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 (Numbers 19:12)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 19:12:

  • Kupsabiny: “He must cleanse himself with the ceremonial water on the third day and the seventh, and that is when he shall become clean. But if he does not do that, that person is unclean.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “He must purify himself like this with that water on the third day and on the seventh day, then he will be clean. If he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “He must clean himself with water which is-used for becoming-clean on the third and seventh day, then he will- now -be-considered clean. But if he will- not -be-cleansed on the third and seventh day, he will- not -be-considered clean.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “On the third day and on the seventh day after touching a corpse, in order to become acceptable to me again, they must have sprinkled on them some of that water for removing the guilt of their sin. If they do not do that on both of those days, they will continue to be unacceptable to me.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Numbers 19:12

He shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean: The Hebrew verb rendered cleanse himself is the same one translated “purified themselves from sin” in 8.21 (see the comments there). Here it may be rendered “make himself ritually pure.” With the water is literally “with it” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Bijbel: Vertaling in opdracht van het Nederlandsch Bijbelgenootschap). Good News Translation says “with the water of purification.” Since the Hebrew word for “water” is plural and the Hebrew word for “ashes” is singular, strictly speaking the pronoun “it” refers to the ashes, which were kept outside the camp (verse 9). Contemporary Russian Version and Alter translate this phrase as “with the ashes,” which is in itself more accurate. However, it is clear from verse 9 that the ashes mixed with water would serve as the prescribed cleansing agent to rid people of ritual contamination. For this reason the most helpful model here is the one in Contemporary English Version, which is “with the water mixed with the cow’s ashes.” The Hebrew verb rendered be clean may be translated “be ritually clean.”

But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean: But renders well the Hebrew waw conjunction (literally “and”), which introduces a contrast here. The previous sentence gives the purifying instructions in positive terms, but here they are expressed again in negative terms, thus emphasizing them.

Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .