Language-specific Insights

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)

snow

The Hebrew and Ge’ez that is translated as “snow” in English is translated in Manya as “solid cold pieces,” since snow is unknown. (Source: Don Slager)

See also snow (color).

pit

The Hebrew that is translated as “pit” or “well” in English is translated in Manya as “big hole in the ground.” (Source: Don Slager)

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.