The Greek that is translated as “I find no crime in him” or similar in English is translated as “not a single fault do I find in this man” in Ojitlán Chinantec, “I don’t find any sin in this man” in Huehuetla Tepehua, “it is not known to me even a little bit of bad which he has done” in Aguaruna, “I think this man has no sin” in Chol, and “it is not apparent that this man is guilty” in Yatzachi Zapotec.
(Source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated as “blasphemy” or “blaspheme” is translated in various forms:
The Greek that is translated as “was raised from the dead” is translated as “came up again from where he was buried” (Huehuetla Tepehua) or “returned from among the dead” (Ojitlán Chinantec). (Source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
In Highland Totonac it is translated with “revivify,” “since a literal translation could simply mean altering the position of a dead body” (source: Hermann Aschmann in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 171ff. ).
See also Lord.
The Greek and Hebrew hat is translated as “purple” in English is translated as “blue-red” in Ojitlán Chinantec (source: M. Larson in Notes on Translation 1970, p. 1ff.) and in Elhomwe (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext). In Silimo it is translated with a local reference: “the colour of the wipegen berry” (source: Buzz and Myrna Maxey ).
In Kasua was a little bit more involved, as Rachel Greco recalls (in The PNG Experience ):
“The Kasua people of Western Province have no word for the color purple. They have words for many other colors: black, red, white, yellow, green, and blue, but not for the color of royalty.
“About nine New Testament passages mention people placing a purple robe on Jesus. The Kasua translation team always wanted to use the word ‘red,’ or keyalo, to describe the robe. Tommy, one of the translation team helpers, disagreed because this is not historically accurate or signifies the royalty of Jesus.
“One of the main rules of translation is that the team must stick to the historical facts when they translate a passage. If they don’t, then how can the readers trust what they’re reading is true? Other questions about truth could bubble in the reader’s minds about the Scriptures. For this reason, Tommy was not willing to change the word purple. So the team hung up the problem, hoping to revisit it later with more inspiration.
“God did not disappoint.
“Years later, Tommy hiked with some of the men near their village. They saw a tree that possessed bulbous growths growing on the side of it like fruit. These growths were ‘the most beautiful color of purple I’d ever seen,’ explained Tommy.
“’What is the name of this tree?’ Tommy asked the men.
“’This is an Okani tree,’ they replied.
“Tommy suggested, ‘Why don’t you, in those passages where we’ve been struggling to translate the color purple, use ‘they put a robe on Jesus the color of the fruit of the Okani tree’?
“’Yeah. We know exactly what color that is,’ the men said enthusiastically.
“Everyone in their village would also visualize this phrase accurately, as the Okani tree is the only tree in that area that produces this kind of purple growth. So now, among the Kasua people, in his royal purple robe, Jesus is shown to be the king that he is.”
In Numbers 4:13, Gbaya uses the ideophone soi-soi to emphasize the purple color. Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation and soi-soi designates something that has a red or purple color, or a thing with a clear or clean appearance. (Source: Philip Noss)
The Greek that is translated as “worldly passions” in English is translated in the following ways:
See also worldly people.
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)
The Greek that is translated as “overseer” or “bishop” is kalayi in Chokwe. “This is the word for a watchman set in time of danger or war, who is responsible for the welfare of all under his care and will be held accountable for his faithfulness or otherwise.” (Source: D. B. Long in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 87ff. )
In Bacama the translation is adɨ nidə ji-kottə: “person who looks after the followers” (source: David Frank in this blog post ), in Isthmus Mixe as “leader at God’s house,” in Ojitlán Chinantec as “one who will take care of the assemblies, and in Tenango Otomi as “the guardian of the believers” (source for last three: John Beekman & Harwood Hess in Notes on Translation, March 1963, p. 1ff.).
In the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) it is translated as “men with a supervisory office” (Männer mit Übersichtsamt).
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.