“something was-consuming in our-heart” in Tae’ (an idiom for “we were profoundly moved”) (source for this and above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
“O, how sweet coolness did our hearts feel” in an early version of the Bible in Sranan Tongo. “The translator “did this to avoid misunderstanding. In Sranan Tongo, when one says ‘my heart is burning’ he means ‘I am angry.'” (Source: Janini 2015, p. 33)
“Wasn’t it as rain coming down on us?” in Afar. “Heat is bad, rain is good in the desert.” (Source: Loren Bliese)
“our interiors bubbled up” in Bariai (source: Bariai Back Translation)
In the 2008 MobaYendu Kadapaaonn translation it is translated as “were not our hearts encouraged (literally: made strong)?” While Moba has a rich metaphorical library using the concept of “heart” (pal) it follows very different paradigms compared to Greek, Hebrew and English concepts. (Source: Bedouma Joseph Kobaike in Le Sycomore 17/1, 2024, p. 3ff. .) (See also I hold you in my heart)
The Greek in Revelation 6:8 that is translated as “pale green” or “pale” in English is translated in Tsafiki as “sickly yellow” which is used related to health. (Source: Bruce Moore in: Notes on Translation 1/1992, p. 1ff.)
“The real problem is the word chlōros in Rev 6.8. Its basic meaning is ‘green,’ and it is used to describe grass in Mark 6.39 and also in Rev 8.7. It is also used to describe vegetation in general in Rev 9.4. Does this mean that in Rev 6.8, we have a green horse? The absurdity of this has been recognized by translations from the Vulgate onwards. There the translation is pallidus, which means ‘pale.’ The Greek word chlōros can carry this meaning in some contexts, though it does not occur in this sense anywhere else in the New Testament. This is, however, the sense that came into the King James Bible in English (‘a pale horse’), and has been remarkably persistent. The problem is that this appears to be describing the horse’s health rather than its color, and to be saying that the horse is not feeling very well. This is ridiculous enough, but some more recent English versions have translated as ‘pale green’, which if anything sounds even more absurd.
“Why has this word proved such a problem to translators? I suspect that it is because they have failed to grasp the simple fact mentioned at the beginning of this article that different languages divide up the spectrum differently. Thus a word whose central meaning is ‘green (like grass)’ may also cover parts of the spectrum described by other words in other languages. In classical Greek, chlōros is used of such things as honey and egg yolk, which would never be called ‘green’ in English (unless perhaps the egg were bad!). Horses are certainly not the same color as egg yolk, but chlōros is also, and more significantly for our purposes, used to describe a mist: for this the natural color term in English would be ‘grey.’ We may therefore suggest that the part of the spectrum covered by chlōros in Greek includes what we would call ‘grey’ in English. This would not only be clear and natural, but would also strengthen the echo of the colors of the horses in Zechariah.
“In a recent conversation with a friend who is a native speaker of Welsh, I was interested to learn that Welsh divides up the spectrum in a way similar to that which I am supposing for Greek. My friend later wrote to me as follows: ‘The ‘pale horse’ in Rev 6.8 is described by the word glas (also meaning ‘blue’ in Welsh) in my older Bible, but interestingly by llwyd in a newer version. On reflection llwyd was the word 1 would have used in my boyhood for ‘grey,’ not glas. For example, my Sunday-best suit would have been llwyd.’ It seems that the old Welsh translation first published in 1588, earlier that is than the King James in English, had a more realistic approach to the color of the horse in Rev 6.8 than most English versions. And so does the newer Welsh version.
“In recent years I have also worked with two NT projects in southern Siberia — Khakas and Tuvan — where the people are interested in horses, and very familiar with them. It was an encouragement to me to study this matter further when 1 discovered that in both projects, the translator instinctively translated chlōros in Rev 6.8 by words meaning ‘grey.’ And this happened without any prompting from me!”
Since the words for “flock” and “girl friend” are homonyms in Khakas, the translators decided to translate the occurrence in Luke 12:32 as “you little lambs” rather than “flock” to avoid misunderstandings.
In Chechen, “little flock” sounds scornful and insulting, so it needed to be restructured as, “though you are few and weak, above you is a shepherd,” “with the implication that the shepherd is the heavenly father already mentioned in the wider context.“ (Source: David Clark in The Bible Translator 2015, p. 117ff. )
Since the words for “fire” and “grass” are homonyms in Khakas, the translators decided to translate “fire” as “burning fire” in Luke 17:29 to avoid confusion. (Source: David Clark in The Bible Translator 2015, p. 117ff. )
Since the words for “blood” and “king” are homonyms in Khakas, the translators decided to translate “blood” as “shed blood” in Luke 22:20 to avoid confusion. (Source: David Clark in The Bible Translator 2015, p. 117ff. )
The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons” in English is translated idiomatically in Khakas with the existing phrase “two wild or domestic pigeons.” (Source: David Clark in The Bible Translator 2015, p. 117ff. )
The Greek in Luke 6:44 that is translated in English as “figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush” or similar is translated in Upper Guinea Crioulo as “You wouldn’t pick guavas [very similar to figs] from a thorn bush, or cashews from a thorn tree.” (Source: David Frank in this blog post )
Toposa does not have a generic terms in this semantic field. “Since all that was needed in the context of this verse was an example of a shrub or bush considered worthless and not capable of producing good fruit, the translators chose to render thornbush as nyerekedae ‘hook thorn’ (acacia mellifera) and ‘brier’ as nyekabuuru ‘pink jacaranda’ (stereospermum kunthianum). The former shrub has vicious thorns and bears no fruit, the latter has no thorns and produces only inedible pods, both are classified as worthless in Toposa economy.” (Source: Schröder 2026, p. 101).
