leprosy, leprous

Click here to view graphically

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 .

if you are willing you can (Japanese honorifics)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.

In these verses, the Shinkaiyaku Bible expresses this both through the translation of what is translated in English as “if you are willing” with o-kokoro (お心), “heart, mind” with the respectful prefix o- and “you can” as o-deki (おでき), combining “able to do” (deki) with o-. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Mark 1:40-45 in Russian Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 1:40-45 into Russian Sign Language with a back-translation underneath:


Source: Russian Bible Society / Российское Библейское Общество

There was a man who had leprosy. His whole face and body was disfigured. He was not allowed to go out with people because the disease was very contagious. The man was wandering alone. Then Jesus passed by. The man began to beg Jesus with weeping, went up to him, fell on his knees and said to him:

— You heal people, make them healthy. Please heal me and make me well! I beg you! You can heal me!

Jesus looked at him and said:

— I want to give you health.

Jesus stretched out his hand. The leper tearfully touched his outstretched hand and, miraculously, his body and face began to change. Hooray! He was well!

Jesus said to him:

— I warn you sternly! Don’t tell anyone about this healing. Only go to Jerusalem, to the Temple, where the priests are. Go to the priest and show yourself to him. The priest will examine you and confirm that you are well. You must fulfill Moses’ instructions exactly, go there.

Leper:

— Yes, yes, of course!

He stood up out of joy that he was well. And he went around saying to everyone he met:

— I am well, I am clean. Jesus has healed me.

And so Jesus couldn’t go into the city. He began to look for deserted places. But people from all over Galilee came to Jesus, gathered around him in crowds and followed him.

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

Один человек был болен проказой. Все лицо и тело у него было обезображено. Ему нельзя было встречаться с людьми, потому что болезнь была очень заразная. Этот человек бродил один. И вот мимо проходил Иисус. Этот человек с плачем стал умолять Иисуса, подошел к нему, упал на колени и сказал ему:

— Ты исцеляешь людей, делаешь здоровыми. Прошу тебя излечить меня и сделать здоровым! Умоляю! Ты можешь меня исцелить!

Иисус посмотрел на него и сказал:

— Я хочу дать тебе здоровье.

Иисус протянул ему руку. Прокаженный со слезами притронулся к протянутой руке — и о чудо! его тело, лицо стали изменяться! Ура! Он здоров!

Иисус сказал ему:

— Строго тебя предупреждаю! О том, что я тебя исцелил, никому не говори! Молчи! Только иди в Иерусалим, в Храм, там священники. Ты приди священнику и покажи ему себя. Священник тебя осмотрит и подтвердит, что ты здоров. Ты должен в точности исполнить предписания Моисея, прийти туда.

Прокаженный:

— Да, да, конечно!

Он встал вне себя от радости, что он здоров. И он ходил и всем встречным говорил:

— Я здоров, я чист. Иисус исцелил меня.

И вот Иисус не мог зайти в город. Он стал искать безлюдные места. Но люди со всей Галилеи приходили к Иисусу, собирались вокруг него толпами и шли за ним.

Back-translation by Luka Manevich

<< Mark 1:29-39 in Russian Sign Language
Mark 2:1-12 in Russian Sign Language >>

Mark 1:40-45 in Mexican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 1:40-45 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)

Un hombre cuyo cuerpo estaba todo enfermo con llagas vio a Jesús y se acercó, se arrodilló y dijo: “Sé que tú me puedes sanar si tu quieres.”

Jesús sintió compasión y puso las manos sobre él (diciendo): “Sí quiero, tú seas sanado, limpio” y el hombre vio que su cuerpo se había aliviado, estaba sano.

Jesús dijo: “No digas nada a la gente, guarda silencio, es un secreto. Ahorita acercate a los sacerdotes a que te vean y examinen que todo tu cuerpo está bien y limpio, para que los sacerdotes sean testigos.

Sabes que la ley de Moisés dice que tú des un animal al sacerdote y él haga una ofrenda y entonces Dios ve que tu cuerpo está bien y limpio. Vete.”

El hombre se levantó y caminó y cuando vio la gente dijo: “Hace un rato mi cuerpo estaba enfermo con llagas pero hoy Jesús me sanó, ¡huy!” y empezó a advertirlo y contarlo y lo difundió por todos lados.

Jesus (pensó): Ay, él sí lo ha difundido, ahora no me puedo ir a los pueblos, entonces Jesús dejó (el pueblo) y se fue a otro lugar desierto pero de todos modos la gente iba a él.


A man whose whole body was ill with sores saw Jesus and approached him, he knelt down and said: “I know that you can heal me if you want.”

Jesus felt compassion, lay his hands on him (and said): “Yes, I want to, be healed, cleaned” and the man saw that his body had healed and he was well.

Jesus said: “Don’t say anything to the people, be silent, keep it a secret. Now go to the priests, that they see you and examine that your whole body is well and clean, so that the priests are your witnesses.

“You know that the law of Moses says that you have to give an animal to the priest and he makes a sacrifice and then God will see that your body is well and clean. Go now.”

The man got up and walked away and when he saw people he said: “Just now my body was ill with sores but today Jesus healed me, wow!” and he began to let people know and tell them and it spread all over the place.

Jesus thought: Oh no, he did spread it, now I can’t go to the villages anymore, so Jesus left and went to another place, a desert place, but still the people went to him.

Source: La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

<< Mark 1:35-39 in Mexican Sign Language
Mark 2:1-12 in Mexican Sign Language >>

formal pronoun: common people addressing Jesus

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

Here, the crowd (or individuals within the crowd) addresses Jesus with the formal pronoun, expressing respect.

complete verse (Mark 1:40)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 1:40:

  • Uma: “A person who had leprosy came to Yesus. He kneeled down requesting-help, he said: ‘If may, [i.e., if I may be so bold as to ask] please heal me.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “So-then a certain leper came to Isa. This person/man stood on his knees humbling himself before Isa and he really begged, he said, ‘If you want to you can heal me.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “There was a leper person who came to Jesus, and that person knelt down before Jesus begging him, saying, ‘f it’s good to your breath, you can heal me from this very filthy disease of mine.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “On one-occasion, a man who was sick with a fearful skin disease went to Jesus. He knelt before him entreating, ‘I know that you (sing.) are-able to remove this sickness of mine if you (sing.) want to.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Once there was a person who was a leper who went to Jesus for help. He bowed down and begged-for-pity. He said, ‘If supposing you want to, you really could heal me.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Shipibo-Conibo: “Then a certain Lazarus sickness possessor man came to Jesus, to ask. Having come and knelt down before him, he said: You wanting to. you can arrange me, he said.” (Source: James Lauriault in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 32ff. )
  • Balinese: “Then there came a man ill with [leprosy], beseeching Jesus. He knelt down before Him and said: ‘If you be so gracious, of course you can clean my stain.'” (Source: J.L. Swellengrebel in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 75ff. )