The Greek in Mark 10:21that is translated as “Jesus loved him” in most English translations is translated as “his heart burned for” in Guerrero Amuzgo, “he hurt in his heart” (Tzeltal), “his heart went away with” (Mitla Zapotec), “his abdomen died for him” (Western Kanjobal), “his thoughts were toward him” (Cashibo-Cacataibo), “put him in his heart” (Toro So Dogon) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida), “desired his face” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter 2004).
See also love (by God).
The Greek in Luke 10:41 that is translated as something like “worried (or: anxious) and bothered about many things” is translated in Tzeltal as “doing all kinds of things has gone to your heart and you have difficulty because of it” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel) and in Bariai as “You are concerned (lit. your interior is here and there) and worried (lit. you have various interiors) about very many things” (source: Bariai Back Translation).
In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) it is translated idiomatically as ich will dir anerkennen, dass du vor lauter Machen und Tun nicht weiß, wo dir der Kopf steht or “I will acknowledge that you don’t know where your head is because of all the doing and making.”
The term that is translated as “worried (or anxious)” in English is often translated idiomatically. Examples include “eating for oneself one’s heart” (Shona, version of 1966), “black with worry” (Chichewa), “breaking one’s head” (Sranan-Tongo), “hanging up the heart” (Bulu), “crumbling in one’s abdomen” (Western Kanjobal), “one’s stomach is rising up” (Farefare), or “one’s mind is killing one” (Navajo (Dinė)). (Source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
See also troubled / perplexed and worry and see also Seat of the Mind for traditional views of “ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling.”
The Greek that is often rendered in English as “to be converted” or “to turn around” is (back-) translated in a number of ways:
The phrase that is translated as “with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” in English versions is rendered in Kahua with a term for belly/chest as the seat of the emotions.
The same phrase is translated into Kuy as “with all your heart-liver”to show the totality of one’s being. (Source: David Clark)
Similar to that, in Laka one must love with the liver, in Western Kanjobal with the “abdomen,” and in Marshallese with the throat.
What is translated as “soul” in English is translated as “life” in Yaka, Chuukese, and in Ixcatlán Mazatec, “that which stands inside of one” in Navajo (Dinė), and “spirit” in Kele.
The Greek that is translated in English as “strength” is translated in Yao as “animation” and in Chuukese as “ability.”
The Greek that is translated in English as “mind” is translated in Kele as “thinking,” in Chuukese as “thought(s),” and in Marathi as “intelligence.”
The whole phrase is translated in Tboli as “cause it to start from the very beginning of your stomach your loving God, for he is your place of holding.”
In Poqomchi’ (as in many other Mayan languages), the term “heart” covers both “heart” and “mind.”
(Sources: Bratcher / Nida, Reiling / Swellengrebel, and Bob Bascom [Ixcatlán Mazatec and Poqomchi’])
See also translations with a Hebraic voice (Deuteronomy 6:5), implanted / in one’s heart and complete verse (Mark 12:30), and see Seat of the Mind for traditional views of “ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling.”
For a detailed look at the relationships between the Deuteronomy 6:5 quote, its Septuagint translation and the quotations in the synoptic gospels, see Adaptable for Translation: Deuteronomy 6.5 in the Synoptic Gospels and Beyond by Robert Bascom .
The Greek that is translated as “saint” in English is rendered into Highland Puebla Nahuatl as “one with a clean hearts,” into Northwestern Dinka as “one with a white hearts,” and into Western Kanjobal as “person of prayer.” (Source: Nida 1952, p. 146)
Other translations include:
The Greek term that means “one who is sent off” in its singular form and is usually transliterated as “apostle(s)” in English is (back-) translated in the following ways:
Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023) translates it into English as commissioner.
In American Sign Language it is translated with a combination of the signs for “following” plus the sign for “authority” to differentiate it from disciple. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“apostles” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
In Hungarian Sign Language it is translated with a sign that shows the shape of the beard, based on the common and general visual representation of the apostles. This sign differs from the sign for a beard as used in colloquial language. The sign of the apostle does not originate from a specific biblical verse, but rather from the cultural context and later ecclesiastical tradition. “Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.” Lev 19:27. In the biblical era, wearing a beard was the default social and religious norm among Jewish men. The Apostle Peter is generally depicted with a short, curly, white beard. The Apostle Paul appears with a longer, pointed beard. The Apostle John is an exception, as he was the youngest disciple. In iconography, he is often the only one painted without a beard (as a youth) to emphasize his purity and age (see for instance at Transfiguration (icon)). (Source: Jenjelvi Biblia and HSL Bible Translation Group)
“Apostle” in Hungarian Sign Language (source )
Learn more on Bible Odyssey: The Apostles in Christian Art .
The Greek and Hebrew that are translated as “despair” or “hopelessness” in English are translated in Gilbertese as “my mind is at an end.”
In Western Kanjobal a person in despair is “one who has fallen in his soul.”
See also helpless / overcome / in despair.
Cultures and languages equate different parts of the human body with the seat of the mind. Following is a theoretical framework that categorizes different approaches:
“[We] use the word ‘mind’ as a shorthand term for ‘ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling’ of which different cultures, or different periods of the same culture, may have different understandings. (…) Cultural models of the mind and more scientific approaches in philosophy and/or medicine have in various cultures invoked central parts of the human body as the locus of the mind. The major loci have been the abdomen region, the heart region and the head region or, more particularly, the brain region. These three types of conceptualizations can be labeled ‘abdominocentrism’, ‘cardiocentrism’, and ‘cerebrocentrism’ (or ‘cephalocentrism’), respectively. These three labels only intend to capture the idea that the region in question is the main centre, which does not exclude a similar role for body parts in other regions.”
(Source: Sharifian, Farzad et al. (eds.) Culture, Body, and Language: Conceptualizations of Internal Body Organs across Cultures and Languages. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2008. p. 3f.)
Equally, and related to that, the seat of emotions is located in many different, culture-specific parts of the body. Bratcher / Nida (p. 78) say: “Though the heart is spoken of in the Bible as the center of intellectual and emotive elements of human experience, in other languages the heart may have no such value. In some languages the corresponding centers are the viscera (Western Kanjobal), the liver (Laka), the stomach (Uduk), the gall (Toraja-Sa’dan) and the head (Anuak), though in the neighboring Shilluk demons may be in one’s head, but the liver and heart are the center of most other psychological activities. Whether one is to use ‘heart’ or some other part or organ of the body depends entirely upon the manner in which in any language such psychological experiences are described.”
For an article on Biblical anthropology, see Biblical Anthropology and Ancient Science by John Roberts.