In the Amazon area of eastern Peru, missionaries made a poignant discovery.
When Wycliffe Bible translator Bob Russell sought a word for “forgiveness” in the language of the Amahuacas of eastern Peru, he discovered their unique way of asking one another for pardon. In that culture, if an offender wants to be reconciled with someone he has offended, he says to him, “Speak to me.”
Russell learned that Amahuacas who are unreconciled typically refuse to speak to each other. So when the offender asks the offended to speak, it’s the equivalent of saying, “Show me we’re friends again by being on speaking terms once more.”
Many Biblical terms illustrate the concept of forgiveness – cancel debts, cast away sins, free the sinner.
The Amahuaca expression strikingly translates what is the most important biblical meaning of God’s forgiveness – above all, it is a reconciliation, the restoration of a friendship with him that has been marred by sin.