adultery

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The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “adultery” in English (here etymologically meaning “to alter”) is typically understood as “marital infidelity.” It is (back-) translated in the following ways:

  • Highland Totonac: “to do something together”
  • Yucateco: “pair-sin”
  • Ngäbere: “robbing another’s half self-possession” (compare “fornication” which is “robbing self-possession,” that is, to rob what belongs to a person)
  • Kaqchikel, Chol: “to act like a dog” (see also licentiousness)
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: “to measure the depth of the river of (another’s) marriage”
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “married people using what is not theirs” (compare “fornication” which is “unmarried people using what is not theirs”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Purari: “play hands with” or “play eyes with”
  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “talk secretly with spouses of our fellows”
  • Isthmus Zapotec: “go in with other people’s spouses”
  • Tzeltal: “practice illicit relationship with women”
  • Huehuetla Tepehua: “live with some one who isn’t your wife”
  • Central Tarahumara: “sleep with a strange partner”
  • Hopi: “tamper with marriage” (source for this and seven above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • German: Ehebrecher or “marriage breaker” / Ehe brechen or “breaking of marriage” (source: Zetzsche)
  • In Falam Chin the term for “adultery” is the phrase for “to share breast” which relates to adultery by either sex. (Source: David Clark)
  • In Ixcatlán Mazatec a specification needs to be made to include both genders. (Source: Robert Bascom)
  • Likewise in Hiligaynon: “commit-adultery-with-a-man or commit-adultery-with-a-woman” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

See also adultery, adulterer, adulteress, and you shall not commit adultery.

divorce

In Ghari different words are used for a husband divorcing a wife and a wife divorcing a husband. (Source: David Clark)

In Mairasi the term that is used means “discard.” (Source: Enggavoter 2004)

See also divorced (woman).

Mark 10:1 - 12 in Mexican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 10:1-12 into Mexican Sign Language with back-translations into Spanish and English underneath:


© La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)

Jesús y los discípulos salieron de Capernaúm y fueron a Judea, y después Jesús y los discípulos fueron a otro lugar cerca del río Jordán.

Otra vez muchas personas vinieron y Jesús los enseñaba como siempre era su costumbre.

Los Fariseos (decidieron) probar a Jesús con una pregunta y fueron a él diciendo: “Jesús, una pregunta: permite la Ley que un hombre decida a divorciar a una mujer?”

Jesús dijo: “¿Qué dice lo que Moisés escribió hace mucho, qué manda?”

Los Fariseos dijeron: “Moisés escribió que es permitido que un hombre escribe una carta de divorcio y se la da a la mujer para que se vaya.”

Jesús (respondió): “¿Porqué lo escribió Moisés en la Ley? Porque todas las personas son obstinadas y no entienden, por eso.

De verdad, hace mucho Dios hizo el mundo y lo dio al hombre y la mujer, por eso está escrito en el rollo, que un hombre se separe de sus padres cuando se case y los dos juntos se convierten en una persona.

Yo les advierto que Dios da que los dos ya están juntados eb matrimonio, y no pueden ser saparados.”

Jesús y los discípulos se fueron a casa y los discípulos preguntaron: “¿Qué significa lo que ahorita explicaste?”

Jesús respondió: “Si un hombre se casa con una mujer y después la divrocia y se casa con otra, el hombre es llamado adúltero, traiciona a la mujer.

En la misma manera una mujer que se casa con un hombre y después lo divorcia y se casa con otro es llamado adúltera.”


Jesus and the disciples left Capernaum and went to Judea, and afterwards Jesus and the disciples went to another place close to the River Jordan.

Again many people came and Jesus taught them as was always his custom.

The Pharisees (decided to) test Jesus with a question and they went up to him saying: “Jesus, a question: does the Law permit a man to decide to divorce a woman?”

Jesus said: “What did Moses write long ago, what did he order?”

The Pharisees said: “Moses wrote that a man is allowed to write a letter of divorce and give it to the woman to send her off.”

Jesus (answered): Why did Moses write it in the Law? Because all the people are stubborn and don’t understand, that’s why.

“Truly, long ago God made the world and gave it to a man and a woman, and that is why it is written in the scroll that a man will separate from his parents when he is newly married and the two together will become one person.

“I tell you that God gives that the two of them are already joined together in marriage and they cannot be separated.”

Jesus and the disciples went home and the disciples asked: “What is the meaning of what you explained just now?”

Jesus (answered): “If a man marries a woman and then divorces her and marries someone else, the man is called an adulterer, he betrays the woman.

“In the same way if a woman marries a man and then divorces him and marries someone else, the woman is called an adulteress.”

Source: La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

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Mark 10:1-12 in Russian Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 10:1-12 into Russian Sign Language with a back-translation underneath:


Source: Russian Bible Society / Российское Библейское Общество

Here is Galilee, here is Judea, here is the Jordan River. Jesus is going from Galilee to Judea and to the land beyond the Jordan. Crowds of people followed Jesus. Jesus was teaching the people as usual.

The Pharisees heard that Jesus was coming. They decided among themselves, “Let’s put him to the test.” They asked Jesus:

— If a man and a woman are married, can they divorce afterward?

Jesus said to them:

— In the Law that Moses gave you, what is commanded?

The Pharisees replied:

— Moses authorized the man to write a certificate of divorce and divorce his wife by giving her this document.

Jesus said:

— Moses authorized a divorce by writing a divorce certificate just because you are stubborn. In the very beginning, when God created man and woman, this was the rule given: “A man grows up and leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife. Together they become as one person.” What God has joined together, man must not separate.

Some time later, the disciples asked Jesus in the house:

— Recently there was a conversation about divorce. Is it wrong to divorce?

Jesus replied:

— Any man who divorces his wife and marries another woman, he is violating marital fidelity. In the same way, any woman who divorces her husband and then marries another man is violating marital fidelity.

Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):

Вот Галилея, вот — Иудея, вот — река Иордан. Иисус направляется из Галилеи в Иудею и в земли за Иорданом. Толпы народа шли за Иисусом. Иисус, как обычно, учил людей.

Фарисеи прослышали, что идет Иисус. Они решили между собой: «Давайте его испытаем». Они спросили Иисуса:

— Если мужчина и женщина вступили в брак, то потом им можно развестись?

Иисус им сказал:

— В Законе, который вам дал Моисей, что велено?

Фарисеи ответили:

— Моисей разрешил мужчине написать разводное свидетельство и развестись с женой, дав ей этот документ.

Иисус сказал:

— Моисей разрешил разводиться, написав разводное письмо, только потому что вы упрямы. В самом начале, когда Бог сотворил мужчину и женщину, такое было правило дано: «Мужчина, вырастает и оставляет отца и мать и соединяется со своей женой. Вдвоем они становятся как бы один человек». То, что соединил Бог, то человеку разъединять нельзя.

Спустя какое-то время, ученики спросили Иисуса в доме:

— Недавно был разговор о разводе. Разводиться нельзя?

Иисус ответил:

— Любой мужчина, который разводится со своей женой и женится на другой женщине, он нарушает супружескую верность. Так же и любая женщина, которая развелась со своим мужем, а потом выходит замуж за другого мужчину, нарушает супружескую верность.

Back-translation by Luka Manevich

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complete verse (Mark 10:11)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 10:11:

  • Uma: “He said to them: ‘He who divorces his wife and marries again with another woman, he commits-adultery-against his first wife.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “He answered them, he said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another one, he commits adultery and he sins against his first wife.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus said to them, ‘A man who married another woman because he has divorced his wife, he sins against the wife he has divorced.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Jesus said, ‘Any man who divorces his wife and then marries another woman, he commits-adultery (lit. womans-with) and-so he sins against his wife.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “They were answered by Jesus, saying to them, ‘Whichever man will divorce his wife and marry someone else, he really has-behaved-immorally against that wife of his.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Honorary "are" construct denoting God (“say”)

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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.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.

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

Translation commentary on Mark 10:11

Exegesis:

kai gamēsē allēn ‘and he should marry another’: the meaning is, naturally, ‘another woman’ (not ‘another wife’).

gameō (cf. 6.17) ‘marry.’

moichatai ep’ autēn ‘he commits adultery with reference to her’: the great majority of commentators and translators understand autēn ‘her’ to refer to the first woman, whom the husband divorced (not the second, whom he married). Lagrange: “with regard to her: for it is with respect to her and to her rights that the second act is (an act of) adultery.” Translator’s New Testament and N. Turner, however, understands it to mean ‘commits adultery with her’ (i.e. the second woman); Turner appeals to Septuagint Jer. 5.8 chremetizō epi ‘neigh after’: he cannot, however, cite any instance of Mark’s using epi with the accusative meaning ‘with.’

epi ‘upon,’ ‘with reference to’: in a hostile sense, ‘against’ (cf. its use with this meaning in 3.24, 25, 26; 13.12; 14.48).

Translation:

The clause introduced by whoever may be shifted to a conditional clause, as is required by many languages, ‘if any one does…, he….’

Against her is not only a difficult expression for exegesis, but also a complicated phrase to translate. In some languages the reference must be made more specific, to be meaningful at all, e.g. ‘commits adultery against the first woman’ (Amganad Ifugao). In Huastec one may say ‘commits sin against her.’ In Conob an idiomatic phrase is commonly used ‘did evil against her eyes,’ but in some languages (e.g. Yaka, Tzeltal) the phrase is best omitted, since ‘adultery’ is understood with reference to the first woman, and any attempt to translate this phrase is either highly redundant or is understood as applying somehow to the second woman.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .