“tell as serious truth” (Central Pame (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
In Bauzi “swear” can be translated in various ways. In Hebrews 6:13, for instance, it is translated with “bones break apart and decisively speak.” (“No bones are literally broken but by saying ‘break bones’ it is like people swear by someone else in this case it is in relation to a rotting corpse’ bones falling apart. If you ‘break bones’ so to speak when you make an utterance, it is a true utterance.”) In other passages, such as in Matthew 26:72, it’s translated with an expression that implies taking ashes (“if a person wants everyone to know that he is telling the truth about a matter, he reaches down into the fireplace, scoops up some ashes and throws them while saying ‘I was not the one who did that.'”). So in Matthew 26:72 the Bauzi text is: “. . . Peter took ashes and defended himself saying, ‘I don’t know that Nazareth person.'” (Source: David Briley)
The Greek and Ge’ez that is typically translated as “tempt” or “temptation” in English is translated in Noongar as djona-karra or “reveal conduct” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang) and in Tibetan as nyams sad (ཉམས་སད།), lit. “soul + test,” or in some cases as slu (སླུ།) or “lure / lead astray” (for instance in 1 Cor. 7:5 or Gal 6:1) (source: gSungrab website )
In Cherokee it is translated as “examined.” “‘Temptation’ is also translated using a traditional verb which means ‘to examine medically’ or ‘to interpret,’ as when divining or consulting a crystal. It expresses the idea that the tempted person is being ‘tested’ or examined.'” (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 47)
In Kekchí, the word for “tempt” (alec) implies that the temptation was successful so here, especially in the narrative of Jesus’ temptation, the translation states that the temptation was unsuccessful (“Jesus never gave himself to be tempted”). (Source: Eachus 2006, p. 263)
The Hebrew that is translated as “Nephilim” or “giants” in English is translated in Cherokee with the mythological Cherokee figure Judacullah or tsuhlkala. “Judacullah (ᏧᏓᎦᎳ) [is] the giant who taught the Cherokees about hunting, farming, and medicine. Genesis 6:4 describes a time when ‘there were giants in the earth,’ [according to the King James Version] and ‘giants’ is translated as tsunihlkala or Judacullahs, plural! In Cherokee, tsuhlkala is a proper name, so the idea of many populating the land must have been quite striking and creates a uniquely Cherokee reading of this chapter. The use of both dakwa and junihlkala suggests a continuity between the biblical and the Cherokee human experience.” (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 47)
The Greek magoi originally referred to Persian Zoroastrian “priests who were experts in astrology and in the interpretation of dreams. But the word may also be used in a derogatory sense of ‘magician’ or ‘charlatan,’ a meaning which it has in its only other New Testament occurrences outside Matthew’s nativity narrative (Acts 13:6,8). Matthew most likely has Babylonian astrologers in mind.” (Source: Newman / Stine; see also this interview .)
While most English translations either transliterate this as “magi” or translate it as “wise men,” most German versions (with the exceptions of Luther and Menge [publ. 1909]) use Sterndeuter, an old-fashioned term for astrologer. The Pfälzisch translation by Walter Sauer (publ. 2012) uses Sternegugger, also an old-fashioned term for astrologer with the verbatim meaning of “star watchers.” In Luxembourgish, it is translated as weis Astronomen or “wise astronomers.” (Source: Zetzsche)
In Kwakum it is translated as “guardians of religious rites who look up at the starts to see the things to come” or “guardians of religions rites.” (Source: Stacey Hare in this post )
In Cherokee it is translated as aniktani or “knowledgeable ones.” Aniktani (ᎠᏂᎫᏔᏂ) “appear in Cherokee oral history as a former priestly society.” (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 47)
Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006: “steppe”
Yakan: “the lonely place” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a land where no people lived” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “the place with no inhabitants” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Cherokee: inage or “far away downstream” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 16)
Matumbi uses various term: lubele (desert, sandy place without water) — used in John 11:54, lupu’ngu’ti (a place where no people live, can be a scrub land, a forest, or a savanna) — used in Mark 1:3 et al.), and mwitu (a forest, a place where wild animals live) — used in Mark 1:13 et al.) (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Chichewa Contemporary translation (2002/2016): chipululu: a place uninhabited by people with thick forest and bush (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Adioukrou: loj or “savannah” — “land that is not village, nor forest, nor field (source: Hill 2006)
Isthmus Mixe: “dry country” (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place,” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).
The Greek and Ge’ez that is translated “scripture” or “scriptures” in English is translated as “God’s word which people wrote” in Guerrero Amuzgo (source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125), “paper writings” in Copainalá Zoque (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.), “writing that one believes” in Cherokee (putting the focus on the ones who interact with them rather the scriptures themselves) (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 101), and Toposa as “carved material” (source: Schröder 2026, p. 104).
The Greek that is translated as “dinner guest” or “guest” in English is translated in Cherokee as “those who are eating.” (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 100)
The Hebrew, Ge’ez and Greek that is translated as “millstone” in English is illustrated for use in Bible translations in East Africa by Pioneer Bible Translators like this:
Image owned by PBT and Jonathan McDaniel and licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
In the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) is it translated as “donkey millstone” (Eselsmühlstein) and in Cherokee as nvya or “rock” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 16).
