your sins are forgiven

The Greek that is translated as “your sins are forgiven” in English” are translated in Lengo as “I forgive your sins.”

Paul Unger (see here) explains:

“In many languages, ‘demoting the subject’ is a key function of the passive. But the Lengo language of the Solomon Islands has no passive option. All sentences are active, which means we can’t hide ‘whodunnit’ with a passive.

“This raises significant issues for translating the New Testament (…) [since] 3,588 of the Greek New Testament’s 28,114 verbs are passive.

“What is a Lengo translator to do? Sometimes the subject isn’t demoted, so we can simply switch subject and object to make an active sentence. In Mark 1:9, ‘Jesus was baptized by John’ becomes ‘John baptized Jesus.’ Sometimes we can add a generic third-person subject. Mark 1:14 changes from ‘after John had been arrested’ to ‘after they had arrested John.’

“But those strategies don’t always work. Take, for example, the healing of the paralyzed man. Rather than healing the man at the outset, Jesus, seeing the faith of his friends, said to the paralyzed man, ‘My child, your sins are forgiven.’

“By using a passive to demote the subject, Jesus set up a scene rich with meaning beyond a ‘mere’ healing. Jesus doesn’t say who forgave the man’s sins, just that it was accomplished. The teachers of the law picked up on the passive right away: ‘Why does this man speak that way? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ Jesus then tips His hand by asking which was easier—to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk?’ And then the punchline: ‘So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . get up, pick up your mat, and go home.’

“We thought hard about how to render this section in Lengo. In the end, we had Jesus say, ‘My child, I forgive your sins.’ It’s somewhat unsatisfying to have Jesus tip His hand before the crucial moment, but it is an accurate and clear translation. Sometimes, the language compels us to make tradeoffs in attaining those hard goals.”

forgive, forgiveness

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The concept of “forgiveness” is expressed in varied ways through translations. Following is a list of (back-) translations from some languages:

  • Tswa, North Alaskan Inupiatun, Panao Huánuco Quechua: “forget about”
  • Navajo (Dinė): “give back” (based on the idea that sin produces an indebtedness, which only the one who has been sinned against can restore)
  • Huichol, Shipibo-Conibo, Eastern Highland Otomi, Uduk, Tepo Krumen: “erase,” “wipe out,” “blot out”
  • Highland Totonac, Huautla Mazatec: “lose,” “make lacking”
  • Tzeltal: “lose another’s sin out of one’s heart”
  • Lahu, Burmese: “be released,” “be freed”
  • Ayacucho Quechua: “level off”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “cast away”
  • Chol: “pass by”
  • Wayuu: “make pass”
  • Kpelle: “turn one’s back on”
  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “cover over” (a figure of speech which is also employed in Hebrew, but which in many languages is not acceptable, because it implies “hiding” or “concealment”)
  • Tabasco Chontal, Huichol: “take away sins”
  • Toraja-Sa’dan, Javanese: “do away with sins”
  • San Blas Kuna: “erase the evil heart” (this and all above: Bratcher / Nida, except Tepo Krumen: Peter Thalmann in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 25f.)
  • Eggon: “withdraw the hand”
  • Mískito: “take a man’s fault out of your heart” (source of this and the one above: Kilgour, p. 80)
  • Western Parbate Kham: “unstring someone” (“hold a grudge” — “have someone strung up in your heart”) (source: Watters, p. 171)
  • Hawai’i Creole English: “let someone go” (source: Jost Zetzsche)
  • Cebuano: “go beyond” (based on saylo)
  • Iloko: “none” or “no more” (based on awan) (source for this and above: G. Henry Waterman in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 24ff. )
  • Tzotzil: ch’aybilxa: “it has been lost” (source: Aeilts, p. 118)
  • Suki: biaek eisaemauwa: “make heart soft” (Source L. and E. Twyman in The Bible Translator 1953, p. 91ff. )
  • Warao: “not being concerned with him clean your obonja.” Obonja 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.)
  • Martu Wangka: “throw out badness” (source: Carl Gross)
  • Mairasi: “dismantle wrongs” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Nyulnyul: “have good heart” (source )
  • Kyaka: “burn the jaw bones” — This goes back to the pre-Christian custom of hanging the jaw bones of murdered relatives on ones door frame until the time of revenge. Christians symbolically burned those bones to show forgiveness which in turn became the word for “forgiveness” (source: Eugene Nida, according to this blog )
  • Koonzime: “remove the bad deed-counters” (“The Koonzime lay out the deeds symbolically — usually strips of banana leaf — and rehearse their grievances with the person addressed.”) (Source: Keith and Mary Beavon in Notes on Translation 3/1996, p. 16)
  • Ngbaka: ele: “forgive and forget” (Margaret Hill [in Holzhausen & Ridere 2010, p. 8f.] recalls that originally there were two different words used in Ngbaka, one for God (ɛlɛ) and one for people (mbɔkɔ — excuse something) since it was felt that people might well forgive but, unlike God, can’t forget. See also this lectionary in The Christian Century .
  • Amahuaca: “erase” / “smooth over” (“It was an expression the people used for smoothing over dirt when marks or drawings had been made in it. It meant wiping off dust in which marks had been made, or wiping off writing on the blackboard. To wipe off the slate, to erase, to take completely away — it has a very wide meaning and applies very well to God’s wiping away sins, removing them from the record, taking them away.”) (Source: Robert Russel, quoted in Walls / Bennett 1959, p. 193)
  • Gonja / Dangme: “lend / loan” (in the words of one Dangme scholar: “When you sin and you are forgiven, you forget that you have been forgiven, and continue to sin. But when you see the forgiveness as a debt/loan which you will pay for, you do not continue to sin, else you have more debts to pay” — quoted in Jonathan E.T. Kuwornu-Adjaottor in Ibadan Journal of Religious Studies 17/2 2010, p. 67ff. )
  • Kwere: kulekelela, meaning literally “to allow for.” Derived from the root leka which means “to leave.” In other words, forgiveness is leaving behind the offense in relationship to the person. It is also used in contexts of setting someone free. (Source: Megan Barton)
  • Merina Malagasy: mamela or “leave / let go (of sin / mistakes)” (source: Brigitte Rabarijaona)

See also this devotion on YouVersion .

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 (Luke 5:23)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 5:23:

  • Noongar: “What good words can I say? ‘Your sins are forgiven’, or ‘Get up and walk’.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “I am the Son of Man, I really do have authority in the world to forgive sins. But if I say that lame person there: ‘Your (sing.) sins are forgiven,’ you do not know whether his sins are really forgiven or not. But if I say: ‘Get up and walk,’ you will see whether it happens or not.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “What is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven now’ or ‘Stand up and walk.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Which is it that can be done by just a person – forgiving his sins or healing him so that he might get up and carry his hammock and walk?” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “It is admittedly easier to say, ‘Your (sing.) sins are forgiven’ than ‘Get-up to walk.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Which is easier to say? Is it, ‘Your sins are forgiven’, or to say, ‘Stand up, and go now’? Isn’t it so that they are the same that only the supernatural-power of God can do them?” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Luke 5:23

Exegesis:

ti estin eukopōteron, eipein … ē eipein ‘which is easier to say, … or to say?’

eukopōteron ‘easier’ with following infinitive.

egeire kai peripatei ‘get up and walk.’ For egeirō cf. on 1.69. Here the active has intransitive meaning (also in 6.8; 8.54); it is addressed to somebody who is lying down and is unable to get up (different in 6.8), which means that here egeire is part of the healing and in 6.8 it is preparing for it.

peripateō ‘to walk,’ literally and figuratively; here it is to be taken in a strictly literal meaning.

Translation:

Easier: in Ekari ‘easy’ is expressed by ‘do-able,’ i.e. what can be done.

Or may have to be rendered here by ‘than’ (Balinese, lit. ‘compared with’), because of the comparative.

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.

SIL Translator’s Notes on Luke 5:23

5:23

Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk?’: This is a rhetorical question. Jesus asked this question because he wanted the religious leaders to think carefully about his authority. He did not ask it to get information from them.

Some ways to translate this are:

• As a rhetorical question. For example:

Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
Is it easier for me to tell this crippled man that his sins are forgiven or to tell him to get up and walk? (Contemporary English Version)

• As a statement. For example:

Consider whether it would be easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk.’

Use a form that will express the meaning most clearly in your language.

Which is easier: The phrase Which is easier introduces a question that compares two things. Jesus compared these two ideas: forgiving sins and healing a paralyzed man. He did not say that either one of these things was easy. They are both impossible for man to do by himself. Only someone with God’s power and authority can do either one of them.

Consider how people in your language would ask such a question. If they do not use comparatives such as easier, you may be able to say:

Which is easy and which is difficult…?
-or-
Is this easy to say…or is this easy to say…?
-or-
Saying to the man your sins are forgiven or get up and go, between these two things, which one is easy?

Jesus wanted the religious leaders to think about the answer to this question. He implied that it was easier to say “your sins are forgiven,” because there would be no way to prove whether this had happened. However, both actions are impossible for anyone to do by himself. They are only possible by the power and authority of God.

5:23b

to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’: The sentence ‘Your sins are forgiven’ is a quotation within a quotation. In some languages it may be difficult to understand such an embedded quotation. It may be more natural to translate the embedded quotation as indirect speech. For example:

Is it easier for ⌊a man⌋ to say that ⌊he⌋ forgives ⌊someone’s⌋ sins…?
-or-
Is it easier for me to tell this crippled man that his sins are forgiven…? (Contemporary English Version)

Your sins are forgiven: Use the same expression that you used in 5:20b.

5:23c

or to say, ‘Get up and walk?’: The sentence ‘Get up and walk’ is also an embedded quotation. As with “Your sins are forgiven,” some languages may prefer to use indirect speech here. For example:

…or for ⌊a man⌋ to tell ⌊a paralyzed person⌋ to get up and walk?
-or-
…or to tell him to get up and walk? (Contemporary English Version)

General Comment on 5:23a–c

It may be clearer to change the order in this verse. Here are two examples:

23bThere are two things I could say to this man: “Your sins are forgiven” 23cand “Get up and walk.” 23aWhich one is easier?
-or-

23bI can say to the paralyzed man, “Your sins are forgiven.” 23cOr I can say, “Get up and walk.” 23aWhich one is easy ⌊and which one is difficult⌋?

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