neighbor

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The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “neighbor” in English is rendered into Babatana as “different man,” i.e. someone who is not one of your relatives. (Source: David Clark)

In North Alaskan Inupiatun, it is rendered as “a person outside of your building,” in Tzeltal as “your back and side” (implying position of the dwellings), in Indonesian and in Tae’ as “your fellow-man,” in Toraja-Sa’dan it is “your fellow earth-dweller,” in Shona (translation of 1966) as “another person like you,” in Kekchí “younger-brother-older-brother” (a compound which means all one’s neighbors in a community) (sources: Bratcher / Nida and Reiling / Swellengrebel), in Mairasi “your people” (source: Enggavoter 2004), in Mezquital Otomi as “fellow being,” in Tzeltal as “companion,” in Isthmus Zapotec as “another,” in Teutila Cuicatec as “all people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), and in most modern German translations as Mitmensch or “fellow human being” (lit. “with + human being”).

In Matt 19:19, Matt 22:39, Mark 12:31, Mark 12:33, Luke 10:27, Luke 10:29 it is translated into Ixcatlán Mazatec with a term that refers to a person who is socially/physically near. Ixcatlán Mazatec also has a another term for “neighbor” that means “fellow humans-outsiders” which was not chosen for these passages. (Source: Robert Bascom)

In Noongar it is translated as moorta-boordak or “people nearby” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

Translation commentary on Sirach 29:14

A good man will be surety for his neighbor: Be surety means to guarantee debts. Implied in this line is the idea of being “willing” (Good News Translation) to do so. A good person does not have to go out looking for debts to guarantee, but should be willing to help a person borrow money if it is practical. Neighbor here refers to anyone with whom a person has frequent contact, not simply to people living nearby. We may also express this line as “When a neighbor [or, friend] needs a loan [or, needs to borrow money], a good person is willing to guarantee that the loan will be repaid” or “… to guarantee that he [the good person] will pay the money back.”

But a man who has lost his sense of shame will fail him: This implies that sensible guaranteeing of debts is an honorable thing to do, and refusing to do so is shameful. The person who refuses may be described by an expression indicating lack of honor or decency. “A person without a conscience” would shift the focus from honor/shame to right/wrong, but would not be a bad approach. For this line Contemporary English Version has “To refuse to help this friend would be a disgrace,” but we may also say “… would cause the good man to lose much face.”

Notice that Good News Translation‘s translation of this verse gets by with no pronouns, which are a possible source of confusion in Revised Standard Version.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Sirach. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.