The Greek phrase that is (awkwardly) rendered as “people were marrying and being given in marriage” in some English versions (Good News Translation: “men and women married”) is rendered more straight-forwardly in Chechen and Khakas which uses different words for “marry” for men and women. (Source: David Clark)
In Tlahuitoltepec Mixe it is translated as “no one will go as a wife-seeker, and no one will cause his child to be married.” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
The name in Acts 13:1 that is transliterated as “Manaen” (also: Manahen or Menachem) in English means “consoler,” “comforter.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997)
David Clark (in The Bible Translator 2013, p. 54ff. ) explains the various transliteration paths in several languages spoken in Russia: “For some reason unknown to me, this name has come into the Russian Synodal Version (widely accepted by both Orthodox and Protestant Christians in Russia) as Manail (Манаил), and in so far as this name is familiar at all, it is in this form. Translators in Russia therefore had to decide whether to follow the Greek form of the name or the Russian form. In Yakut and Khakas, where there are Christian traditions, the decision was to follow the Russian form. In Chechen (with a Sunni Muslim tradition), the decision was to follow the Greek form. In Kalmyk (with a Tibetan Buddhist tradition) the decision was to go back to the Hebrew form underlying the Greek, which is ‘Menahem.’ This comes out sounding better in Kalmyk, and is a valid, though rather unusual, option.”
In Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) it is translated with a sign that combines (an upside down M) and points to Manaen as Herod’s adopted brother and that he was counted as a prophet in Acts. (Source: Missão Kophós )
