In Highland Puebla Nahuatl there is no immediate equivalent for the Greek that is translated with the English term “heir.” So here an expression is used that means “someone who will receive the property (or: things).” (Source: Nida 1947, p. 200f.) Likewise, in Chimborazo Highland Quichua the translation is “those who receive what belongs to their father” (source: Julia Woodward in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 140ff. ) and in Sayula Popoluca “will receive all that God has for us” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.).
Language-specific Insights
hypocrite
The Greek and Hebrew terms that are translated as “hypocrite” in English typically have a counterpart in most languages. According to Bratcher / Nida (1961, p. 225), they can be categorized into the following categories:
- those which employ some concept of “two” or “double”
- those which make use of some expression of “mouth” or “speaking”
- those which are based upon some special cultural feature
- those which employ a non-metaphorical phrase
Following is a list of (back-) translations from some languages:
- Highland Totonac, Huautla Mazatec, Lacandon, Cuicatec, Highland Puebla Nahuatl: “two-faced”
- Obolo: ebi isi iba: “double-faced person” (source: Enene Enene)
- Tzeltal, Chol: “two hearts”
- Pame: “two mouths”
- San Miguel El Grande Mixtec: “two heads”
- Kekchí: “two sides”
- Shipibo-Conibo: “double (or “forked”) tongue”
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “double talk”
- Huehuetla Tepehua: “talk false”
- Copainalá Zoque: “lie-act”
- Kituba, Amganad Ifugao, Chuukese: “lie”
- Toraja-Sa’dan: “someone whose lips are fair” (i.e. “gracious”)
- Mossi: “have a sweet mouth”
- Mazahua: “have a swollen mouth” (from too much speaking)
- Tai Dam: “have a straight mouth and a crooked heart”
- Kongo: “the bitterness of white” (an idiom based on the fact that white-wash looks nice but tastes bitter)
- Merina Malagasy: “spread a clean carpet” (an expression used in Madagascar to describe one who covers up the dirt of an unswept floor just before the arrival of guests)
- Zanaki: “those who make themselves out to be good”
- Tetelcingo Nahuatl: “those who deceive” (this and all examples above acc. to Bratcher / Nida 1961, p. 225)
- Kafa: “one who makes as if his belly is clean” (source: Loren Bliese)
- Agatu: ɔcɛ gigbefu — “disguised person acting a part” (source: Mackay in The Bible Translator 1962, 211f. )
- Mairasi: “deceiver person” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- Bauzi: “good on top person” (source: David Briley in Kroneman (2004), p. 502)
- Tibetan: kha chos pa (ཁ་ཆོས་པ།), lit. “mouth + religion + person” (used for instance in Matt. 7:5) or sgyu zog can (སྒྱུ་ཟོག་ཅན།), lit. “deception + fraud + person” (used for instance in Matt. 24:51) (source: gSungrab website )
- Low German: “actor in a comedy” (translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006)
- Kölsch (Boch 2017): falscher Fuffzijer, literally “counterfeit 50-pfennig coin” (source: Jost Zetzsche)
- German: “pretender” (Heuchler) (most versions), “wanna-be saint” (Scheinheiliger) (Gute Nachricht), “dazzler” (Blender) (translation by Fridolin Stier [1989])
- Lélé: ne kub so or “make mouth two” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
The Latvian term liekulis was likely coined by the Bible translation of Ernst Glück (1654–1705) in the late 17th century and is still being used today (source ).
The English version of Sarah Ruden (2021) uses “play-actor.” She explains (p. li): “A hupokrites is fundamentally an actor. The word has deep negativity in the Gospels on two counts: professional actors were not respectable people in the ancient world, and traditional Judaism did not countenance any kind of playacting. I write ‘play-actor’ throughout.”
See also hypocrisy.
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 thsi and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
- German: bekehren, lit. “turn around”
go in peace
The Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Greek that is translated as “go in peace” into English is an idiomatic expression of farewell which is translatable in other languages as an idiomatic expression as well:
- “go with sweet insides” (Shilluk)
- “rejoice as you go” (Central Mazahua)
- “go in quietness of heart” (Chol)
- “go happy” (Highland Puebla Nahuatl)
- “being happy, go” (Central Tarahumara)
- “go and sit down in your heart” (Tzeltal) (source for this and five above: Bratcher / Nida)
- “have a smooth interior and go” (Bariai) (source: Bariai Back Translation)
- “Go home with goodness of your life” (Uma (source: Uma Back Translation)
- “Go home now, and may your situation be good.” (Western Bukidnon Manobo) (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- “Go with your mind at-peace” (tip_language language=”3135″]Kankanaey[/tip_language]) (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
“Go with-your-liver-good” (Mairasi) (source Enggavoter 2004)
justification, justify
The Greek that is translated as “justify” in English is translated into Tzotzil in two different ways. One of those is with Lec xij’ilatotic yu’un Dios ta sventa ti ta xc’ot ta o’ntonal ta xch’unel ti Jesucristoe (“we are seen well by God because of our faith in Jesus Christ”) (source: Aeilts, p. 118) and the other is “God sees as righteous” (source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.).
Other (back-) translations include:
- Bilua: “straigthened” (Romans 3:20: “Nobody can be straightened in God’s presence…”) (source: Carl Gross) (see also: righteous)
- Western Highland Purepecha: “he sees him with the goodness of his Son” (“justification”)
- Highland Puebla Nahuatl: “heart-straightening”
- Western Kanjobal: “having a straight soul” (source for this and two above: Nida 1952, p. 145)
- Central Mazahua: “no longer carrying sin in God’s estimation.”
- Rincón Zapotec: “come out good before God”
- Guhu-Samane: “God called one right” (source for this and two above: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.)
- Mairasi: “already straight: completely clean” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- Uma: “straight in God’s sight” (Source: Uma back-translation)
- Yakan: “be reckoned straight/righteous by God” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Ekari: maa nigajawii (“deemed right through favor”) (source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37f. )
- Tzeltal: “exonerated of sin in God’s sight” (source: Marianna C. Slocum in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 49f. )
- Kwara’ae: “regarded as righteous” (source: Norman Deck in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 34ff. )
- Makonde: “”to be good in God’s eyes” (in the context of being made righteous by God) ” (note that righteous / righteousness is translated as “to be good in God’s eyes” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
- Manikion: “heart sits next to Jesus” (source: Daud Soesilo)
- Obolo: ben itip-oyerebet isan̄a: “take away condemnation” (source: Enene Enene)
- Kui: “obtaining release to become a righteous person” (source: Helen Evans in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. )
- Highland Totonac: “make free”
- Sayula Popoluca: “call righteous”
- Isthmus Zapotec: “clean hearts”
- Central Tarahumara: “make people to be right-doing”
- Tzeltal: “straighten heart” (Source for this and two above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- Warao: “straighten obonja.” Obonja is a term that “includes the concepts of consciousness, will, attitude, attention and a few other miscellaneous notions” (source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. See other occurrences of Obojona in the Warao New Testament.)
peace (inner peace)
The Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Greek that is usually translated into English as “peace,” when referring to one’s inner peace, is (back-) translated with a variety of idioms and phrases:
- “a song in the body” (Baoulé — see also joy)
- “heart coolness” (Eastern Maninkakan / Moronene) / “inner coolness” (Binumarien) (source for Moronene: David Andersen; Binumarien: Oates 1995, p. 249)
- “coolness” (Pular / Kutu) (source for Kutu: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
- “sit down in the heart” (South Bolivian Quechua) / “my heart sits down” (Northern Grebo)
- “rest the heart” (Central Mazahua) / “rest within” (Lacandon) (source: Nida 1952, p. 40 and 128ff.) / “wait well in your heart” (Yatzachi Zapotec) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
- “quietness of heart” (Chol)
- “kobe (= the abdominal region, including the heart) quiet” (Warao) (source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. )
- “have a quiet mind” (Ngäbere)
- “heart will lie quietly” (Isthmus Zapotec)
- “live quietly” (Central Tarahumara) (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- “quiet goodness” (Kekchí)
- “goodness of life” (Uma) (source: Uma Back Translation)
- “strength of heart” (Highland Puebla Nahuatl)
- “leaning on the liver” (Kare)
- “sweet insides” (Shilluk)
- “evenness” (Toraja-Sa’dan)
- “having your hearts feel oneness for one another” (Tzeltal)
- “have one heart” (Miskito)
- “well-arranged soul” (Mashco Piro)
- “completeness” (Highland Puebla Nahuatl) (source for this and two above: Nida 1952, p. 128ff.)
- “stomach flat in” (“one’s stomach sticks out when one is upset”) (Kimyal) (source: Young 2022)
- “joy in heart” (Eastern Highland Otomi) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
- “have security in your heart” (Highland Totonac) (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- “smooth interior” (Bariai) (source: Bariai Back Translation)
- tangnefedd — “an internal condition that makes external peace (heddwch) possible” (Welsh) (source: Rosa Hunt in Journal of European Baptist Studies 1/23 (2023), p. 1ff. ) (source for all non-attributed translations: Bratcher / Nida)
In American Sign Language it is signed with a compound sign consisting of “become” and “silent.” (Source: Yates 2011, p. 52)
“Peace” in American Sign Language (source )
See also peace (absence of strife) and this devotion on YouVersion and this one on Bible Gateway .
confess (sin)
The Hebrew, Ge’ez and Greek that is typically translated as “confess” in English in the context of these verses is translated in a variety of ways. Here are some (back-) translations:
- Highland Puebla Nahuatl, Tzeltal: “say openly”
- San Blas Kuna: “accuse oneself of one’s own evil”
- Kankanaey: “tell the truth about one’s sins”
- Huastec: “to take aim at one’s sin” (“an idiom which is derived from the action of a hunter taking aim at a bird or animal”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
- Tabasco Chontal: “say, It is true, I’ve done evil” (source: Larson 1998, p. 204)
- Central Pame: “pull out the heart” (“so that it may be clearly seen — not just by men, but by God”) (source: Nida 1952, p. 155)
- Shipibo-Conibo: “say, It is true I have sinned” (source: Nida 1964, p. 228)
- Obolo: itutumu ijo isibi: “speak out sin” (source: Enene Enene).
- Tagbanwa: “testify that one would now drop/give-up sin” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Kutu: “speak sin” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
See also confessing their sins.
saint
The Greek that is translated as “saint” in English is rendered into Highland Puebla Nahuatl as “one with a clean hearts,” into Northwestern Dinka as “one with a white hearts,” and into Western Kanjobal as “person of prayer.” (Source: Nida 1952, p. 146)
Other translations include:
- Ixcatlán Mazatec: “follower of Jesus” (source: Robert Bascom)
- Tzeltal: “whom God possesses”
- Highland Totonac: “child of God”
- Isthmus Zapotec: “person of God”
- Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “one who believes in God”
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “clean-hearted person” (source for this and four above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- Garifuna: “person consecrated to God”
- Isthmus Mixe: “one who believe God’s words”
- Ayutla Mixtec: “one of God’s”
- Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “person God has cleansed” (source for this and three above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
- Isthmus Zapotec: “God’s person”
- Mezquital Otomi: “God’s believer”
- Huehuetla Tepehua: “servant of God”
- Tzeltal: “one who belongs to God” (source for this and three above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- Highland Totonac: “chosen” (Source: Herman Aschmann in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 171ff. )
- Kituba: “person of God” (if referring to a person) (source: Donald Deer in The Bible Translator 1973, p. 207ff. )
- Chichewa “(person with a) white heart” since “white” is the word that is used in Chichewa for the translation of “holy.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)