The Greek that is often translated as “the light” in English is translated as “the one who teaches the right and straight, the one who, as you might say, illuminates people” in Ojitlán Chinantec and “who was like a light since he teaches what is truth” in Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac. (Source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125)
Language-specific Insights
thirst (figuratively)
The Greek in John 7:37 that is translated as “thirst” in English is translated in Ojitlán Chinantec as “with a dry heart”. (Source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)
See also thirst / thirsty.
blaspheme, blasphemy
The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated as “blasphemy” or “blaspheme” is translated in various forms:
- Panao Huánuco Quechua: “speak evil of God”
- Southern Bobo Madaré: “break God’s name”
- Loma: “spoil the name of God”
- Luvale: “insult God”
- Pamona and Malay: “slander God”
- Javanese and German: “defame God”
- Tae’: “bring curses (or “calamitous words”) against God”
- Uab Meto: “talk to pieces” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
- Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac: “treat God with contempt”
- Ojitlán Chinantec: “say bad words”
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “slander God”
- Tenango Otomi: “don’t respect God with what one says”
- Navajo (Dinė): “say evil about God” (source for this and four above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125)
- Sochiapam Chinantec: “ugly words about God” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
- Q’anjob’al: “that which hurts the high” (source: Newberry and Kittie Cox in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. )
- Mam: xmayin ti’j Dios or “mockery against him-God” (source: Edward Sywulka in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 54ff. )
- Bacama: “spoil the name of God” (source: David Frank in this blog post )
- Chichewa chipongwe Mulungu. Chipwonge is used to refer to acts or derogatory remarks that dishonor another person. (Mulungu is the Chichewa word for “God.”) (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
illegitimate children
The Greek in John 8:41 that is translated “illegitimate children” or similar in English is translated as:
- Ojitlán Chinantec: “children of an unknown father”
- Huehuetla Tepehua: “children of the streets”
- Chol: “those who were born because of the lust of men”
- Navajo (Dinė): “born in adultery”
- Yanesha’: “born from an unmarried person” (source for this and above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)
feed my lambs
The Greek in John 21:15 that is translated as “feed my lambs” in English is translated as “teach my people my words, as if to say you will feed my little sheep” in Ojitlán Chinantec, “teach my word to the men who are like lambs” in Huehuetla Tepehua, “help those who believe in me” in Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac, “teach the people who have just begun to trust in me” in Yatzachi Zapotec and “now do like a shepherd does. Take care of the people who believe in me” in Tenango Otomi.
(Source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
See also tend my sheep.
devil
The Greek that is translated in English as “devil” (itself via late Latin from Greek diabolos: “accuser, slanderer”) is sometimes translated with indigenous specific names, such as “the avaricious one” in Tetelcingo Nahuatl, “the malicious deity” in Toraja-Sa’dan (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel), or in Yoruba as èṣù. “Èṣù is thought of as bringing evil, but also as giving protection. The birth of a child may be attributed to him, as the names given to some babies show, Èṣùbiyi (Èṣù brought this forth), and Èṣùtoyin (Èṣù is worthy of praise).” (Source: John Hargreaves in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 39ff. . See also this article by Tunde Adegbola: Èṣù is not Satan: A Christian apologist’s perspective .)
Other translations include:
- Muna: Kafeompu’ando seetani or “Master of the evil-spirits” (source: René van den Berg)
- Mairasi: owe er epar nan or “headman of malevolent spirits” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- Central Subanen: Palin or “Perverter” (incl. in 2 Cor. 6:15) (source: Robert Brichoux in OPTAT 1988/2, p. 80ff. )
- Huehuetla Tepehua: “chief of demons”
- Ojitlán Chinantec: as “head of the worldlings” (source for the last two: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125).
- Mandarin Chinese móguǐ (魔鬼), literally “magical ghost.” This is a term that was adopted from Buddhist sources into early Catholic writings and later also by Protestant translators. (Source: Zetzsche 1996, p. 32)
- Uma: “King of Evil-ones” (source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “leader of demons” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Bariai: “the bad man” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
- Kupsabiny: “the Enemy” (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
- Adioukrou: agn: “The word agn has been used by Adioukrou for ‘the devil’ through the years despite significant differences between these two categories. The devil of the Bible is an independent spirit being, not a psychic force. In the New Testament, the devil has clearly rebelled against God; agn is perceived to be working under God. The devil is hell-bent on getting people to rebel against God with him, but his only power is to deceive and tempt; people are victims of agn, and often are unaware of agn’s work in their lives. In the Bible, the devil is evil; agn can be used to do good or evil. Many features of traditional agn are not found in the devil of the Bible at all: making a person clairvoyant, soul eating, flying around at night while the person’s body is in bed, being a power that is inherited at birth.abŋ ŋuŋ, originally ‘evil spirit (‘the spiritual/invisible part of a person that leaves the body at death, not an independent spirit being’). (…) When doing the field research for this project, I was very surprised to see the way the category of agn is in the process of being transformed and converted as it is accessed to process Scripture.” (Source: Hill 2006)
In Lak and Shughni it is translated with terms of feminine gender. Vitaly Voinov tells this story (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight):
“In the Lak language of Dagestan, the names ‘Iblis’ and ‘sheytan’ (referring to Satan and his minions, respectively) in this language were borrowed from the Arabic Islamic tradition, but they entered Lak as feminine nouns, not masculine nouns. This means that they grammatically function like nouns referring to females in Lak; in other words, Laks are likely to think of Iblis as a woman, not a man, because of the obligatory grammatical patterning of Lak noun classes. Thus, when the team explained (in Russian) what the Lak translation of Jesus’ wilderness temptation narrative at the beginning of Matthew 4 said, it sounded something like the following: ‘After this, the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Iblis… .The temptress came to Jesus, and she said to Him…’
“Since this information (that the devil is a female spirit) is part of the very name used for Satan in Lak, nothing can really be done about this in the translation. The Lak translator did not think that the feminine gender of Iblis should cause any serious misunderstandings among readers, so we agreed to leave it in the translation. Prior to this, I had never heard about languages in which the devil is pictured as a woman, but recently I was told by a speaker of the Shughni language that in their language Sheytan is also feminine. This puts an interesting spin on things. The devil is of course a spirit, neither male nor female in a biologically-meaningful sense. But Bible translators are by nature very risk-aversive and, where possible, want to avoid any translation that might feed misleading information to readers. So what can a translator do about this? In many cases, such as the present one, one has to just accept the existing language structure and go on.”
See also unclean spirit / evil spirit, demon, and Beelzebul.
entirely born in sins
The Greek in John 9:34 that is translated as “you were entirely born in sins” or similar in English is translated as “you were born completely evil” in Ojitlán Chinantec, “not even being born yet you were a sinner” in Aguaruna, “you have done sin from the time you were born” in Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac, “you cursed one, you were born blind because of your evilness” in Yatzachi Zapotec, and “the way you were born shows that you are loaded with sin” in Rincón Zapotec.
(Source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
tend my sheep
The Greek in John 21:16 that is translated as “tend my sheep” or similar in English is translated in Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac as “take care of the ones who believe in me just as a shepherd carefully cares for his sheep,” in Ojitlán Chinantec as “take care of my people, as if to say, you will take care of my sheep,” in Huehuetla Tepehua as “take care of the people who are like my sheep,” and in Yatzachi Zapotec as “care for the people who trust in me.”
(Source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
See also feed my lambs.