Language-specific Insights

mighty arm

The Hebrew that is translated as “mighty arm” in English is translated in Newari as “the strongest arm of all” (source: Newari Back Translation).

mystery

The Greek, Ge’ez, and Aramaic that is translated as “mystery” in English is translated as “wisdom which was hidden” in Mezquital Otomi, as “that was not possible to be understood before” in Huehuetla Tepehua, as “which was not known in time past” in Central Tarahumara (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), and in Newari as “hidden meaning” or “hidden matter” (source: Newari Back Translation).

jealousy

The Hebrew that is translated as “jealousy” or similar in English is translated in Newari as “bursting of the heart.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)

sailor

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “sailor(s)” in English is translated in Kouya as “worker(s) in the big canoe.”

Philip Saunders (p. 231) explains:

Acts chapter 27 was a challenge! It describes Paul’s sea voyage to Italy, and finally Rome. There is a storm at sea and a shipwreck on Malta, and the chapter includes much detailed nautical vocabulary. How do you translate this for a landlocked people group, most of whom have never seen the ocean? All they know are small rivers and dugout canoes.

We knew that we could later insert some illustrations during the final paging process which would help the Kouya readers to picture what was happening, but meanwhile we struggled to find or invent meaningful terms. The ‘ship’ was a ‘big canoe’ and the ‘passengers’ were ‘the people in the big canoe’; the ‘crew’ were the ‘workers in the big canoe’; the ‘pilot’ was the ‘driver of the big canoe’; the ‘big canoe stopping place’ was the ‘harbour’, and the ‘big canoe stopping metal’ was the ‘anchor’!”

In Rincón Zapotec, it is translated as “men having the care of the boat” (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.) and in Newari as “the ones operating the ship” (source: Newari back-translation).

summer vs. winter

The Hebrew, Ge’ez and Latin that is translated as “summer” and “winter” in English is translated in Chichewa as “dry season” and “wet season.” In Chewa culture, seasons are often defined by the availability of water, which is crucial for agriculture, livestock, and human consumption. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

In Mwera (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext) and in Elhomwe it is translated with a single word — enthawi — that relates to both seasons. (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

In Newari it is translated as “hot time” (summer) and “cold time” (winter) (source: Newari Back Translation).

plant / gourd / ivy

The Hebrew term for the plant that is translated in a variety of ways in English, including “vine,” “gourd,” or simply “plant” or “bush” has a long history of controversial translations.

Law (2013, p. 170) quotes from one of the letters of Augustine (354-430 AD) who was a strong defender of the Ancient Greek Septuagint translation: “In Oea [ancient city in present-day Tripoli, Libya], a bishop read from Jerome’s translation of Jonah, and because of the strange new rendering he almost lost his congregation. The [Greek] Bible of the church had ‘gourd’ (kolokýnthi / κολοκύνθῃ) in Jonah 4:6, but Jerome had changed it to the Latin word for ‘ivy’ [hedera]. The congregation in attendance fumed upon hearing the new translation and accused it of being ‘Judaized.’ Jews were called in to explain the rendering, and they claimed that Jerome was wrong and the Septuagint was right all along. Whether this actually happened is irrelevant. Augustine has either reported a real event or has created a literary fiction, but either way he provides a window into the struggle of parting with the church’s Bible in favor of Jerome’s new translation.”

This divergence in opinion can be seen up to the present day. Older Catholic versions that are based one the Latin Vulgate (for instance the English Douay-Rheims or the translation by Knox) will use a word for a climbing plant such as “ivy” or “vine,” other translations use a large variety of translations, including the “safe” choice “plant.” In the UBS handbook Plants and Trees in the Bible, Koops (2012, p. 127) says: “The identity of Jonah’s qiqayon plant has been debated since the days of St. Jerome and St. Augustine. [Several scholars] advocate the castor oil plant (Ricinus communis) as the qiqayon. But the King James Version’s ‘gourd’ has a long history, including its use in the Septuagint. The Vulgate translated qiqayon as hedera (‘ivy’) but that rendering has not had further botanical support. In 1955 an in-depth study of the literature going back as far as St. Jerome was made and its author votes hesitantly for the gourd (colocynth). Some scholars even suggest it could be an Assyrian word inserted in the story just to make it sound foreign, or even a made-up word.”

In Newari it is translated as “pumpkin plant” (source: Newari Back Translation).

See also cucumber, melon, and bottle gourd / calabash.

drawn sword

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “drawn sword” in English is translated in Newari as “naked sword” (source: Newari Back Translation).