Language-specific Insights

rows of stones on Aaron's breastpiece

The Hebrew that is translated into a wide and often differing variety of gemstones on Aaron’s breastpiece in English and other translations, was translated with a focus on their colors in a West African language:

Row One: a red stone, a stone the color of the yellow fruit inside the pod of the African locust bean (parkia biglobosa ), and a blue colored stone mixed with the color of fresh growth on trees (green)

Row Two: deep red stone, a blue colored stone, diamond

Row Three: a stone the color of an orange, a stone with many colored stripes, a stone the color of a local purple fruit

Row Four: a stone of deep green color, a stone with splotches of color, and a green stone.

(See this blog entry )

The Manya translators “only knew a word for diamond, so we transliterated the others, giving some idea of the color for each one.” (Source: Don Slager)

See also jewels in the New Jerusalem.

rainbow / bow

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “bow” or “rainbow” is translated in Yagaria with a term — fugigina — that is also used as a term for “glory.” (Source: Renck, p. 94)

In Maltese it is translated with qawsalla, literally “bow of God,” and in Southern Samo as “snake up above” (source: Lynell Zogbo).

The Manya term for it is “frog-monkey-bridge” since “they believe the rainbow comes from the mouth of a frog.” (Source: Don Slager)

priestly kingdom

The Hebrew in Exodus 19:6 that is translated as “priestly kingdom” in English is translated in Manya as “priests in God’s kingdom.” (Source: Don Slager)

hired

The Hebrew in Exodus 22:15 that is translated as “hired” in English had to be made more specific in Manya as “paying money for the use of a cow.” (Source: Don Slager)

they are no more than bread for us

The Hebrew that is translated as “they are no more than bread for us” in English is translated in Manya as “the land is easily conquered.” (Source: Don Slager)

circumcise heart

The Hebrew that is translated as “Circumcise one’s heart” in English is translated in Kutu as “cleanse one’s heart” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext) and in the English translation by Goldingay (2018) as “remove the foreskin from your mind.”

In Manya as “discipline your hard hearts” to keep some of the imagery of the original text. (Source: Don Slager)

See also circumcise.