Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 5:8:
Uma: “When he took that letter/paper, the four living things and the twenty-four elders lay prostrate, worshipping that Lamb. Each of them held a harp and a golden basin full of fragrant stuff called incense. That incense means the prayers of people who are the portion of God.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “When he took it, immediately the four different-kind-of angels and twenty four elders prostrated towards him, that is praising him. Each one of the elders held a harp and a golden censer full of incense. Because the fragrance of that incense is a sign of the prayers of the people belonging to God.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when He took the scroll, the four creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down on their faces in front of the young sheep to worship Him. Each one of the elders had a harp (arpa), and they were holding golden bowls full of sweet smelling stuff which is burned to make sweet smelling smoke. The meaning of this is the prayers of the people who belong to God.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Upon his taking it, the four creatures and the twenty four leaders, they knelt face-down in front of him. Each of the leaders, he had a harp (loan arpa) which he was strumming and he was holding a gold bowl full of incense (loan insinso) which are the prayers of God’s people.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “When he took hold of it, those four created living beings and those twenty four elders bowed down with their faces down low, each of them (the elders) holding a stringed-instrument which was an alpa, and also holding a gold bowl full of incense. What was meant by that was the prayers of God’s people.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “When he took the paper, the four who stood at each corner of the throne and also the twenty-four who sat in the chairs all kneeled before the Lamb. Each of them had a stringed instrument named harp and each held a bowl of gold in which burned incense. This stands for the prayers to God made by the people who are in the hand of God.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Martu Wangka: “Then after that, those same four and the twenty four old men, they went to that young sheep and they lay face down to praise him. They had guitars, each one of them, in their hands and they each had a billy/bowl in their hand and there was smoke rising from those. A long time back the Father’s relatives (God’s people) were praying to the Father from the earth. As they were praying to the Father, then their talk would become smoke, and I saw smoke rising from those bowls.” (Source: Carl Gross)
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 25:40:
Martu Wangka: “I am saying the truth to you all. My new relative was sitting hungry, and then you all gave food and meat to him, you satisfied him. Like that you all gave to my relative, and as a result of that I was happy because that one belongs to my family. If I contrary to fact would have been there hungry, you all would have felt sorry for me as well, and given to me contrary to fact.” (Source: Ken Hansen in Notes on Translation 1998/2, p. 11ff.
Uma: “‘And I the King, I’ll answer them: ‘So that you know: what you did to help these relatives of mine here, even just one of my relatives whose life is small, it means it’s the same as you did it to me.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Then I, the ruler, answer them, I say, ‘Truly I tell you, whenever you did this to my disciples of low status you did it really to me.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then I, the king, I will answer, ‘I tell you that if you did this even to one of these my siblings, which is to say, those who believe in me, even though he is very low in rank, you inadvertently did it to me.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “‘Then I who am king, I will say to them, ‘This that I tell you is true that when you were doing (things) like these to even one of the least-important (lit. lowest) of these who are my brothers, you have done it to me.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “And then I their King will say, ‘What I will say to you really is true. When you did these things to even the most insignificant/low-class who is like my sibling, of course I am the one to whom you did it.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “The ruler will then say to the people: ‘Truly I tell you that concerning what all you have done for my brethren here, even though they are not respected by people, with the help you have given them, you have helped me too.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 5:13:
Uma: “‘You who follow me can be compared to salt, which brings goodness [broad word sometimes used to mean salvation] to mankind. But if you do not follow my teaching, you are like salt that is tasteless, it cannot be made salty again, and there is no longer its usefulness, with the result that it is discarded and stepped on.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “‘You who follow me are like salt for all mankind. But when/if the salt has no more taste, it will not become salty again. There is no use for it anymore. Then it is just thrown out and the people walk over it.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “You, my disciples, you are like salt which is that which makes food good, because you are the means of making all-mankind good. However if the flavor is removed from salt, there is no way to bring its flavor back, and there is no use to salt which no longer has any flavor. It is thrown out and people inadvertently walk on it.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Jesus continued to teach and said, ‘You are what-can-be-compared to salt for the people on this earth. But if salt becomes-tasteless it is impossible to return its saltiness (same word as sour/bitter). It is useless, therefore it will be thrown-away and people will step on it.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Jesus continued his teaching saying, ‘You (pl.) who obey the will of God, an illustration of you is salt, that being really necessary here in the world. Well suppose this salt becomes tasteless, how can its saltiness be caused to return again? Isn’t it useless now? Of course it will just be thrown away. What will happen to it is that it will just be being trodden on by people.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Salt has the work that when it is put on something it keeps it from spoiling. You must do like this in the world so that because you live here it will keep down the evil which people do. But when salt has lost its strength, it is not able to salt anything again. Then it is worth nothing, it is then thrown away, people step on it.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Martu Wangka: “Jesus told them a small talk like this, ‘Meat becomes good from salt. That salt is good. Salt which has laid around on the ground becomes bad and then becomes bad rubbish. You all sit like good salt — you who are my relatives. Others, when they see you sitting well, they will gather together with you and they will follow me, Jesus. You will sit like good salt.'” (Source: Carl Gross)
Following are a number of back-translations of John 6:56:
Uma: “The people who eat my body and drink my blood, they stay in-harmony [lit., mutual-life] with me, and I with them.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains with me and I remain with him.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “He who eats my body and drinks my blood never leaves me, and I also never leave him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “The one who eats my body and drinks my blood, he is in me continually, and I also, I am in him.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “That one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, it’s like we (excl.) are now one body.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood is in fellowship with me.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Martu Wangka: “If a person eats my body, and drinks my blood, as a result of that, we two will sit together as relatives.” (The idea of sitting together as relatives is good.) (Source: Carl Gross)
Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “cover over” (a figure of speech which is also employed in Hebrew, but which in many languages is not acceptable, because it implies “hiding” or “concealment”)
Warao: “not being concerned with him clean your obonja.” Obonja is a term that “includes the concepts of consciousness, will, attitude, attention and a few other miscellaneous notions” (source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. See other occurrences of Obojona in the Warao New Testament.)
Martu Wangka: “throw out badness” (source: Carl Gross)
Kyaka: “burn the jaw bones” — This goes back to the pre-Christian custom of hanging the jaw bones of murdered relatives on ones door frame until the time of revenge. Christians symbolically burned those bones to show forgiveness which in turn became the word for “forgiveness” (source: Eugene Nida, according to this blog )
Koonzime: “remove the bad deed-counters” (“The Koonzime lay out the deeds symbolically — usually strips of banana leaf — and rehearse their grievances with the person addressed.”) (Source: Keith and Mary Beavon in Notes on Translation 3/1996, p. 16)
Ngbaka: ele: “forgive and forget” (Margaret Hill [in Holzhausen & Ridere 2010, p. 8f.] recalls that originally there were two different words used in Ngbaka, one for God (ɛlɛ) and one for people (mbɔkɔ — excuse something) since it was felt that people might well forgive but, unlike God, can’t forget. See also this lectionary in The Christian Century.
Amahuaca: “erase” / “smooth over” (“It was an expression the people used for smoothing over dirt when marks or drawings had been made in it. It meant wiping off dust in which marks had been made, or wiping off writing on the blackboard. To wipe off the slate, to erase, to take completely away — it has a very wide meaning and applies very well to God’s wiping away sins, removing them from the record, taking them away.”) (Source: Robert Russel, quoted in Walls / Bennett 1959, p. 193)
Gonja / Dangme: “lend / loan” (in the words of one Dangme scholar: “When you sin and you are forgiven, you forget that you have been forgiven, and continue to sin. But when you see the forgiveness as a debt/loan which you will pay for, you do not continue to sin, else you have more debts to pay” — quoted in Jonathan E.T. Kuwornu-Adjaottor in Ibadan Journal of Religious Studies 17/2 2010, p. 67ff. )
Kwere: kulekelela, meaning literally “to allow for.” Derived from the root leka which means “to leave.” In other words, forgiveness is leaving behind the offense in relationship to the person. It is also used in contexts of setting someone free. (Source: Megan Barton)
Merina Malagasy: mamela or “leave / let go (of sin / mistakes)” (source: Brigitte Rabarijaona)
Mauwake: “take away one’s heaviness” (compare sin as “heavy”) (source: Kwan Poh San in this article )
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 5:29:
Uma: “So if for example our (incl.) right eye causes [lit., carries] us (incl.) to sin, scoop it out and throw it away. It is far better that one of our (incl.) eyes is lost, than our (incl.) whole body be thrown into hell.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “If your right eye influences you to sin, leave that sin of yours. Figuratively as if you dig out your eye and throw it away. It is better if you no longer have one of your eyes than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And if it is your right eye that causes you to sin, dig it out and throw it away. It is better if you have no eye rather than your being thrown into the fire of hell with your whole body.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Therefore if your (sing.) right eye is the cause-of-your (sing.) -sinning, extract it to throw it away. Because it’s-preferable if your (sing.) body has a part taken-from-it (root word: lack) than that your (sing.) body have no lack and you (sing.) be thrown into hell.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Therefore if your (sing.) eye is the source of what causes you to sin, just pluck it out and throw it away. Because it’s better if there’s a part of your body subtracted, rather than still having a complete body which will be thrown into the fire that doesn’t die down, which is punishment by God.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “So now, if you say that it is the fault of your eye, the right one, that you commit sin, then pluck out your eye and throw it away. It is better that you have lost an eye rather than you go to hell with all your body.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Martu Wangka: “Jesus said to them another talk like this, ‘If you see with your eye, and think about doing bad, if you have thought like that with the intention of doing bad, then you should dig out your eye and throw it away. If you think and do like that, You will sit well with one eye without doing bad so that you won’t be sent to the fire if you should do bad.'” (Source: Carl Gross)
Eugene Nida wrote the following about the translation of the Hebrew, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Greek terms that are typically translated with “prophet” in English:
“The tendency in many translations is to use ‘to foretell the future’ for ‘prophesy,’ and ‘one who foretells the future’ for ‘prophet.’ This is not always a recommended usage, particularly if such expressions denote certain special native practices of spirit contact and control. It is true, of course, that prophets of the Bible did foretell the future, but this was not always their principal function. One essential significance of the Greek word prophētēs is ‘one who speaks forth,’ principally, of course, as a forth-teller of the Divine will. A translation such as ‘spokesman for God’ may often be employed profitably.” (1947, p. 234f.)
Following is a list of (back-) translations from other languages (click or tap for details):
Ayutla Mixtec: “one who talks as God’s representative”
Isthmus Mixe: “speaker for God” (source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Mezquital Otomi / Paasaal: “God’s messenger” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff. and Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Noongar: Warda Marridjiny or “News Traveling” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Kutu: mtula ndagu or “one who gives the prediction of the past and the future” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ebira: ọnịsẹ, a neologism that combines the prefix ọn for “a person” with ịsẹ for “prediction” (source: Scholz /Scholz 2015, p. 49)
French 1985 translation by Chouraqui: inspiré or “inspired one” (“someone in whom God has breathed [Latin: in + spiro]) (source: Watson 2023, p. 45)
Cherokee: adolehosgi (ᎠᏙᎴᎰᏍᎩ) or “discoverer of things,” a “term that was was traditionally applied to Cherokee medicine men or women who used divining.” (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 49)
In Ixcatlán Mazatec a term is used that specifically includes women. (Source: Robert Bascom)
“In some instances these spiritual terms result from adaptations reflecting the native life and culture. Among the Northern Grebo people of Liberia, a missionary wanted some adequate term for ‘prophet,’ and she was fully aware that the native word for ‘soothsayer’ or ‘diviner’ was no equivalent for the Biblical prophet who spoke forth for God. Of course, much of what the prophets said referred to the future, and though this was an essential part of much of their ministry, it was by no means all. The right word for the Gbeapo people would have to include something which would not only mean the foretelling of important events but the proclamation of truth as God’s representative among the people. At last the right word came; it was ‘God’s town-crier.’ Every morning and evening the official representative of the chief goes through the village crying out the news, delivering the orders of the chief, and announcing important coming events. ‘God’s town-crier’ would be the official representative of God, announcing to the people God’s doings, His commands, and His pronouncements for their salvation and well-being. For the Northern Grebo people the prophet is no weird person from forgotten times; he is as real as the human, moving message of the plowman Amos, who became God’s town-crier to a calloused people.” (source: Nida 1952, p. 20)
In British Sign Language it is is translated with a sign that depicts a message coming from God to a person (the upright finger) and then being passed on to others. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Prophet” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
Translations of the Greek and Ge’ez that are typically translated as “faith” in English (itself deriving from Latin “fides,” meaning “trust, faith, confidence, reliance, credence”) and “believe” (from Old English belyfan: “to have faith or confidence in a person”) cover a wide range of approaches.
Bratcher and Nida say this (1961, p. 38) (click or tap here to read more):
“Since belief or faith is so essentially an intimate psychological experience, it is not strange that so many terms denoting faith should be highly figurative and represent an almost unlimited range of emotional ‘centers’ and descriptions of relationships, e.g. ‘steadfast his heart’ (Chol), ‘to arrive on the inside’ (Chicahuaxtla Triqui), ‘to conform with the heart’ (Uab Meto), ‘to join the word to the body’ (Uduk), ‘to hear in the insides’ (or ‘to hear within one’s self and not let go’ — Nida 1952) (Laka), ‘to make the mind big for something’ (Sapo), ‘to make the heart straight about’ (Mitla Zapotec), ‘to cause a word to enter the insides’ (Lacandon), ‘to leave one’s heart with’ (Baniwa), ‘to catch in the mind’ (Ngäbere), ‘that which one leans on’ (Vai), ‘to be strong on’ (Shipibo-Conibo), ‘to have no doubts’ (San Blas Kuna), ‘to hear and take into the insides’ (Kare), ‘to accept’ (Pamona).”
Following is a list of (back-) translations from other languages (click or tap here to read more):
Limos Kalinga: manuttuwa. Wiens (2013) explains: “It goes back to the word for ‘truth’ which is ‘tuttuwa.’ When used as a verb this term is commonly used to mean ‘believe’ as well as ‘obey.'”
Ngiemboon: “turn one’s back on someone” (and trusting one won’t be taken advantage of) (source: Stephen Anderson in Holzhausen 1991, p. 42)
Mwera uses the same word for “hope” and “faith”: ngulupai (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Yala: ɔtū che or “place heart” (in John 5:24; 5:45; 6:35; 6:47; 12:36; 14:1); other translations include chɛ̄ or “to agree/accept” and chɛ̄ku or “to agree with/accept with/take side with” (source: Linus Otronyi)
Matumbi: niu’bi’lyali or “believe / trust / rely (on)” and imani or “religious faith” (from Arabic īmān [إيما]) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Ebira: “place one’s liver on something” (source: Scholz /Scholz 2015, p. 60)
Barí: a word related to standing in a hammock. Bruce Olson (1972, p. 159f.) tells this story — click or tap here to read more)
One evening, though, Bobby began to ask questions. We were sitting around a fire. The light flickered over him. His face was serious.
‘How can I walk on Jesus’ trail?’ he asked. ‘No Motilone [speakers of Barí] has ever done it. It’s a new thing. There is no other Motilone to tell how to do it.’
I remembered the problems I had had as a boy, how it sometimes appeared impossible to keep on believing in Jesus when my family and friends were so opposed to my commitment. That was what Bobby was going through.
‘Bobby,’ I said, ‘do you remember my first Festival of the Arrows, the first time I had seen all the Motilones gathered to sing their song?’ The festival was the most important ceremony in the Motilone culture.
He nodded. The fire flared up momentarily and I could see his eyes, staring intently at me.
‘Do you remember that I was afraid to climb in the high hammocks to sing, for fear that the rope would break? And I told you that I would sing only if I could have one foot in the hammock and one foot on the ground?’
‘Yes, Bruchko.’
‘And what did you say to me?’
He laughed. ‘I told you you had to have both feet in the hammock. ‘You have to be suspended,’ I said.’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘You have to be suspended. That is how it is when you follow Jesus, Bobby. No man can tell you how to walk His trail. Only Jesus can. But to find out you have to tie your hammock strings into Him, and be suspended in God.’
Bobby said nothing. The fire danced in his eyes. Then he stood up and walked off into the darkness.
The next day he came to me. ‘Bruchko,’ he said, ‘I want to tie my hammock strings into Jesus Christ. But how can I? I can’t see Him or touch Him.’
‘You have talked to spirits, haven’t you?’
‘Oh,’ he said. ‘I see now.’
The next day he had a big grin on his face. ‘Bruchko, I’ve tied my hammock strings into Jesus. Now I speak a new language.’
I didn’t understand what he meant. ‘Have you learned some of the Spanish I speak?’
He laughed, a clean, sweet laugh. ‘No, Bruchko, I speak a new language.’
Then I understood. To a Motilone, language is life. If Bobby had a new life, he had a new way of speaking. His speech would be Christ-oriented.
Awabakal: ngurruliko: “to know, to perceive by the ear” (as distinct from knowing by sight or by touch — source: Lake, p. 70) (click or tap here to read more)
“[The missionary translator] Lancelot Threlkeld learned that Awabakal, like many Australian languages, made no distinction between knowing and believing. Of course the distinction only needs to be made where there are rival systems of knowing. The Awabakal language expressed a seamless world. But as the stress on ‘belief’ itself suggests, Christianity has always existed in pluralist settings. Conversion involves deep conviction, not just intellectual assent or understanding. (…) Translating such texts posed a great challenge in Australia. Threlkeld and [his indigenous colleague] Biraban debated the possibilities at length. In the end they opted not to introduce a new term for belief, but to use the Awabakal ngurruliko, meaning ‘to know, to perceive by the ear,’ as distinct from knowing by sight or by touch.”
Language in southern Nigeria: a word based on the idiom “lose feathers.” Randy Groff in Wycliffe Bible Translators 2016, p. 65 explains (click or tap here to read more):
What does losing feathers have to do with faith? [The translator] explained that there is a species of bird in his area that, upon hatching its eggs, loses its feathers. During this molting phase, the mother bird is no longer able to fly away from the nest and look for food for her hungry hatchlings. She has to remain in the nest where she and her babies are completely dependent upon the male bird to bring them food. Without the diligent, dependable work of the male bird, the mother and babies would all die. This scenario was the basis for the word for faith in his language.
Teribe: mär: “pick one thing and one thing only” (source: Andy Keener)
Tiv: na jighjigh: “give trust” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
Luba-Katanga: Twi tabilo: “echo” (click or tap here to read more)
“Luba-Katanga word for ‘Faith’ in its New Testament connotation is Twi tabilo. This word means ‘echo,’ and the way in which it came to be adapted to the New Testament meaning gives a very good idea of the way in which the translator goes to work. One day a missionary was on a journey through wild and mountainous country. At midday he called his African porters to halt, and as they lay resting in the shade from the merciless heat of the sun. an African picked up a stone and sent it ricocheting down the mountain-side into the ravine below. After some seconds the hollow silence was broken by a plunging, splashing sound from the depths of the dark river-bed. As the echo died away the African said in a wondering whisper ‘Twi tabilo, listen to it.’ So was a precious word captured for the service of the Gospel in its Luba Christian form. Twi tabilo — ‘faith which is the echo of God’s voice in the depths of human sinful hearts, awakened by God Himself, the answer to his own importunate call.’ The faith that is called into being by the divine initiative, God’s own gift to the responsive heart! (Source: Wilfred Bradnock in The Bible Translator 1953, p. 49ff. )
The Japanese term shin-kō (信仰) was a newly coined word for the purpose of Bible translation but is used widely today beyond its Christian origin. Junko Nakai (in: The Bible Translator 2006, p. 115ff. ) explains: “There are many words either newly created or adapted to introduce new Christian concepts distinct from the established religious ones. An example is the Sino-Japanese noun, shin-kō, as the equivalent of pistis ‘faith.’ The existing term for ‘belief’ or ‘trust’ was mainly the Sino-Japanese noun, shin, often used as the stem of a verb, shin-zu ‘believe.’ The term shin-kō, formed by adding another verb aogu, to ‘look up’ with respect, or to ‘ask,’ in native Japanese, read as kō in Sino-Japanese, did exist, but not in wide use. (…) This word was used in Buddhist scriptures, but read as shin-gō in early days. During the process of translating the Bible, the Chinese compound written in the same Chinese characters (信仰) but read as shin-kō establishes itself as the term denoting Christian ‘faith.’ Later it comes to be recognized as the new term denoting ‘faith’ in general in a wider religious context. This fact attests to the impact of Bible translation on the development of modern Japanese language.”
J.A. van Roy (in The Bible Translator 1972, p. 418ff. ) discusses how a translation of “faith” in a an earlier translation into Venda created difficult perceptions of the concept of faith (click or tap here):
The Venda term u tenda, lutendo. This term corresponds to the terms ho dumela (Southern Sotho), and ku pfumela (Tsonga) that have been used in these translations of the Bible, and means “to assent,” “to agree to a suggestion.” It is important to understand this term in the context of the character of the people who use it.
The way in which the Venda use this term reveals much about the priority of interpersonal relationships among them. They place a much higher priority on responding in the way they think they are expected to respond than on telling the truth. Smooth interpersonal relationships, especially with a dominant individual or group, take precedence over everything else.
It is therefore regarded as bad form to refuse directly when asked for something one does not in fact intend to give. The correct way is to agree, u tenda, and then forget about it or find some excuse for not keeping to the agreement. Thus u tenda does not necessarily convey the information that one means what one says. One can tenda verbally while heartily disagreeing with the statement made or having no intention whatsoever to carry out what one has just promised to do. This is not regarded as dishonesty, but is a matter of politeness.
The term u sokou tenda, “to consent reluctantly,” is often used for expressing the fatalistic attitude of the Venda in the face of misfortune or force which he is unable to resist.
The form lutendo was introduced by missionaries to express “faith.”
According to the rules of derivations and their meanings in the lu-class, it should mean “the habit of readily consenting to everything.” But since it is a coined word which does not have a clearly defined set of meanings in everyday speech, it has acquired in church language a meaning of “steadfastness in the Christian life.” Una lutendo means something like “he is steadfast in the face of persecution.” It is quite clear that the term u tenda has no element of “trust” in it. (…)
In “The Christian Minister” of July 1969 we find the following statement about faith by Albert N. Martin: “We must never forget that one of the great issues which the Reformers brought into focus was that faith was something more than an ‘assensus,’ a mere nodding of the head to the body of truth presented by the church as ‘the faith.’ The Reformers set forth the biblical concept that faith was ‘fiducia.’ They made plain that saving faith involved trust, commitment, a trust and commitment involving the whole man with the truth which was believed and with the Christ who was the focus of that truth. The time has come when we need to spell this out clearly in categorical statements so that people will realize that a mere nodding of assent to the doctrines that they are exposed to is not the essence of saving faith. They need to be brought to the understanding that saving faith involves the commitment of the whole man to the whole Christ, as Prophet, Priest and King as he is set forth in the gospel.”
We quote at length from this article because what Martin says of the current concept of faith in the Church is even to a greater extent true of the Venda Church, and because the terms used for communicating that concept in the Venda Bible cannot be expected to communicate anything more than “a mere nodding of assent”. I have during many years of evangelistic work hardly ever come across a Venda who, when confronted with the gospel, would not say, Ndi khou tenda, “I admit the truth of what you say.” What they really mean when saying this amounts to, “I believe that God exists, and I have no objection to the fact that he exists. I suppose that the rest of what you are talking about is also true.” They would often add, Ndi sa tendi hani-hani? “Just imagine my not believing such an obvious fact!” To the experienced evangelist this is a clear indication that his message is rejected in so far as it has been understood at all! To get a negative answer, one would have to press on for a promise that the “convert” will attend the baptism class and come to church on Sundays, and even then he will most probably just tenda in order to get rid of the evangelist, whether he intends to come or not. Isn’t that what u tenda means? So when an inexperienced and gullible white man ventures out on an evangelistic campaign with great enthusiasm, and with great rejoicing returns with a list of hundreds of names of persons who “believed”, he should not afterwards blame the Venda when only one tenth of those who were supposed to be converts actually turn up for baptismal instruction.
Moreover, it is not surprising at all that one often comes across church members of many years’ standing who do not have any assurance of their salvation or even realise that it is possible to have that assurance. They are vhatendi, “consenters.” They have consented to a new way of life, to abandoning (some of) the old customs. Lutendo means to them at most some steadfastness in that new way of life.
The concept of faith in religion is strange to Africa. It is an essential part of a religion of revelation such as Christianity or Islam, but not of a naturalistic religion such as Venda religion, in which not faith and belief are important, but ritual, and not so much the content of the word as the power of it.
The terms employed in the Venda Bible for this vital Christian concept have done nothing to effect a change in the approach of the Venda to religion.
It is a pity that not only in the Venda translation has this been the case, but in all the other Southern Bantu languages. In the Nguni languages the term ukukholwa, “to believe a fact,” has been used for pisteuo, and ukholo, the deverbative of ukukholwa, for pistis. In some of the older Protestant translations in Zulu, but not in the new translation, the term ithemba, “trust”, has been used.
Some languages, including Santali, have two terms — like English (see above) — to differentiate a noun from a verb form. Biswạs is used for “faith,” whereas pạtiạu for “believe.” R.M. Macphail (in The Bible Translator 1961, p. 36ff. ) explains this choice: “While there is little difference between the meaning and use of the two in everyday Santali, in which any word may be used as a verb, we felt that in this way we enriched the translation while making a useful distinction, roughly corresponding to that between ‘faith’ and ‘to believe’ in English.”
Likewise, in Noongar, koort-karni or “heart truth” is used for the noun (“faith”) and djinang-karni or “see true” for the verb (“believe”) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
In Hungarian Sign Language “faith” is translated with a sign that refers to the gesture of clinging to God, which expresses a certainty in things unseen (see Hebrews 11:1). (Source: Jenjelvi Biblia and HSL Bible Translation Group)
