Language-specific Insights

hungry

The Hebrew, Ge’ez, Latin, and Greek that is translated in English as “hungry” (or: “famished”) is translated in a number of ways:

  • Noongar: “without stomach” (koborl-wirt) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Kölsch translation (Boch 2017): nix zo Käue han or “have nothing to chew on” and singe Mage hät geknottert wie ne Hungk or “his stomach growled like a dog” (source: Jost Zetzsche)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): Hunger überfiel ihn or “Hunger overtook (lit.: “attacked”) him” (in Matthew 4:2)
  • Kupsabiny: “hunger ate him” (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Mairasi: “feeling tuber pains” (tubers are the main staple) (source Enggavoter 2004)

complete verse (Proverbs 16:3)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 16:3:

  • Kupsabiny: “A person who leaves it to God to rule/guide all his plans becomes strong.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Hand over to the Lord whatever work you do,
    and all your work will succeed.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Commit to the LORD all you (sing.) are-planning to do, and you (sing.) will-be-successful.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “If you (sing.) entrust your (sing.) plans to God, they will be fulfilled.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • English: “Request/Rely on Yahweh to direct what you plan to do;
    if you do that, you will succeed in what you plan.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

wine

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that are translated as “wine” in English is translated into Pass Valley Yali as “grape juice pressed long ago (= fermented)” or “strong water” (source: Daud Soesilo). In Guhu-Samane it is also translated as “strong water” (source: Ernest L. Richert in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 198ff. ), in Noongar as “liquor” (verbatim: “strong water”) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang), in Hausa as ruwan inabi or “water of grapes” (with no indication whether it’s alcoholic or not — source: Mark A. Gaddis), in sar as kasə nduú or “grape drink” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin), or in Papantla Totonac and Coyutla Totonac as “a drink like Pulque” (for “Pulque,” see here ) (source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1971, p. 169ff. ).

In Swahili, Bible translations try to avoid local words for alcoholic drinks, because “drinking of any alcohol at all was one of the sins most denounced by early missionaries. Hence translators are uncomfortable by the occurrences of wine in the Bible. Some of the established churches which use wine prefer to see church wine as holy, and would not refer to it by the local names used for alcoholic drinks. Instead church wine is often referred to by terms borrowed from other languages, divai (from German, der Wein) or vini/mvinyo (from ltalian/Latin vino/vinum). Several translations done by Protestants have adapted the Swahili divai for ‘wine,’ while those done by Catholics use vini or mvinyo.” (Source: Rachel Konyoro in The Bible Translator 1985, p. 221ff. )

The Swahili divai was in turn borrowed by Sabaot and was turned into tifaayiik and is used as such in the Bible. Kupsabiny, on the other hand, borrowed mvinyo from Swahili and turned it into Finyonik. (Source: Iver Larsen)

In Nyamwezi, two terms are used. Malwa ga muzabibu is a kind of alcohol that people specifically use to get drunk (such as in Genesis 9:21) and ki’neneko is used for a wine made from grapes (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext).

In some Hindi translations (such as the Common Language version, publ. 2015 ), one term (dākharasa दाखरस — grape juice) is used when that particular drink is in the focus (such as in John 2) and another term (madirā मदिरा — “alcohol” or “liquor”) when drunkenness is in the focus (such as in Eph. 5:18).

In Mandarin Chinese, the generic term jiǔ (酒) or “alcohol(ic drink)” is typically used. Exceptions are Leviticus 10:9, Numbers 6:3, Deuteronomy 29:6, Judges 13:4 et al., 1 Samuel 1:15, and Luke 1:15 where a differentiation between weak and strong alcohol is needed. The Mandarin Chinese Union Version (2010) translates that as qīngjiǔ lièjiǔ (清酒烈酒) and dànjiǔ lièjiǔ (淡酒烈酒), both in the form of a Chinese proverb and meaning “light alcohol and strong drink.” (Source: Zetzsche)

Click or tap here to see a short video clip about wine in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)

See also proceeds from the vine / anything that comes from the grapevine, wine (Japanese honorifics), filled with new wine, and wine (Gen 27:28).

complete verse (John 1:1)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 1:1:

  • Huehuetla Tepehua: “The Word was living when there was still nothing at all. And that Word lived in the same place God did. And that Word was God himself.”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “When the world began, the person who is the Word was already present. He was with God and the person who is the Word was God.”
  • Chol: “In the beginning of the world there already was the Word. This Word already was with God. This Word was (and still is) God.” (Source for this and above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Long ago before anything was created, the one who is titled the Word of God already was. This Word of God, he already was with God and he is God.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Before the world and heavens/sky was laid-down/spread-out (i.e. existed), there was already Jesus who is called Word/Speech of God. This one referred to as Word, he was already there in the presence of God. Not just in the presence of God but on the contrary, this Word who is Jesus, he indeed is the one who is this God.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The Son of God makes it known how God is. When the world was made, already he was living. He was in fellowship with God. He also is God.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “When before still in the past, there already was the one being — called the Word. The Word is/was now with God, and the Word is/was God himself.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Mairasi: “In the very beginning The Message lived. This Message lived together with Great Above One. And This Message Himself was actually Great Above One.” (Source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Bariai: “Prior to the coming forth of everything, Talk was existing. This Talk was existing together with God, and this Talk was God.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Kupsabiny: “In the beginning, there was Word. That Word was together with God. That word was God.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Anindilyakwa: “Right at the beginning, long, long ago, Jesus Christ was there, the one who revealed God who was hidden from us. Before God made the heavens and the earth, right at that time the same one was already there with God. And those two, the same one and God, they were the same/shared the same characteristics.” (Source: Julie Waddy in The Bible Translator 2004, p. 452ff.)
  • Classical Quechua: “In the dawn which had no beginning the Son of God was, and the Son of God was God, the Son of God was with God.” (for more information, click or tap here)

    This translation by Juan Roxo Mexía y Ocón from 1648 is explained by him in the following way: “When the inherent meaning of the Quechua word changes ‘the customary catholic meaning of the Gospel,’ it must be avoided. Instead a phrase should be used which conforms to the meaning of the Gospel. For example, [in] John 1:1 In principio should not be rendered by the word in the language which corresponds to principio, that is, callarij. Its proper meaning is ‘beginning of time,’ and the Evangelist is speaking of ‘the beginningless beginning of eternity.’ Nor should the word verbum be rendered by simi, which is the corresponding term. Its proper meaning is ‘a spoken word,’ whereas the Evangelist speaks of the ‘Eternal Word of the Father,’ that is, his only begotten Son.” (Source William Mitchell in The Bible Translator 1996, p. 301ff. ).

cymbals

The musical instrument that is most often translated as “cymbals” in English is translated in the following ways:

  • Laarim: “jingles” (source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Uma: “drum” (source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “tin” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “bamboo clapper” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “percussion-instrument” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “rattling decoration” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Kupsabiny: “drum sticks” (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Paicî: “cooking pot lid” (in 1 Cor. 13:1) (Source: Ian Flaws)
  • Natügu: “smacking things” and “banging things” (in Psalm 150:5) (source: Brenda Boerger in Open Theology 2016, p. 179ff. )

In the UBS Helps for Translators‘ Human-made Things in the Bible (original title: The Works of Their Hands: Man-made Things in the Bible) it says the following:

Description: Cymbals were a percussion instrument consisting of two metal discs that were struck together in order to make a shrill, clashing sound. There were two types of cymbals: (1) flat metal plates that were struck together, and (2) metal cones, one of which was brought down on top of the other, on the open end.

Translation: The equivalent of “cymbal” in many languages is a phrase such as “loud metal.”

Cymbals (source: Susan Mitford (c) British and Foreign Bible Society 1986)

Quoted with permission.

See also clanging cymbal.

sinner

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The Greek that is translated as “sinner” in English is translated in various ways:

  • “people with bad hearts” (“it is not enough to call them ‘people who do bad things,’ for though actions do reflect the heart, yet it is the hearts with which God is primarily concerned — see Matt. 15:19“) in Western Kanjobal
  • “people who are doing wrong things in their hearts” in San Blas Kuna (source for this and above: Nida 1952, p. 148)
  • “people with bad stomachs” in Q’anjob’al (source: Newberry and Kittie Cox in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. )
  • “those others who don’t fully obey our laws” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • “people with dirty hearts” or “people who are called ‘bad'” in Mairasi (source: Enggavoter 2004).
  • “those who owe sin” in Central Mazahua and Teutila Cuicatec (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • “those without (or: “who don’t know”) God” (Gottlose) in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999)
  • “people of bad deeds” in Bariai (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • “rejected/despised people” in Kupsabiny (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)

complete verse (Matthew 4:10)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 4:10:

  • Uma: “Yesus answered: ‘Away, tempter! Because in the Holy Book it is written like this: ‘We (incl.) must worship the Lord God, our (incl.) Lord. He only is the one worthy for us (incl.) to submit to.’ ‘” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Isa said, ‘Leave, demon, for it is written in the holy-book, it says, ‘You (pl.) shall prostrate (before) God your Leader/Lord and he shall be the only one you worship.’ ‘” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Then Jesus burst out saying, ‘Satan, get away from me! There is a written saying of God which says, ‘The only thing you worship is the Lord your God. Anything else named god, don’t you obey his commands.’ ‘” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But Jesus answered saying, ‘You (sing.) go-away immediately Satanas! Because the written word of God says, ‘There is no other whom you (pl.) are to worship and serve but rather only God who is your Lord.’ ‘” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Jesus’ reply was, ‘Go far away now, Satanas! What is it that is written as-you-know? It says, ‘Only your (sing.) God is who you are to worship, and only he also are you to serve.”” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “But Jesus said: ‘Get away from me, devil. Because it is written in the Holy Book that only the Lord God is to be worshipped, no one else.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “And then Iesus spoke to him like this, ‘Satan, you go far away! For God’s book has talk like this, ‘You (sing.) must lift up your Chief God’s name, and so you be holding his work alone.’” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Kupsabiny: “Jesus replied him that, ‘You enemy, get away from here. The writings (of God) say that, ‘You should kneel to/worship God and honour/obey him alone.’ ‘” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Mairasi: “Then Yesus said to him: ‘You demon/Satan, go away/over there! In the book it is already written: ‘You must worship Great Above One your Great Above One. And then you must always only honor/obey Him’ says he.'” (Source Enggavoter 2004)

For the Old Testament quote, see Deuteronomy 6:13.