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 19:19)

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

  • Kupsabiny: “The person who is clean is to sprinkle the one who is unclean on the third day and the seventh. The person who is being cleansed is to wash his clothes and bathe himself, and when it reaches the evening of that day he is seen to have become clean.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “A clean person must sprinkle that water on the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day. On the 7th day he must make the unclean person clean. Then the one who became clean must wash his clothes and bathe, and at sundown he will be clean.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “On the third and seventh day, a man who is-considered clean is-to-sprinkle the man who is unclean/dirty. And on the seventh day, the man who was-been-cleansed he must wash his clothes and take-a-bath, and at dusk he is- now -considered clean.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “On the third day and on the seventh day after that, the person who is acceptable to me must sprinkle some of that water on those who have become unacceptable to me. On the seventh day, the people who are performing that ritual to become acceptable to me again must wash their clothes and bathe. If they do that, on that evening they will become acceptable to me again.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Numbers 19:19

And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day: In many languages it will be more natural to have the phrase on the third day and on the seventh day at the beginning of this clause (so Good News Translation). New Living Translation provides a helpful model for this clause, saying “On the third and seventh days the person who is ceremonially clean must sprinkle the water on those who are defiled.”

Thus on the seventh day he shall cleanse him, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and at evening he shall be clean: See the comments on verse 7. On the seventh day after the defiled person has been cleansed by the water of purification, he must wash himself and his clothes, and then he will be ritually clean at sunset. Good News Translation begins this sentence with the phrase “On the seventh day,” which is helpful. Good News Translation also makes it clear that most of this sentence refers to the person who is purified, not to the person who purified him. New Living Translation also makes this clear by saying “Then on the seventh day the people being cleansed must wash their clothes and bathe themselves, and that evening they will be cleansed of their defilement.” New Living Translation uses the generic plural to refer to those purified since presumably both males and females required such ritual purification.

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 .