The Greek in James 2:16 that is translated as “keep warm” into English was translated into Kahua as “dress well” since “keep warm” sounds very strange in the permanently hot local climate on the Solomon Islands where Kahua is spoken.
Language-specific Insights
travel through the whole island
In Kahua, unsurprisingly for an island language, there is a basic contrast in verbs of motion between travel by land and travel by sea. In Acts 13:4 it was explicit that Barnabas and Saul “sailed” to Cyprus, but once on the island, did they travel around by sea or by land? The translators assumed that the statement that is translated into English as “traveled through the whole island” implied travel by land, and used the appropriate verb.
Dorcas (Δορκάς)
minding one's own affairs
The phrase in 1 Thessalonians 4:11 that is translated as “mind your own affairs” is translated in Kahua with an idiom: “don’t interfere with your noses” (source: David Clark) and in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) as vor der eigenen Tür kehren or “sweep in front of your own door.”
enticed
The word in James 1:14 that is translated in English as “enticed” is translated in Kahua as “put out bait” (as for an animal) (source David Clark) and in South Bolivian Quechua with the existing metaphor “letting one’s heart be stolen” (source: T.E. Hudspith in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 66ff. ).
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind
The phrase that is translated as “with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” in English versions is rendered in Kahua with a term for belly/chest as the seat of the emotions.
The same phrase is translated into Kuy as “with all your heart-liver”to show the totality of one’s being. (Source: David Clark)
Similar to that, in Laka one must love with the liver, in Western Kanjobal with the “abdomen,” and in Marshallese with the throat.
What is translated as “soul” in English is translated as “life” in Yaka, Chuukese, and in Ixcatlán Mazatec, “that which stands inside of one” in Navajo (Dinė), and “spirit” in Kele.
The Greek that is translated in English as “strength” is translated in Yao as “animation” and in Chuukese as “ability.”
The Greek that is translated in English as “mind” is translated in Kele as “thinking,” in Chuukese as “thought(s),” and in Marathi as “intelligence.”
The whole phrase is translated in Tboli as “cause it to start from the very beginning of your stomach your loving God, for he is your place of holding.”
In Poqomchi’ (as in many other Mayan languages), the term “heart” covers both “heart” and “mind.”
(Sources: Bratcher / Nida, Reiling / Swellengrebel, and Bob Bascom [Ixcatlán Mazatec and Poqomchi’])
See also translations with a Hebraic voice (Deuteronomy 6:5), implanted / in one’s heart and complete verse (Mark 12:30), and see Seat of the Mind for traditional views of “ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling.”
For a detailed look at the relationships between the Deuteronomy 6:5 quote, its Septuagint translation and the quotations in the synoptic gospels, see Adaptable for Translation: Deuteronomy 6.5 in the Synoptic Gospels and Beyond by Robert Bascom .
centerpost
The parallelism between “rock” in 1 Peter 2:5 (in the English New Revised Standard Version “like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house”) and verse 8 (in the New Revised Standard Version “a stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall”) had to be maintained in the Kahua translation. As “posts” are used in house building (see cornerstone) the parallelism was kept with terms for “tree” and “centerpost.”
See also cornerstone.
Syzygus
The Greek “Syzygus” (from “syzyge”) may be a proper name, but this exegesis was not acceptable in Kahua because its equivalent form, Sisiko, means “farting” (source: David Clark) Most English translation translate it as something like “true companion.”