The Greek in Romans 10:2 that is translated as “not based on knowledge” or similar in English is translated as “don’t understand how God likes it” in Huehuetla Tepehua, as “not in the correct way” in Highland Totonac, as “don’t know what God wants” in Yatzachi Zapotec (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), and in Elhomwe as “real knowledge.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Language-specific Insights
fit, worthy
The Greek that is rendered into “worthy” or “fit” in English versions is translated into Sierra Totonac as “proper” / “chief” — “I am not proper / chief enough.” (2nd translation into Sierra Totonac of 1999.)
See also worthy and not worthy / not fit.
bondage to decay
The Greek in Romans 8:21 that is translated as “bondage to decay” or similar in English is translated as “they continually die” in Highland Totonac, as “the hand of rottenness” Isthmus Zapotec, and as “every animal must die, every tree must decay, every herb must dry up” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui. (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
if God is for us
The Greek in Romans 8:31 that is translated as “if God is for us” in English is translated as
- “if God is in fellowship with us” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui
- “if God does not abandon us” in Miahuatlán Zapotec
- “if God is united with us” in Yatzachi Zapotec
- “God is the one who helps us” in Huehuetla Tepehua
- “God himself loves us” in Teutila Cuicatec
- “if God is in our favor” in Isthmus Zapotec
- “if God is our helper” in Highland Totonac (source for this above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- “if God is ours” in Kupsabiny (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
- “if God is on our side” in Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006
- “we can say that God is really defending us” in Hiligaynon (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
- “now we are friends with God” in Tenango Otomi (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- “if Above-One is the One who guards us” in Mairasi (source: Enggavoter 2004)
eternal life
The Greek and Ge’ez that is translated in English as “eternal life” is translated in various ways:
- Berik: “good living forever” (source: Kroneman 2004, p. 536)
- Asháninka: “keep on living”
- Aguaruna: “will always live”
- Yanesha’: “immortal state forever”
- North Alaskan Inupiatun: “endless life”
- Tsafiki: “live forever with God”
- Lalana Chinantec: “heart will be alive forever” (source for this and five above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125)
- Tagalog: buhay na walang hanggan: “life which has no boundary”
- Iloko: biagna nga agnanayon: “continuing life” (source for this and one above: G. Henry Waterman in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 24ff. )
- German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989): “never-ending life”
- Huehuetla Tepehua: “life forever up in heaven” (source: Larson 1998, p. 279)
- Kele: loiko: “survival: enduring through crisis, catastrophe and death” (source: William Ford in The Bible Translator 1957, p. 203ff. ).
- Highland Totonac: “have life, the kind that is for always”
- Central Mazahua: “live continually” (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- Samoan: ola e fa‘avavau or “life until the end of time” (source: John Bradshaw in The Bible Translator 1967, p. 75ff. )
- Mairasi: “life fruit” (source: Enggavoter 2004).
Lloyd Peckham explains the Mairasi translation: “In secret stories, not knowable to women nor children, there was a magical fruit of life. If referred to vaguely, without specifying the specific ‘fruit,’ it can be an expression for eternity.”
See also eternity / forever and salvation.
Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Eternal Life in John .
principalities / rulers
The Greek that is translated as “principalities” or “rulers” in English is translated in various ways:
- North Alaskan Inupiatun: “evil spirits”
- Hopi: “those who are first”
- Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “one who is prominent in heaven”
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “important bad angels”
- Isthmus Zapotec: “spirits who have power”
- Central Tarahumara: “other great spirits”
- Huehuetla Tepehua: “big angels”
- Highland Totonac: “the ones who control things” (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- Mairasi: “powerful ones” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- Bariai: “the bad bush-spirits and various kinds of tambaran spirits of the earth” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “those supernatural beings who are in the very deep places” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
conversion, convert, turn back
The Greek that is often rendered in English as “to be converted” or “to turn around” is (back-) translated in a number of ways:
- North Alaskan Inupiatun: “change completely”
- Purepecha: “turn around”
- Highland Totonac: “have one’s life changed”
- Huautla Mazatec: “make pass over bounds within”
- San Blas Kuna: “turn the heart toward God”
- Chol: “the heart turns itself back”
- Highland Puebla Nahuatl: “self-heart change”
- Pamona: “turn away from, unlearn something”
- Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “turn around from the breast”
- Luvale: “return”
- Balinese: “put on a new behavior” (compare “repentance“: “to put on a new mind”)
- Tzeltal: “cause one’s heart to return to God” (compare “repentance”: “to cause one’s heart to return because of one’s sin”)
- Pedi: “retrace one’s step” (compare “repentance”: “to become untwisted”)
- Uab Meto: “return” (compare “repentance”: “to turn the heart upside down”)
- Northwestern Dinka: “turn oneself” (compare “repentance”: “to turn the heart”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
- Central Mazahua: “change the heart” (compare “repentance”: “turn back the heart”) (source: Nida 1952, p. 40)
- In Elhomwe, the same term is used for “conversion” and “repentance” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
- Western Kanjobal: “molt” (like a butterfly) (source: Nida 1952, p. 136)
- Latvian: atgriezties (verb) / atgriešanās (noun) (“turn around / return”) which is also the same term being used for “repentance” (source: Katie Roth)
- Isthmus Mixe: “look away from the teaching of one’s ancestors and follow the teachings of God”
- Highland Popoluca: “leave one’s old beliefs to believe in Jesus” (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
- German: bekehren, lit. “turn around”
patriarchs
The Greek that is often translated as “patriarchs” in English is translated as
- “first old fathers” in Isthmus Zapotec
- “the ancient fathers” in Tzeltal / Highland Totonac
- “the old important people who lived long ago were forefathers of the Israelites” in Yatzachi Zapotec
- “the 12 sons of Jacob” Central Tarahumara
- “the fathers from way back when” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- “chiefs over each of the clans of Israel” in Bariai (source: Bariai Back Translation)
- “our twelve grandfathers” in Kupsabiny (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
- “twelve children from where Jews came-from” in Hiligaynon (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)