The Greek that is often translated as “flesh” in English (when referring to the lower human nature) can, according to Nidq (1947, p. 153) “very rarely be literally translated into another language. ‘My meat’ or ‘my muscle’ does not make sense in most languages.” He then gives a catalog of almost 30 questions to determine a correct translation for that term.
Accordingly, the translations are very varied:
See also spirit / flesh and old self.
The Greek term that is translated as a form of “save” in English is translated in Shipibo-Conibo with a phrase that means literally “to make to live”, which combines the meaning of “to rescue” and “to deliver from danger,” but also the concept of “to heal” or “restore to health.”
In San Blas Kuna it is rendered as “to help the heart,” in Laka, it is “to take by the hand” in the meaning of “rescue” or “deliver,” in Huautla Mazatec the back-translation of the employed term is “lift out on behalf of,” in Anuak, it is “to have life because of,” in Central Mazahua “to be healed in the heart,” in Baoulé “to save his head” (meaning to rescue a person in the fullest sense), in Guerrero Amuzgo “to come out well,” in Northwestern Dinka “to be helped as to his breath” (or “life”) (source: Bratcher / Nida), and in Nyongar barrang-ngandabat or “hold life” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
In South Bolivian Quechua it is “to make to escape” and in Highland Puebla Nahuatl, it is “to cause people to come out with the aid of the hand.” (Source: Nida 1947, p. 222.)
See also salvation.
(To view the different translations of this term in a simplified graphical form on a new page, click or tap here.)
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: “to talk false”
- Copainalá Zoque: “to lie-act”
- Kituba, Amganad Ifugao, Chuukese: “to lie”
- Toraja-Sa’dan: “someone whose lips are fair” (i.e. “gracious”)
- Mossi: “to have a sweet mouth”
- Mazahua: “to have a swollen mouth” (from too much speaking)
- Tai Dam: “to 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: “to 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, The Bible Translator 1962, 211f)
- Mairasi: “deceiver person” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- Bauzi: “good on top person” (source: David Briley in Kroneman (2004), p. 502)
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.
The Greek that is translated as “glorify God” in English is rendered as “to wake God up” in Guerrero Amuzgo.
Other translations are “say that God is very great” (Central Tarahumara), “how good God is, they said” (Tzotzil), “to speak about God as good” (Tzeltal), “to give God a great name” (Highland Puebla Nahuatl), “to give God highness” (Kipsigis), “to take God out high” (in the sense of “to exalt”) (Huautla Mazatec), “to make great, to exalt” (Toraja-Sa’dan, Javanese), “to lift up God’s brightness” (Kpelle), “to show God to be great” (Central Pame), “to make God shine” (Wayuu), “to make God’s name big” (Huastec), “to make God important” (Isthmus Zapotec) (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida), or “say to God: You are of good heart” (Huichol) (source: Nida 1964, p. 228).
In Waama this is translated as “make God’s name big.” (For the translation into Waama, five categories of verb doxazo and the noun doxa were found that were all translated differently, see glorify (reveal God’s or Jesus’ glory to people)).
In Shipibo-Conibo it is translated as “to brag about God” (“This may strike some at first as being an unspiritual approach, but it surely is Pauline, for Paul used the word ‘to brag’ when he declared his confidence in Jesus Christ and in the salvation of the world which God wrought through His Son.”) (Source: Nida 1952, p. 162)
(To view the different translations of this term in a simplified graphical form on a new page, click or tap here.)
The Greek that is often rendered in English as “to be converted” or “to turn around” is (back-) translated in a number of ways:
- North Alaskan Inupiatun: “to change completely”
- Purepecha: “to turn around”
- Highland Totonac: “to have one’s life changed”
- Huautla Mazatec: “to make pass over bounds within”
- San Blas Kuna: “turn the heart toward God”
- Chol: “the heart turns itself back”
- Highland Puebla Nahuatl: “self-heart change”
- Pamona: “to turn away from, unlearn something”
- Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “to turn around from the breast”
- Luvale: “to return”
- Balinese: “to put in a new behavior” (compare “repentance“: “to put on a new mind”)
- Tzeltal: “to cause one’s heart to return to God” (compare “repentance”: “to cause one’s heart to return because of one’s sin”)
- Pedi: “to retrace one’s step” (compare “repentance”: “to become untwisted”)
- Uab Meto: “to return” (compare “repentance”: “to turn the heart upside down”)
- Northwestern Dinka: “to turn oneself” (compare “repentance”: “to turn the heart”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
- Central Mazahua: “changing the heart” (compare “repentance”: “turning back the heart”) (source: Nida 1952, p. 40)
- Western Kanjobal: “to molt” (like a butterfly) (source: Nida 1952, p. 136)
- Latvian: atgriezties (verb) / atgriešanās (noun) (“turn around / return”) which is also the same term being used for “repentance” (source: Katie Roth)
- Isthmus Mixe: “look away from the teaching of one’s ancestors and follow the teachings of God”
- Highland Popoluca: “leaving one’s old beliefs to believe in Jesus” (source for thsi and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
(To view the different translations of this term in a simplified graphical form on a new page, click or tap here.)
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:
The Greek and Hebrew that are often translated as “miracles” or “miraculous powers” into English are translated as “things which no one has ever seen before” (San Blas Kuna), “thing marveled at” (Tepeuxila Cuicatec), “breathtaking thing” (Ngäbere), “long-necked thing” (referring to the onlookers who stretch their necks to see) (Huautla Mazatec), “sign done by God’s power” (Mossi), “supernatural power” (Javanese), “things that have heaven-strength” (Highland Totonac) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida), “amazing thing” (Muna) (source: René van den Berg), or “impossible things” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter 2004).
See also wonder.
The Greek that is translated into English as “(I) implore (or: adjure) (you) by God” is translated as “tell you before God” (Copainalá Zoque), “ask in front of God” (Huautla Mazatec) “ask you by God” (Eastern Highland Otomi), “ask you in God’s presence” (Southern Subanen), “I swear, calling on the name of God, requesting you” (Toraja-Sa’dan), “I want your oath by God” (Indonesian), “will assure me by using a curse on yourself calling on the name of God” (Pamona), and “ask you; God has seen it” (Tzotzil).
The phrase that is translated as “there is no fear in love” in English has been translated in Huautla Mazatec as “he who really loves forgets to be afraid.” “The concepts of love and fear must be expressed by verbs, not nouns, and hence an actor must be expressed. Furthermore, the relationship indicated by the English ‘in’ must be radically altered, for though in can express the relationship of objects to each other in Huautla Mazatec, it does not show the relationship of events, as it does in English.” (Source: Nida 1964, p. 196).
See also complete verse (1 John 4:18) and love (abstract noun).
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, translators typically select the exclusive form (excluding the addressee). SIL International (1999) notes that it’s only possible that an exclusive form, only referring to Paul himself, might be intended.
In Huautla Mazatec, however, the translators selected the inclusive we.
Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.
Mal uses 4 forms of the first-person plural pronoun: inclusive dual “we” (includes the person that the speaker addresses), exclusive dual “we” (includes the speaker plus another person but excludes the person that the speaker addresses), inclusive plural “we” (includes all persons that the speaker addresses), exclusive plural “we” (includes the speaker plus at least two other persons but excludes the other persons person that the speaker addresses).
In this verse the Mal translation is using the inclusive plural form, including all addressees.
Source: David Filbeck in The Bible Translator 1994, p. 401ff.
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 28:31:
- Uma: “Without any fear/uneasiness, he announced to them that Yesus was Lord and the Redeemer King, and he taught them the way to become God’s people in his Kingdom. And there were none who bothered him.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “He proclaimed about God’s ruling and he taught/preached about Isa Almasi, the Lord. He had no fear-whatever to teach/preach and nobody restrained/forbade him.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “He caused them to understand how the kinging of God would be and he taught them who our Lord Jesus Christ is. He did not hide his teaching and neither did anyone tell him to stop.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “He was bold to preach and teach concerning the ruling of God and the Lord Jesu Cristo, and no one forbid him. That’s that.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “He taught them well concerning the kingdom of God, and all the teaching concerning the Lord Jesu-Cristo. And there was no-one at all who forbade him.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Lalana Chinantec: “Just exactly as he wanted, he preached how God is the boss of people’s hearts. He taught the word of our Lord Jesus Christ. There was no one who prevented Paul from preaching the Word.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
- Huautla Mazatec: “Thus he preached on behalf of the kingdom of God. he taught the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. (There was) no one whom Paul was afraid of. no one who cut him off.” (Source: Florence Cowan in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 135ff.)
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, translators typically select the inclusive form (including Aaron).
In Huautla Mazatec, however, the translators selected the exclusive pronoun (excluding Aaron).
In the Karbi and the Tok Pisin translations, for the first part of the verse the inclusive pronoun is used (including Aaaron) but for the last part (“we do not know what has happened to him” in English) the exclusive pronoun is used (excluding Aaron).
Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff. and W. R. Hutton in The Bible Translator April 1953, p. 86ff. (Karbi).