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 4:5)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 4:5:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “Offer righteous sacrifices
    and rely on Jehovah.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “Offer the right sacrifices.
    and trust in God.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “[You (plur.)] trust in the LORD and offer to him right/fitting/proper offerings.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Eastern Bru:
    “You should have a straight good gall bladder when you worship God. And you should trust him completely.” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “You give the right gifts,
    and put your hearts to the LORD.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Toeni sadaka nyoofu,
    na kumtumaini BWANA.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “Also, offer to Yahweh the proper sacrifices, and continue trusting in him.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed. The first example is from a language where God is always addressed distinctly formal whereas the second is one where the opposite choice was made.

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight

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.

In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.

Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”

In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.

Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking (source Philip Noss).

In Dutch and Western Frisian translations, however, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

Translation commentary on Psalm 4:5

It is impossible to tell who is being addressed, whether the psalmist’s accusers (addressed in verses 2-4) or people in general. It may be that the Selah at the end of verse 4 indicates a shift in address, but this is not certain. Commentators are divided on the subject. Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation division of strophes implies that the same people are still being addressed (also New English Bible, New American Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Bible en français courant).

Right sacrifices are those required by the Law, those that Yahweh commanded (see Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). Some understand the Hebrew phrase “sacrifices of righteousness” to mean sacrifices offered in the right spirit (so Delitzsch, Kirkpatrick); New Jerusalem Bible has “Loyally offer sacrifice”; another possible rendering is “Offer sacrifice in the right way.”

For an understanding of the sacrificial system in the Old Testament, translators should consult a Bible dictionary; see also the chart of types of sacrifices in A Translator’s Handbook on Leviticus, page 5. There were different kinds of sacrifice, and animal sacrifices included the killing of cattle, sheep, goats, doves, and pigeons. A sacrificial bird or animal was brought to the altar, where it was killed by a priest, burned, and thereby offered to God as a gift. The Hebrew term used in verse 5 will occur in 27.6; 50.8; 51.19; 106.28; and 107.22.

Sacrifices presents few problems in translation where sacrificial rituals are practiced or at least known. Where a descriptive expression must be used, “gifts killed for God” or “gifts that are burned and given to God” offer reasonable alternatives. The translation put your trust in the LORD frequently requires a “heart” idiom such as “having a thick heart for someone” or “placed one’s heart upon another.” The two lines may be rendered “Give to the LORD the burned gifts which he requires, and rest your heart upon him.”

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 .

Psalm 4: Layer by Layer

The following is a presentation by the Psalms: Layer by Layer project, run by Scriptura .


Copyright © Scriptura

The overview in French (click or tap here to view the video):


Copyright © Scriptura

Psalm 4 as classical Chinese poetry

John Wu Ching-hsiung (1899-1986) was a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang, a renowned jurist who studied in Europe and the United States, and served as a professor of law at Soochow University, as a judge and the Acting President of the Shanghai Provisional Court, and as the Vice President of the Commission for the Drafting of the Constitution of the Republic of China, before becoming the Minister of the Republic of China to the Holy See. Wu has written extensively, not only on law but also on Chinese philosophy, and has also written his autobiography, Beyond East and West, in English. Wu was a devout Catholic and had a personal relationship with Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975). Wu began translating the the Psalms in 1938, and was encouraged by Chiang to translate the entire New Testament, which he corrected in his own handwriting. (…) John Wu Ching-hsiung’s translation of the Psalms (first draft in 1946, revised in 1975) was translated into Literary Chinese in the form of poetic rhyme, with attention paid to the style of writing. According to the content and mood of the different chapters of the original psalm, Wu chose Chinese poetic forms such as tetrameter, pentameter, heptameter [4, 5 or 7 syllables/Chinese characters per stanza], and the [less formal] Sao style, and sometimes more than two poetic forms were used in a single poem. (Source: Simon Wong)

John Wu Ching-hsiung himself talks about his celebrated and much-admired (though difficult-to-understand) translation in his aforementioned autobiography: (Click or tap here to see)

“Nothing could have been farther from my mind than to translate the Bible or any parts of it with a view to publishing it as an authorized version. I had rendered some of the Psalms into Chinese verse, but that was done as a part of my private devotion and as a literary hobby. When I was in Hongkong in 1938, I had come to know Madame H. H. Kung [Soong Ai-ling], and as she was deeply interested in the Bible, I gave her about a dozen pieces of my amateurish work just for her own enjoyment. What was my surprise when, the next time I saw her, she told me, “My sister [Soong Mei-ling] has written to say that the Generalissimo [Chiang Kai-shek] likes your translation of the Psalms very much, especially the first, the fifteenth, and the twenty-third, the Psalm of the Good Shepherd!”

“In the Autumn of 1940, when I was in Chungking, the Generalissimo invited me several times to lunch with him and expressed his appreciation of the few pieces that he had read. So I sent him some more. A few days later I received a letter from Madame Chiang [Soong Mei-ling], dated September 21, 1940, in which she said that they both liked my translation of the few Psalms I had sent them. ‘For many years,’ she wrote, ‘the Generalissimo has been wanting to have a really adequate and readable Wen-li (literary) translation of the Bible. He has never been able to find anyone who could undertake the matter.’ The letter ends up by saying that I should take up the job and that ‘the Generalissimo would gladly finance the undertaking of this work.’

“After some preliminary study of the commentaries, I started my work with the Psalms on January 6, 1943, the Feast of the Epiphany.

“I had three thousand years of Chinese literature to draw upon. The Chinese vocabulary for describing the beauties of nature is so rich that I seldom failed to find a word, a phrase, and sometimes even a whole line to fit the scene. But what makes such Psalms so unique is that they bring an intimate knowledge of the Creator to bear upon a loving observation of things of nature. I think one of the reasons why my translation is so well received by the Chinese scholars is that I have made the Psalms read like native poems written by a Chinese, who happens to be a Christian. Thus to my countrymen they are at once familiar and new — not so familiar as to be jejune, and not so new as to be bizarre. I did not publish it as a literal translation, but only as a paraphrase.

“To my greatest surprise, [my translation of the Psalms] sold like hot dogs. The popularity of that work was beyond my fondest dreams. Numberless papers and periodicals, irrespective of religion, published reviews too good to be true. I was very much tickled when I saw the opening verse of the first Psalm used as a headline on the front page of one of the non-religious dailies.”


A contemporary researcher (Lindblom 2021) mentions this about Wu’s translation: “Wu created a unique and personal work of sacred art that bears the imprint of his own admitted love and devotion, a landmark achievement comparable to Antoni Gaudi’s Basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain. Although its use is still somewhat limited today, it continues to attract readers for the aforementioned qualities, and continues to be used in prayers and music by those who desire beauty and an authentic Chinese-sounding text that draws from China’s ancient traditions.”

The translation of Psalm 4 from the 1946 edition is in pentameter (the 1946 edition did not have verse numbers either):

恃主常樂

呼籲公明主。為我伸冤屈。昔曾出我厄。令我得安逸。今者復求主。垂憐申舊德。 嗚呼濁世子。何時知曲直。狂妄安能逞。豈無黑與白。 須知主公明。忠良是所秩。我求主必應。何苦自作孽。 清夜當捫心。一省順與逆。 應獻忠誠祭。順命斯無失。
眾庶喁喁望。何日見時康。吾心惟仰主。願見主容光。 主已將天樂。貯我腔子裏。人情樂豐年。有酒多且旨。豐年誠足樂。美酒豈無味。未若我心中。一團歡愉意。 心曠神亦怡。登榻即成寐。問君何能爾。恃主而已矣。

Transcription into Roman alphabet:

shì zhǔ cháng lè

hū xū gōng míng zhǔ 。 wéi wǒ shēn yuān qū 。 xī zēng chū wǒ è 。 líng wǒ dé ān yì 。 jīn zhě fù qiú zhǔ 。 chuí lián shēn jiù dé 。 wū hū zhuó shì zǐ 。 hé shí zhī qū zhí 。 kuáng wàng ān néng chěng 。 qǐ wú hēi yǔ bái 。 xū zhī zhǔ gōng míng 。 zhōng liáng shì suǒ zhì 。 wǒ qiú zhǔ bì yīng 。 hé kǔ zì zuò niè 。 qīng yè dāng mén xīn 。 yī shěng shùn yǔ nì 。 yīng xiàn zhōng chéng jì 。 shùn mìng sī wú shī 。
zhòng shù yóng yóng wàng 。 hé rì jiàn shí kāng 。 wú xīn wéi yǎng zhǔ 。 yuàn jiàn zhǔ róng guāng 。 zhǔ yǐ jiāng tiān lè 。 zhù wǒ qiāng zǐ lǐ 。 rén qíng lè fēng nián 。 yǒu jiǔ duō qiě zhǐ 。 fēng nián chéng zú lè 。 měi jiǔ qǐ wú wèi 。 wèi ruò wǒ xīn zhōng 。 yī tuán huān yú yì 。 xīn kuàng shén yì yí 。 dēng tà jí chéng mèi 。 wèn jūn hé néng ěr 。 shì zhǔ ér yǐ yǐ 。

With thanks to Simon Wong.