Yes, I am black! and radiant —
О city women watching me —
As black as Kedars goathair tents
Or Solomons fine tapestries.
Will you disrobe me with your stares?
The eyes of many morning suns
Have pierced my skin, and now I shine
Black as the light before the dawn.
And I have faced the angry glare
Of others, even my mother’s sons
Who sent me out to watch their vines
While I neglected all my own.
Translation by Marcia Falk (1973, 2004)
Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Matthew 5:2-12:
Trust God absolutely — though you have nothing to offer —
God is the Great Rewarder!
Hurt with those who hurt — God is the Gracious Comforter!
Humility is the pathway to victory – God is the Generous Giver!
And the earth will be given to those who are humble.
Above all else, hunger and thirst to obey God — you will be satisfied.
Mercy for mercy — Show mercy, and God will be merciful to you.
Purity of heart and mind opens eyes to see God —
and this perfect vision can be yours.
Do you want to become a child of God? Make peace, not war!
Don’t give up, even if you’ve been mistreated for doing right!
God remains the Great Rewarder!
When others insult you or mistreat you or tell evil lies about you,
because you belong to God, don’t worry or whimper!
In heaven God will reward you greatly — after all, don’t you recall
this was the fate of prophets long ago?
The Hebrew that is translated as “the highest of the mountains” in English is translated in Newari as “Himalayas” (हिमालत) (source: Newari Back Translation).
The Greek word that mean both “wind” and “spirit” (pneuma) in English allows for a number of word plays in the text of the New Testament, such as in John 3:8 and Acts 2:2 vs. Acts 2:4 (note that in the case of the example in Acts 2, two different words are used in Greek — pnoé and pneuma — but both come from the same root word).
Languages that have been able to maintain the word play — and, in the case of Acts 2 — strengthen it:
Another meaning of pnoé and pneuma in Acts 2 is “breath.” Which leads Iver Larsen to explain another translation solution: “I have been wondering why English versions translate the Greek word for breath pnoé with wind in Acts 2:2. The only other instance is in Acts 17:25: “Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath” (here and below New International Version). The verb pnéó means ‘blow’ and can be used for both a wind blowing and a puff of air from a person breathing on something or someone. Acts 2:2 is related to John 20:22: ‘And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.” A different verb is used, but semantically similar. I consider this as a foreshadowing or promise of Acts 2:2, so a connection would be nice to have. In Acts 2:2 I take the one breathing mightily on the disciples to be the resurrected Christ. Only after his resurrection could Jesus release the full power of the Spirit to the disciples. These verses are also connected to Genesis 2:7: ‘God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath (Septuagint: pnoé) of life.’ In Danish there is a close connection between “spirit” (ånd) and breath/breathe (ånde). So, in Acts 2:2 we [in The Bible in Everyday Danish, 2022] use the word ‘åndepust‘ which I cannot translate properly into English, but something like ‘puff of breath/spirit.'”
The 1985 French translation by Chouraqui, which uses souffle sacré or “sacred breath” for Holy Spirit, likewise uses souffle or “breath” in Acts 2:2 (source: Laurence Belling).
The Greek in Acts 2:8 that is translated as “our own native language” or similar in English is translated as “the language we know when we were children” in Eastern Highland Otomi, “as we talk from when we were born” in Morelos Nahuatl, “the Chinantec we have spoken since we were small” in Lalana Chinantec, and “language we began to understand when still a baby” in Chichimeca-Jonaz. (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
See also complete verse (Acts 2:8).
The Greek in Matthew 3:7 that is translated in English as “brood of vipers” or similar is translated in Ge’ez as tiwilide ārawīte midiri (ትውልደ አራዊተ ምድር) or “descendants of the beasts of earth” in the occurrence in Matthew. (Source: G.A. Mikre-Sellasie in The Bible Translator 2000, p. 302ff. )
See also You brood of vipers! (Luke 3:7).
In Psalm 96, an acrostic on the Name of God is found. In verse 11a, the Hebrew reads: ישמחו השמים ותגל הארצ (highlights added). The initial letters compose יהוה, the tetragrammaton. In the Dutch Tot Lof van God translation by Frans Croese (publ. 2010) this is translated as Ja, dat de hemelen zich verheugen, heel de aarde zij blij (highlights in the original version) forming JHVH, the Dutch equivalent of YHWH. (Source: Thamara van Eijzeren)
See also acrostic in Psalms.
In Jur Mödö folk-stories and some other narratives, at the very peak of the discourse the narrator sometimes switches from 3rd person narrative to 2nd person, addressing a major participant, as if telling that character what he did, or what was done to him.
In Revelation 20:12-15, this device was used (and nowhere else in the whole New Testament):
“(12b) All the dead people were punished, for you whoever exactly according to your deeds that you had lived at that time (in the past) doing them and that had been written in that book. (13b) Then they continued to be punished, for you whoever exactly according to your deeds that you had lived at that time (in the past) here (in the world) doing them. (15) For you whoever, if your name was not seen written in that book of life, you were thrown right then into that lake of fire.”
It almost felt as if the translator was saying to the reader, “If you haven’t got the point of this Bible by the time you reach this chapter, I’m going to give it to you straight between the eyes!”
12 … Töku pili odɔ karama dɔmo ꞌbëyï ꞌba bɔ mɔtɔ ko gɔ akoꞌdɔ ꞌbï ame koloma tönë toꞌdɔ mo kugu ꞌdeni mï buku nima ne. 13 … Kina koloma ŋgï todɔ karama dönnï ꞌbëyï ꞌba bɔ mɔtɔ gɔ akoꞌdɔ ꞌbï ame koloma tönë toꞌdɔ mo bine ne. 14 … . 15 Ɔdɔ nï mɔtɔ koꞌja möyï yï dë kugu ꞌdeni mï buku ꞌba dïdï nima, uꞌdu yï ŋgï mï pöpö ꞌba paꞌdo nima.
(Source: Andrew Persson)