Translating Biblical insults without losing power

Semantic Range, Lexicography, and other approaches to word meaning - in general, or for particular words.
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KmFoulke
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Joined: September 1st, 2025, 3:23 pm

Translating Biblical insults without losing power

Post by KmFoulke »

I am interested in opinions on how best to translate insults, such as Jesus uses against The Scribes and Pharisees, since "fool" seems much weakened in modern English, and it's difficult in modern English to express an insult worthy of getting smacked in your mouth without adding a profanity or infixation.
Jonathan Robie
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Joined: May 5th, 2011, 5:34 pm
Location: Durham, NC
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Re: Translating Biblical insults without losing power

Post by Jonathan Robie »

Insults are one of the hardest things to translate. Language changes, emotions run strong, and it’s easy to get it wrong. What shocked a first-century audience may sound mild today, and what stings us today may not have landed the same way back then. On top of that, we aren’t always sure of every nuance in the ears of Jesus’ original hearers. Still, if we soften the words too much, we lose the sharp edge of his rebukes.

I took a shot at this with help from GPT. Think of this as a brainstorm to generate examples we can think about and discuss, not as "right answers".

1. Matthew 23:17
Greek: μωροὶ καὶ τυφλοί
Usual: "Blind fools!"
Stronger: "You blind idiots!" / "morons!"
Why stronger: “Fool” is too weak now. “Idiot/moron” restores the sting.
Tradeoff: Risks sounding slangy, loses some solemn tone.

2. Matthew 23:13
Greek: ὑποκριταί
Usual: "Hypocrites!"
Stronger: "Frauds!" / "Phonies!"
Why stronger: Originally meant stage-actors, pretenders. “Fraud” hits modern ears harder.
Tradeoff: “Fraud” sounds criminal, “phony” too casual.

3. Matthew 23:33
Greek: ὄφεις, γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν
Usual: "Snakes! Brood of vipers!"
Stronger: "You snakes! Spawn of vipers!"
Why stronger: “Spawn” adds venom, conveys evil offspring.
Tradeoff: Can sound overdone or cartoonish.

4. Matthew 23:27
Greek: τάφοι κεκονιαμένοι
Usual: "Whitewashed tombs"
Stronger: "Polished graves / painted corpses"
Why stronger: More vivid picture of rot beneath beauty.
Tradeoff: Grotesque, maybe too graphic for some readers.

5. John 8:44
Greek: ὑμεῖς ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς τοῦ διαβόλου ἐστέ
Usual: "You are of your father the devil"
Stronger: "Your father is the devil!" / "Children of Satan!"
Why stronger: In an honor/shame culture, devastating charge.
Tradeoff: “Children of Satan” may sound like pulp fiction.

6. Matthew 7:6
Greek: Μὴ δῶτε τὸ ἅγιον τοῖς κυσίν
Usual: "Do not give what is holy to dogs"
Stronger: "Don’t hand holy things to stray dogs"
Why stronger: Dogs were despised scavengers, not pets. “Stray” helps modern readers feel it.
Tradeoff: Adjective adds to the text, but perhaps to clarify what would have been understood in the original context.
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
S Walch
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Joined: June 13th, 2011, 4:27 pm
Location: Manchester, UK

Re: Translating Biblical insults without losing power

Post by S Walch »

Guess this boils down to whether you're going for either the "essentially literal" or "dynamic equivalence" translation philosophy.

If we're trying to get across the same sort of impact today, I personally would translate μωρός as either "Moron", or a very apt British slang term, "pillock" ("Blind pillocks!" sounds quite punchy); "Spawn of vipers" works; "hypocrite" still works in modern English, however something like "two-faced fakes", "posers" or "fraudsters" would probably be more up to date; "You are demon-spawn of your father, the devil" would work in my opinion for "you are children of your father, the devil"; for "dogs", perhaps a change to "vermin" or "rodents" would have the same impact, if not an actual translation of κύων, but does bring across the sort of meaning behind the sentence. For "whitewashed tombs", I can't really think of anything better than what ChatGPT has provided.
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