offering (qorban)

The Hebrew qorbān (קָרְבָּ) originally means “that which is brought near.” Most English Bibles translate it as “offering.” The Hebraic English translation of Everett Fox uses near-offering and likewise the German translation by Buber-Rosenzweig has (the neologism) Darnahung.

See also burnt-offering and offering.

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 (Leviticus 9:15)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Leviticus 9:15:

  • Kupsabiny: “When he had finished that, he brought the sacrifices for/of the people. He took the he-goat which was to be made sacrifice for sweeping away sins of the people and slaughtered (it), and then he offered (it) as he had done the former one.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Then he offered sacrifices for the people. Killing the goat for the people’s Purification Offering, he offered it like the first one.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Afterward, he brought the offerings in the middle which (are) for the people. He slaughtered the goat as an offering for becoming-clean for the people just-like he did for the first offering in-order-for him to-become clean.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Then Aaron brought the animals that would be sacrifices for the Israeli people. He took the goat and slaughtered it to be an offering to enable them to be forgiven for the sins they had committed, like he had done with the goat for his own offering.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Leviticus 9:15

Then: or “Afterwards,” or “After that” (Good News Translation), or “Next…” (New Jerusalem Bible). New American Bible has “Thereupon….” Most versions also begin a new paragraph at this point.

He: it may be important is some languages to specify Aaron in place of the pronoun in this case. This is especially true in those cases where this verse starts a new paragraph.

The people’s offering: Good News Translation takes the first part of this verse as a separate sentence and a kind of introduction to the section that follows. For this reason it has the plural “offerings,” which refers to the various offerings mentioned in the verses that follow. However, most versions retain the singular offering, which then refers only to the sin offering in this verse.

Like the first sin offering: this refers to the offering Aaron had previously made for his own sin (see verse 8). In some cases one may say “as he had done with the calf (or, bull).”

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 .