The Hebrew in Leviticus 6:5 that is translated as “one-fifth” in English was difficult to translate in a West African language that had no immediately corresponding concept of fraction, percentage or the like. So the translation that was used was: “Take the full (monetary) value, divide it into five equal piles, and add one more pile.” (See this blog entry )
swear / vow
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “swear (an oath)” or “vow” in English is otherwise translated as:
- “God sees me, I tell the truth to you” (Tzeltal)
- “loading yourself down” (Huichol)
- “speak-stay” (implying permanence of the utterance) (Sayula Popoluca)
- “say what could not be taken away” (San Blas Kuna)
- “because of the tight (i.e. ‘binding’) word said to a face” (Guerrero Amuzgo)
- “strong promise” (North Alaskan Inupiatun) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida)
- “eat an oath” (Nyamwezi) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
- “drink an oath” (Jju) (source: McKinney 2018, p. 31).
- “cut taboos” (Mairasi (source: Enggavoter 2004)
In Bauzi “swear” can be translated in various ways. In Hebrews 6:13, for instance, it is translated with “bones break apart and decisively speak.” (“No bones are literally broken but by saying ‘break bones’ it is like people swear by someone else in this case it is in relation to a rotting corpse’ bones falling apart. If you ‘break bones’ so to speak when you make an utterance, it is a true utterance.”) In other passages, such as in Matthew 26:72, it’s translated with an expression that implies taking ashes (“if a person wants everyone to know that he is telling the truth about a matter, he reaches down into the fireplace, scoops up some ashes and throws them while saying ‘I was not the one who did that.'”). So in Matthew 26:72 the Bauzi text is: “. . . Peter took ashes and defended himself saying, ‘I don’t know that Nazareth person.'” (Source: David Briley)
See also swear (promise) and Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’, or ‘No, No’.
altar
The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated as “altar” in English is translated in a number of ways:
- Obolo: ntook or “raised structure for keeping utensils (esp. sacrifice)” (source: Enene Enene)
- Muna: medha kaefoampe’a or “offering table” (source: René van den Berg)
- Luchazi: muytula or “the place where one sets the burden down”/”the place where the life is laid down” (source: E. Pearson in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 160ff. )
- Tzotzil: “where they place God’s gifts” (source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation, March 1965, p. 2ff.)
- Tsafiki: “table for giving to God” (source: Bruce Moore in Notes on Translation 1/1992, p. 1ff.)
- Noongar: karla-kooranyi or “sacred fire” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
- Uma: “offering-burning table” (source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “place for sacrificing” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “burning-place” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tibetan: mchod khri (མཆོད་ཁྲི།) or “offering throne” (source: gSungrab website )
- Bura-Pabir: “sacrifice mound” (source: Andy Warrren-Rothlin)
- Kalanga: “fireplace of sacrifice” (source: project-specific notes in Paratext)
The Ignaciano translators decided to translate the difficult term in that language according to the focus of each New Testament passage in which the word appears (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight
Willis Ott (in Notes on Translation 88/1982, p. 18ff.) explains:
- Matt. 5:23,24: “When you take your offering to God, and arriving, you remember…, do not offer your gift yet. First go to your brother…Then it is fitting to return and offer your offering to God.” (The focus is on improving relationships with people before attempting to improve a relationship with God, so the means of offering, the altar, is not focal.)
- Matt. 23:18 (19,20): “You also teach erroneously: ‘If someone makes a promise, swearing by the offering-place/table, he is not guilty if he should break the promise. But if he swears by the gift that he put on the offering-place/table, he will be guilty if he breaks the promise.'”
- Luke 1:11: “…to the right side of the table where they burn incense.”
- Luke 11.51. “…the one they killed in front of the temple (or the temple enclosure).” (The focus is on location, with overtones on: “their crime was all the more heinous for killing him there”.)
- Rom. 11:3: “Lord, they have killed all my fellow prophets that spoke for you. They do not want anyone to give offerings to you in worship.” (The focus is on the people’s rejection of religion, with God as the object of worship.)
- 1Cor. 9:13 (10:18): “Remember that those that attend the temple have rights to eat the foods that people bring as offerings to God. They have rights to the meat that the people offer.” (The focus is on the right of priests to the offered food.)
- Heb. 7:13: “This one of whom we are talking is from another clan. No one from that clan was ever a priest.” (The focus in on the legitimacy of this priest’s vocation.)
- Jas. 2:21: “Remember our ancestor Abraham, when God tested him by asking him to give him his son by death. Abraham was to the point of stabbing/killing his son, thus proving his obedience.” (The focus is on the sacrifice as a demonstration of faith/obedience.)
- Rev. 6:9 (8:3,5; 9:13; 14:18; 16:7): “I saw the souls of them that…They were under the table that holds God’s fire/coals.” (This keeps the concepts of: furniture, receptacle for keeping fire, and location near God.)
- Rev. 11:1: “Go to the temple, Measure the building and the inside enclosure (the outside is contrasted in v. 2). Measure the burning place for offered animals. Then count the people who are worshiping there.” (This altar is probably the brazen altar in a temple on earth, since people are worshiping there and since outside this area conquerors are allowed to subjugate for a certain time.)
See also altar (Acts 17:23).
In the Hebraic English translation of Everett Fox it is translated as slaughter-site and likewise in the German translation by Buber / Rosenzweig as Schlachtstatt.
complete verse (Leviticus 6:5)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Leviticus 6:5:
- Kupsabiny: “If a person has sinned in any way like this he must pay back for all those things and add twenty in a hundred on top of those things. The person shall pay back those things on the day he makes sacrifices for his sin to be appeased.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
- Newari: “or the matter of the false promise for which [he] must repay compensation by adding one part in five — he must repay the owner for all of this on the day of the guilt sacrifice.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
- Hiligaynon: “or whatever things which according-to his swearing he does-not-have/is-not in his-possession, but the truth (is he) has (them). He must return this to the owner not lacking anything-at-all, and he is-to- yet -add 20 percent of its value. He is-to-give this to the owner on the day he offers a sacrifice as payment for his sin.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
- English: “You must not only return anything like that to its owner, but you must also pay to the owner one-fifth of its value.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Translation commentary on Leviticus 6:4 - 6:5
What he took by robbery …: instead of repeating the entire list of ways a person may cheat his fellow Israelite, Good News Translation has summarized with the words “whatever he got by dishonest means.” If repetition of this type in the receptor language is unnatural, the same kind of summary statement may be made. Otherwise, the repetition is quite acceptable.
Become guilty: that is, when the guilt becomes known. The person would, of course, be guilty in the eyes of God all along. For this reason some translators may prefer to render this expression as “and his guilt becomes known” or something similar. New Jerusalem Bible has “and so becomes answerable,” while New American Bible translates (at 5.23) “since he has incurred guilt….” Compare also 4.13, 22, 27; 5.2-4, 19.
In addition to summarizing the various kinds of dishonesty, Good News Translation has also recast other elements in this verse. While the idea of being found guilty is given early in verse 4 in Revised Standard Version (reflecting the Hebrew structure), Good News Translation has transposed it toward the end of what is verse 5 in Revised Standard Version and combined it with the statement sometimes translated on the day of his guilt offering (see the discussion below). Since elements of verses 4 and 5 cannot be neatly separated, Good News Translation simply renumbers these two verses together as 4-5.
He shall restore: here, as distinct from 5.16 (see the comments at that point), the Hebrew verb implies the actual restitution of the object taken, and not just the payment of compensation.
And shall add a fifth to it: see 5.16.
On the day of his guilt offering: this may be understood rather to mean “on the day of his guilt”; that is, “as soon as he admits his guilt” or as in Good News Translation “On the day he is found guilty.” This was the understanding of the Septuagint. But it is probably better to understand it as meaning “on the day when he brings his guilt (or, repayment) offering.”
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 .
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