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 (Psalm 38:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 38:4:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “My guilt has depressed me
    like very heavy goods surpassing my strength.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “My whole body has sunk into sin.
    [The sin] has become too heavy to bear.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “I am-about-to drown now because of my sins,
    this (is) like a heavy burden which I am- not -able-(to-carry).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Eastern Bru:
    “That sin is like my body is covered all completely causing me to sink. That sin is very heavy, I am no longer able to carry it.” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “My sin defeats me
    like very heavy things always that I carry.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Mabaya yangu yamekifunika kichwa,
    kama vile mzigo mzito ambao siwezi kuubeba.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “All my sins are like a flood that covers my head;
    they are like a load that is very heavy, with the result that I cannot carry it.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Psalm 38:3 - 38:4

The psalmist describes his illness as no soundness in my flesh and no health in my bones. Both flesh and bones denote the total being, the whole body. It is impossible to say with certainty what his disease was, if, in fact, the language describes an actual disease and is not simply conventional language in a lament of this kind to describe complete physical and emotional distress. Some commentators conjecture a skin disease, such as leprosy. In verse 3b health translates shalom (see comments on “peace” in 29.11).

The psalmist recognizes his illness as being due to Yahweh’s indignation and to his own sin; there is no contradiction here, since in the thinking of the psalmist God’s anger is caused by the sinning. The translator will notice that Good News Translation has placed the cause, “your anger,” before “great pain” in the first line, and placed the cause, “my sins,” after “diseased” in the second line. The translator should examine which set of relations is most natural in the receptor language, and which provides the reader with the best understanding and poetic effect. The Hebrew order is condition then cause in both lines.

In verse 4 the psalmist likens his sins to a flood which threatens to drown him (literally they have gone over my head), and to a burden too heavy for me. Good News Translation has taken my iniquities … over my head to be like a “flood.” If the translator adopts this possibility, very often some syntactic adjustments will be required; for example, “I am like a man drowning in a flood, my sins are so many” or “My sins are so many they are like a flood and I am drowning.” One may prefer to avoid the flood imagery and say, for example, “My sins pile up higher than my head”; see New Jerusalem Bible “My sins stand higher than my head.” The figure of a burden, or a load, is in many languages a natural one to use with sin or guilt, or with unwelcome responsibilities or activities.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .