Language-specific Insights

complete verse (Romans 10:6)

Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 10:6:

  • Uma: “But there are other words of Musa that say we can become straight in God’s sight because of our faith. They sound like this: ‘Don’t say in your (sing.) heart: ‘Who is able to climb up to heaven? Who can go down to the dwelling of the dead?’ ‘ Its meaning: it is not necessary for us to climb up to heaven to search for goodness [i.e., salvation], because Kristus has already come down here to us. Nor is it necessary for us to go down to the dwelling of the dead to search for goodness, because Kristus, has risen from the dead to give us goodness.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But just one thing must/ought be done by us (dual) so that we (dual) are considered straight by God, we (dual) must trust Isa Almasi. And about this there is also (something) written in the holy-book, it says, ‘Don’t say (pl.), ‘There should be first someone going to heaven,’ ‘ (that means to get Almasi to bring him here to earth.)” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “However, concerning the regarding people that can be means of faith, there’s also a written word which says, ‘You must not suppose that we (incl.) can only be considered righteous by God if someone goes to Heaven to get Christ.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But there is also that which God caused-to-be-written which makes-known to us that the righteousness based on faith is not difficult to gain/enjoy. It/He says, ‘Don’t say to yourselves (lit. with your minds) that someone needs to go to heaven to go call Cristo to come-down here.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “But there is the word about how God clears our sins. He clears our sins because we believe in Jesus Christ. Because it is written ‘Therefore let no one say that is necessary to go to heaven to bring back Christ to save him. Because he has already come.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Huehuetla Tepehua: “But this is what the word of God says about those who have put their confidence in Christ and because of that they are seen as if their life was straight before God. He said: Don’t say in your heart, Who can go up to heaven so that he could bring Christ here to this world to help us?”
  • Teutila Cuicatec: “As for God justifying those who believe, perhaps there are those who scoff and say as follows: ‘Just who has ever gone to heaven and seen if Jesus Christ came from there?'” (Source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)

if God is for us

The Greek in Romans 8:31 that is translated as “if God is for us” in English is translated as

  • “if God is in fellowship with us” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui
  • “if God does not abandon us” in Miahuatlán Zapotec
  • “if God is united with us” in Yatzachi Zapotec
  • “God is the one who helps us” in Huehuetla Tepehua
  • “God himself loves us” in Teutila Cuicatec
  • “if God is in our favor” in Isthmus Zapotec
  • “if God is our helper” in Highland Totonac (source for this above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • “if God is ours” in Kupsabiny (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • “if God is on our side” in Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006
  • “we can say that God is really defending us” in Hiligaynon (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • “now we are friends with God” in Tenango Otomi (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • “if Above-One is the One who guards us” in Mairasi (source: Enggavoter 2004)

uncircumcised in heart and ears

The phrase in Acts 7:51 that is translated into English as “uncircumcised in heart and ears” is translated into Afar as “You are people who have hearts that refuse God, and ears closed saying we didn’t hear God’s message.” (Source: Loren Bliese)

Other translations for “uncircumcised in heart and ears” include:

  • Rincón Zapotec: “it doesn’t enter your hearts or your ears. You are like those who don’t even believe”
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “hard are your hearts and not a little bit open are your ears”
  • Morelos Nahuatl: “you have your heart as unbelievers, you do not want to hear God’s word”
  • Highland Popoluca: “you never wanted to do God’s will, never truly believed”
  • Teutila Cuicatec: “you are just the same as those who do not believe God’s word because you do not obey”
  • Huichol: “you have not been marked with God’s sign in your hearts or in your ears” (or: “you are unruly and unsubmissive like an untamed, unbranded bronco”)
  • Ojitlán Chinantec: “you do not have the word-sign in your hearts. Your ears are clogged”
  • Copainalá Zoque: “you just don’t understand”
  • Isthmus Mixe: “your hearts and minds are not open” (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Kaqchikel: “with your hearts unprepared” (source: Nida 1964, p. 220)
  • Elhomwe: “like people who do not know God” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Chichewa (interconfessional translation) “hard-headed.” (Source: Wendland 1987, p. 130)
  • Bariai: “You aren’t able to receive knowledge, certainly not. You shut your ears always to Deo’s talk.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Low German 1975 translation by Rudolf Muuß: “Your hearts and ears are no better than those of the heathen”
  • Uma: “No kidding your stubbornness! No kidding your making yourselves deaf to hearing the Word of the Lord God!” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Your livers are livers not obeying/following God. And how deaf are your ears. You do not listen-to/heed God’s word/message.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)

See also uncircumcised and stiff-necked.

brothers and fathers

The Greek in Acts 7:2 that is translated as “brothers and fathers” in English is translated in various ways:

  • Purari: “younger and older brothers” (source: David Clark)
  • Mairasi: “fathers, friends, in-laws & all” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Bariai: “companions and elders” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Teutila Cuicatec: “all of you, officials of our nation and my brothers”
  • Isthmus Mixe: “old men and brothers” (according to order of respect)
  • Lalana Chinantec “companions, men”
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “you men, fathers”
  • Chichimeca-Jonaz: “you who are our relatives, and you whom I made my fathers”
  • Highland Popoluca: “my older uncles”
  • Rincón Zapotec: “elders and brothers” (source for this and six above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

See also brothers and fathers.

unleavened bread

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “unleavened bread” in English is translated in various ways:

  • Chichimeca-Jonaz: “bread that doesn’t have its medicine that makes it puff up”
  • Teutila Cuicatec: “bread without its sour”
  • Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “bread that has no mother” (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Mairasi: “bread without other ingredient” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Chichewa: “non-puffed-up bread”
  • Chitonga: “bread without fermented grain” (source for this and above: de Regt / Wendland 2016)
  • Hiligaynon: “bread that has-none of that-which-causes-to-expand” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Tatar: “unleavened flat cakes” (source: Lénart de Regt in The Bible Translator 2017, p. 131ff. )
  • Nkumbi / Mbangala / Songo: “bread that has gone no yeast” — “this is an application of a common construction in Angolan Bantu languages for speaking about the ingredients in some foods: ‘there is salt in the soup’ is rendered literally, ‘the soup has gone salt.’ (Source: Riikka Halme-Berneking in The Bible Translator 2014, p. 353ff. )

census

The Greek and Hebrew that is typically translated as “census” in English is translated in these ways:

zealous for God

The Greek in Acts 22:3 that is often translated in English as “zealous for God” is translated as “very much I was always ready for the word of God with all my heart” in Eastern Highland Otomi, as “very much wanted to do as I thought God wanted” in Lalana Chinantec, and as “every day I obey with all my innermost being all that God commands” Teutila Cuicatec. (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

See also zeal / zealous.

full of grace

The Greek in Acts 6:8 that is typically translated as “full of grace” in English is translated in the following ways:

See also complete verse (Acts 6:8).