Language-specific Insights

vicious brutes

The Greek that is translated as “vicious brutes” in English is translated in Tabasco Chontal as “as you might say angry foxes.” (Source: John Beekman & Harwood Hess in Notes on Translation, March 1963, p. 1ff.)

to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure

The Greek that is translated as “to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure” in English is translated in Sayula Popolucaas “but nothing is clean to those who think evil and who don’t believe,” in Tabasco Chontal as “those whose hearts are not washed and those who don’t believe, nothing falls good to their minds that God made,” and in Ojitlán Chinantec but everything is evil to those who have become contaminated, unbelieving.” (Source: John Beekman & Harwood Hess in Notes on Translation, March 1963, p. 1ff.)

gentleness

The Greek and Ge’ez that is typically translated as “gentleness” in English is translated in various ways:

See also meek / meekness, spirit of gentleness and gentle and quiet spirit.

confess (sin)

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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.

spices

The Greek that is translated as spices in English is translated in Tabasco Chontal as “medicine/spices which pertained to rubbing on the body” and in Seri as “a substance that smelled like perfume. It was for pouring on the dead, one to keep his body from stinking.” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)

serious

The Greek that is translated in English as “serious” or similar is translated in the following ways:

  • Sayula Popoluca” “to walk decently”
  • Tenango Otomi: “to act so that they will be esteemed”
  • Tabasco Chontal: “give them to do the right so that it will fall good to the mind of their fellow men”
  • Isthmus Mixe: “that they shouldn’t go around just joking” (Source: John Beekman & Harwood Hess in Notes on Translation, March 1963, p. 1ff.)

alive to God

The Greek in Romans 6:11 that is translated as “alive to God” or similar is translated as “living in order to give honor to God” in Yatzachi Zapotec, as “it is God for whom you live now” in Highland Totonac, “God has caused you to be alive, to do what he wants” in Tabasco Chontal, and as “live like servants of God” Huehuetla Tepehua. (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)

worldly passions

The Greek that is translated as “worldly passions” in English is translated in the following ways:

  • Tabasco Chontal: “it is necessary for us to leave off also that which we lust for on earth”
  • Ojitlán Chinantec: “and all the evil our hearts beg for, like the hearts of worldly people beg for what is evil”
  • Tenango Otomi: “that we should depart from the evil pleasures here on earth”
  • Sayula Popoluca: “that we should depart from those who want the evil in the world” (source: John Beekman & Harwood Hess in Notes on Translation, March 1963, p. 1ff.)

See also worldly people.