The Greek in Romans 1:30 that is translated as “slanderer” or “backbiter” or similar in English is translated as “raised up lies about their fellow people” in Central Mazahua, as “talk ugly about their fellows” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui, as “those who give a vicious twist to what they hear” in Highland Totonac, and as “hunted people’s sin” in Huehuetla Tepehua. (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) it is translated as sie leisten Spitzeldienste or “they are informers.”
The Greek in James 4:10 that is translated as “humble yourselves before the Lord” or similar in English is translated as “bow before God’s face” in Eastern Highland Otomi), “remain low before his countenance” in Alekano, and “acknowledge that you are not worth anything” in Central Mazahua (source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.).
The Greek that is translated in English “housetops” or similar in English is translated in Central Mazahua as “where you meet your fellowmen,” in Sranan Tongo as “street corners,” and in Batak Toba as “the place under the tree” (i.e. a place outside the village, where people gather to discuss public matters.) (Source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
In Enlhet, “shouting from the housetops” “does not mean ‘a public announcement’ but rather ‘an omen announcing an evil spirit attack upon the village.’ The public announcement is expressed with a different form to announce in front of the house.” (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1971, p. 169ff. )
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:
Aari: “the day our Savior comes” (in Rom 13:11) (source: Loren Bliese)
in Mairasi its is translated as “life fruit” or “life fruit all mashed out.” Lloyd Peckham explains: “In secret stories, not knowable to women nor children, there was a magical fruit of life. If referred to vaguely, without specifying the specific ‘fruit,’ it can be an expression for eternity.” And for “all masked out” he explains: “Bark cloth required pounding. It got longer and wider as it got pounded. Similarly, life gets pounded or mashed to lengthen it into infinity. Tubers also get mashed into the standard way of serving the staple food, like the fufu of Uganda, or like poi of Hawaii. It spreads out into infinity.” (See also eternity / forever)
In Lisu a poetic construct is used for this term. Arrington (2020, p. 58f.) explains: “A four-word couplet uses Lisu poetic forms to bridge the abstract concrete divide, an essential divide to cross if Christian theology is to be understood by those with oral thought patterns. Each couplet uses three concrete nouns or verbs to express an abstract term. An example of this is the word for salvation, a quite abstract term essential to understanding Christian theology. To coin this new word, the missionary translators used a four-word couplet: ℲO., CYU. W: CYU (person … save … person … save). In this particular case, the word for person was not the ordinary word (ʁ) but rather the combination of ℲO., and W: used in oral poetry. The word for ‘save’ also had to be coined; in this case, it was borrowed from Chinese [from jiù / 救]. These aspects of Lisu poetry, originally based on animism, likely would have been lost as Lisu society encountered communism and modernization. Yet they are now codified in the Lisu Bible as well as the hymnbook.”
In the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) it is translated with chipulumutso which is used to refer to an act of helping someone who is in problems but cannot help him/herself come out of the problems because of weakness. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
The Greek that is translated as “justify” in English is translated into Tzotzil in two different ways. One of those is with Lec xij’ilatotic yu’un Dios ta sventa ti ta xc’ot ta o’ntonal ta xch’unel ti Jesucristoe (“we are seen well by God because of our faith in Jesus Christ”) (source: Aeilts, p. 118) and the other is “God sees as righteous” (source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.).
Other (back-) translations include:
Bilua: “straigthened” (Romans 3:20: “Nobody can be straightened in God’s presence…”) (source: Carl Gross) (see also: righteous)
Makonde: “”to be good in God’s eyes” (in the context of being made righteous by God) ” (note that righteous / righteousness is translated as “to be good in God’s eyes” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Manikion: “heart sits next to Jesus” (source: Daud Soesilo)
Obolo: ben itip-oyerebet isan̄a: “take away condemnation” (source: Enene Enene)
The Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, and Greek that is translated in English typically as “obedience” or “obey” is translated in Tepeuxila Cuicatec as “thing hearing,” because “to hear is to obey.” (Source: Marjorie Davis in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 34ff. )
In Huba it is translated as hya nǝu nyacha: “follow (his) mouth.” (Source: David Frank in this blog post )
In Central Mazahua it is translated as “listen-obey” and in Huehuetla Tepehua as “believe-obey” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), and in Noongar as dwangka-don, lit. “hear do” (source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018).
