The Greek that is rendered as “in his right mind” or “sound-minded” in English is translated as “his mind had returned” (Amganad Ifugao), “his heart was sitting down” (Tojolabal), “his head was healed” (Chicahuaxtla Triqui), “his mind was straightened” (Tzotzil), “with a clear mind again” (Javanese), “come to his senses” (Indonesian) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida), “come to his cleanness/purity” (Marathi), “(his) thoughts having become right” (Ekari), “his intelligence having-become clean again” (Sranan Tongo), “having-mind” (Batak Toba), “settled his mind” (Tae’), “settled/fixed” (Balinese) (source for this and five above: Reiling / Swellengrebel), or “had well-split vision” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter 2004).
hypocrite
The Greek and Hebrew terms that are translated as “hypocrite” in English typically have a counterpart in most languages. According to Bratcher / Nida (1961, p. 225), they can be categorized into the following categories:
- those which employ some concept of “two” or “double”
- those which make use of some expression of “mouth” or “speaking”
- those which are based upon some special cultural feature
- those which employ a non-metaphorical phrase
Following is a list of (back-) translations from some languages:
- Highland Totonac, Huautla Mazatec, Lacandon, Cuicatec, Highland Puebla Nahuatl: “two-faced”
- Obolo: ebi isi iba: “double-faced person” (source: Enene Enene)
- Tzeltal, Chol: “two hearts”
- Pame: “two mouths”
- San Miguel El Grande Mixtec: “two heads”
- Kekchí: “two sides”
- Shipibo-Conibo: “double (or “forked”) tongue”
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “double talk”
- Huehuetla Tepehua: “talk false”
- Copainalá Zoque: “lie-act”
- Kituba, Amganad Ifugao, Chuukese: “lie”
- Toraja-Sa’dan: “someone whose lips are fair” (i.e. “gracious”)
- Mossi: “have a sweet mouth”
- Mazahua: “have a swollen mouth” (from too much speaking)
- Tai Dam: “have a straight mouth and a crooked heart”
- Kongo: “the bitterness of white” (an idiom based on the fact that white-wash looks nice but tastes bitter)
- Malagasy: “spread a clean carpet” (an expression used in Madagascar to describe one who covers up the dirt of an unswept floor just before the arrival of guests)
- Zanaki: “those who make themselves out to be good”
- Tetelcingo Nahuatl: “those who deceive” (this and all examples above acc. to Bratcher / Nida 1961, p. 225)
- Kafa: “one who makes as if his belly is clean” (source: Loren Bliese)
- Agatu: ɔcɛ gigbefu — “disguised person acting a part” (source: Mackay in The Bible Translator 1962, 211f. )
- Mairasi: “deceiver person” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- Bauzi: “good on top person” (source: David Briley in Kroneman (2004), p. 502)
- Tibetan: kha chos pa (ཁ་ཆོས་པ།), lit. “mouth + religion + person” (used for instance in Matt. 7:5) or sgyu zog can (སྒྱུ་ཟོག་ཅན།), lit. “deception + fraud + person” (used for instance in Matt. 24:51) (source: gSungrab website )
- Low German: “actor in a comedy” (translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006)
- Kölsch (publ. 2017): falscher Fuffzijer, literally “counterfeit 50-pfennig coin” (source: Jost Zetzsche)
- Lélé: ne kub so or “make mouth two” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
The Latvian term liekulis was likely coined by the Bible translation of Ernst Glück (1654–1705) in the late 17th century and is still being used today (source ).
The English version of Sarah Ruden (2021) uses “play-actor.” She explains (p. li): “A hupokrites is fundamentally an actor. The word has deep negativity in the Gospels on two counts: professional actors were not respectable people in the ancient world, and traditional Judaism did not countenance any kind of playacting. I write ‘play-actor’ throughout.”
See also hypocrisy.
wisdom
The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is translated as “wisdom” in English is rendered in various ways:
- Amganad Ifugao / Tabasco Chontal: “(big) mind”
- Bulu / Yamba: “heart-thinking”
- Tae’: “cleverness of heart” (source for this and all above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
- Palauan: “bright spirit (innermost)” (source: Bratcher / Hatton)
- Ixcatlán Mazatec: “with your best/biggest thinking” (source: Robert Bascom)
- Noongar: dwangka-boola, lit. “ear much” (source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018 — see also remember)
- Kwere “to know how to live well” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
- Dobel: “their ear holes are long-lasting” (in Acts 6:3) (source: Jock Hughes)
See also wisdom (Proverbs).
beside himself, out of his mind
The Greek that is translated as “beside himself” or “lost his mind” or other variations in English is (back-) translated by the following languages like this:
- Tzeltal: “his head had been touched” (“an expression to identify what might be called the half-way stage to insanity”)
- Amganad Ifugao: “he acts as though he were crazy”
- Shilluk: “he is acting like an imbecile”
- Shipibo-Conibo: “his thoughts have gone out of him”
- Pamona: “he is outside his senses”
- Indonesian: “he is not by his reason”
deny oneself
The Greek that is translated with “deny himself” or “deny oneself” is according to Bratcher / Nida “without doubt one of the most difficult expressions in all of Mark to translate adequately.” These are many of the (back-) translations:
- Tetelcingo Nahuatl: “not accept self”
- Amganad Ifugao and South Bolivian Quechua: “forget self”
- North Alaskan Inupiatun: “have no regard for oneself”
- Toraja-Sa’dan: “not bother oneself about oneself”
- Huautla Mazatec: “cover up oneself”
- San Miguel El Grande Mixtec: “not worship oneself”
- Tzeltal: “stop doing what one’s own heart wants”
- Yaka: “let go that which he wants to do oneself”
- Cashibo-Cacataibo: “say, I will not do just what I want to do”
- Tzotzil: “say, I do not serve for anything” (in the sense of having no personal value)
- Sapo: “not do what is passing through one’s mind”
- Central Mazahua: “not take constant thought for oneself”
- Tabasco Chontal: “quit what one wants”
- Highland Totonac: “undo one’s own way of thinking”
- Dan: “put one’s own things down”
- Kekchí: “despise oneself”
- Kituba: “refuse oneself”
- Javanese: “turn one’s back on oneself”
- Southern Bobo Madaré: “disobey oneself” (in the sense of denying one’s own wishes)
- Huastec: “leave oneself at the side”
- Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “leave one’s own way”
- Loma: “take one’s mind out of oneself completely”
- Panao Huánuco Quechua: “say, I do not live for myself”
- Mitla Zapotec: “say No to oneself” (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
- Copainalá Zoque: “forgetting self”
- Huallaga Huánuco Quechua: “declare, I do not live for myself” (source: Nida 1952, p. 154)
- Galela: “put self down” (source: Howard Shelden in Kroneman 2004, p. 501)
- Mairasi: “shuffle out of one’s vision (=forget) everything which is one’s own” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- Q’anjob’al: “do not belong to oneself any longer” (source: Newberry and Kittie Cox in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. )
- Achi: “don’t do only what one wants to do”
- Chipaya: “leave one’s own way of living” (source for this and above: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
grieving, sorrowful
The Greek that is translated as “grieving” or “sorrowful” in English is often translated metaphorically: “his stomach died” (Mezquital Otomi), “he was heavy in his stomach” (Uduk), “his heart was pained” (Kpelle), “he was sick in his mind” (Amganad Ifugao), “his heart hung” (Loma), and “his heart was spoiled” (Mossi).
See also sorrow and Seat of the Mind for traditional views of “ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling.”
pride
The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin that is translated as “pride” in English is translated as “continually boasting” (Amganad Ifugao), “lifting oneself up” (Tzeltal), “answering haughtily” (Yucateco) (source: Bratcher / Nida), “unbent neck” (like llamas) (Kaqchikel) (source: Nida 1952, p. 151), or “praising oneself, saying: I am better” (Shipibo-Conibo) (source: Nida 1964, p. 237).
In the Hausa Common Language Bible it is idiomatically translated as girman kai or “bigness of head.” (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
council
The Greek that is translated as “council” or “Council” in English is (back-) translated in a variety of ways:
- Tzeltal: “officials who gather together”
- Copainalá Zoque: “those who think together”
- Amaganad Ifugao: “those who take charge of the affairs” (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
- Ekari: “place for speech-making/discussion”
- Tae’: “great assembly”
- Sranan Tongo, Javanese: “(high) tribunal”
- Marathi: “assembly of their Judgement-court” (source for this and three above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
- Lalana Chinantec: “the people who judge”
- Chichimeca-Jonaz: “the elders who give them advice”
- Morelos Nahuatl: “junta”
- Isthmus Mixe: “church judges”
- San Mateo del Mar Huave: “big meeting” (source for this and four above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)