has- now -gone-down and then he may- now -eat the offerings which are his food as priest.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘If any descendant of Aaron has a contagious skin disease or a discharge from his sexual organs, he is not allowed to eat any of the sacred offerings until he is cured. He will also be unfit for his work if he touches anything which has become unacceptable to me because it has touched a corpse, or if he touches anyone who as an emission of semen,” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Leviticus 22:4

Compare 7.19b-21. There is all the more reason to forbid to the priests what is not allowed to the lay people.

None of the line of Aaron: the word translated line here has the same root as “descendant” in verse 3. This expression may equally well be translated “No priest…” or “No man in the priestly family….”

Leper: better, “who has a dreaded skin disease,” as in Good News Translation. See 13.8 and the comments at the beginning of chapter 13.

Discharge: see 15.2.

An emission of semen: literally “a discharge,” but this word is used almost always of a discharge from the sexual organs. If the subject is a woman, it refers to the menstrual flow. But when the subject is a male, the reference is to seminal fluid. Some languages have very different ways of talking about this bodily function. One may say “pass the liquid of his manhood” or some other expression that is also far from the form of the source text. Compare 15.16-18.

The Revised Standard Version rendering of the last part of this verse could easily give the impression that it is forbidden to touch anything that has been in contact with a dead body, or to touch a man who has had an emission of semen. In translation these words should be structured in such a way as to avoid such an impression. It should be clear that a priest becomes unclean either by touching an object that has touched a corpse or by having an emission of semen himself. There is no mention in this verse of touching another person who has had such an emission.

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .