Lloyd Peckham explains the Mairasi translation: “In secret stories, not knowable to women nor children, there was a magical fruit of life. If referred to vaguely, without specifying the specific ‘fruit,’ it can be an expression for eternity.”
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “adultery” (typically understood as “marital infidelity”) in English is (back-) translated in the following ways:
Toraja-Sa’dan: “to measure the depth of the river of (another’s) marriage.”
North Alaskan Inupiatun: “married people using what is not theirs” (compare “fornication” which is “unmarried people using what is not theirs”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
In Hakha Chin the usual term for “adultery” applies only to women, so the translation for the Greek term that is translated into English as “adultery” was translated in Hakha Chin as “do not take another man’s wife and do not commit adultery.”
Hopi: “tamper with marriage” (source for this and two above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
In Falam Chin the term for “adultery” is the phrase for “to share breast” which relates to adultery by either sex. (Source for this and three above: David Clark)
In Ixcatlán Mazatec a specification needs to be made to include both genders. (Source: Robert Bascom)
Balinese: “put on a new behavior” (compare “repentance“: “to put on a new mind”)
Tzeltal: “cause one’s heart to return to God” (compare “repentance”: “to cause one’s heart to return because of one’s sin”)
Pedi: “retrace one’s step” (compare “repentance”: “to become untwisted”)
Uab Meto: “return” (compare “repentance”: “to turn the heart upside down”)
Northwestern Dinka: “turn oneself” (compare “repentance”: “to turn the heart”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
Central Mazahua: “change the heart” (compare “repentance”: “turn back the heart”) (source: Nida 1952, p. 40)
In Elhomwe, the same term is used for “conversion” and “repentance” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Western Kanjobal: “molt” (like a butterfly) (source: Nida 1952, p. 136)
Latvian: atgriezties (verb) / atgriešanās (noun) (“turn around / return”) which is also the same term being used for “repentance” (source: Katie Roth)
Isthmus Mixe: “look away from the teaching of one’s ancestors and follow the teachings of God”
Highland Popoluca: “leave one’s old beliefs to believe in Jesus” (source for thsi and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated in English as “sour wine” or “vinegar” is translated in North Alaskan Inupiatun as “wine,” in Navajo as “sour grape juice,” in Aguaruna “bitter drink,” and in Yatzachi Zapotec as “cheap wine.” (Source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
In Noongar it is translated as as kepa djadam or “sour / bitter water.” (Source: Bardip Ruth-Ang 2020)
