Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 2:23:
Uma: “That Yesus was offered to you, and you killed him, you offered him to evil people in order that they crucify him. But-in-fact what happened exactly followed the command/plan that God made-certain from-the-first, for God knew from-the-first what must happen.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “God knew beforehand and (it was) from his will that this Isa was delivered into your hands/holding and he had planned this for Isa. And you told/commanded sinful men/people to nail Isa on the post and to kill (him).” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And this Jesus, a person delivered him to you. God already knew about this beforehand because this is what he had foreordained for Jesus. You caused him to be killed by people who do not worship God, and they nailed him to a cross.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “This Jesus, God originally decided that he be-handed-over to you, because that was his plan long-ago and he knew it would be fulfilled. And you had-him-killed, handing-him-over to bad people so they would nail him to the cross.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “But, well, you handed him over to people who don’t acknowledge God, for you caused him to be killed on a cross. But it’s true, this was only the fulfilling of what God determined.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Eastern Highland Otomi: “A long time ago God knew what you did to his Son, and God allowed you to put him on the cross by the hands of the wicked and kill him.”
Chuj: “But that Jesus he was given into your hands; because thus it was God’s will it happened. God, he knew it already before, what would come upon Jesus. You, you borrowed the hands of bad people so that you grab Jesus. You put him on a cross. He died because of you.”
Isthmus Mixe: “God had appointed that Jesus be handed over to evil people. God had known that Jesus would be murdered. You made up your minds that evil people should nail Jesus to a cross and kill him.”
Morelos Nahuatl: “This Jesus God delivered to you because thus God determined before and he knew he was going to do it that way. In the hands of bad men you crucified Jesus and so you killed him.”
Teutila Cuicatec: “When he came into your hands, as God established even from former times, you took him prisoner and turned him over into the hands of sinful men. They crucified him and they killed him because that was what you wanted.
Coatlán Mixe: “Judas Iscariot delivered this Jesus to you in just the manner which God had planned beforehand. And you grabbed him and killed him when you delivered him to bad people and let them kill him on the cross.
Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac: “Jesus was delivered up to men. You had lawless men crucify him. All this was according to God’s plan and foreknowledge.” (source for this and six above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 5:29:
Uma: “Petrus answered with the other apostles of the Lord Yesus, they said: ‘We(excl.) still follow the command of God, not the command of man.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Petros and the other commissioned ones answered, they said, ‘What we (excl.) must obey is the command of God, not the command of man/humans.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then Peter and the other apostles answered saying, ‘It is necessary that we obey the commands of God, not the commands which are made by people.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Pedro and his fellow apostles answered and they said, ‘It-is-emphatically -necessary that God is the one we (excl.) obey, not people.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “But Pedro and his fellow apostles replied. They said, ‘It’s essential that the will of God is what we (excl.) obey, not the will of men which is contrary to what he instructed us (excl.) to do.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
San Mateo del Mar Huave: “So Peter said, together with the other apostles, they say, ‘It is more necessary that we believe that which Father God has commanded us to do, rather than that which the people command us.'”
Isthmus Mixe: “Then Peter and Jesus’ sent ones answered: ‘By all means we are going to obey what God commands. If people command otherwise, we will not obey.'”
Teutila Cuicatec: “We obey God’s commands for this is more important than the commands of the people of the world.”
Chol: “We (excl.) must obey God even though in doing this we (excl) disobey the commands of men.” (Source for this and four above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 20:11:
Uma: “After that, he went back up going to the top, broke bread [into small pieces], and we (excl.) ate together. Paulus spoke further until it got light. After that he departed.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Then he went up into the house again to break the bread (into pieces) and he ate. He still spoke to them until early morning and then he left with his companions.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Paul went up again into the house and he got some food and ate. He talked with them for a long time and when it was morning he left.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Then Pablo again climbed-up and we (excl.) ate. After-we (excl.) -had-eaten then, he continued conversing until daylight, then we (excl.) left.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well, we (excl.) went upstairs again and then just had something to eat. After eating, Pablo continued relating things to them. His talking reached sun-rise. And then he set out.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Morelos Nahuatl: “Then Paul went up again. He ate. Then he continued talking with the believers until it dawned. Then he went.”
Isthmus Mixe: “Then Paul went up again. Then he celebrated Holy Communion, they thus ate. Then he talked more until morning. When it became morning he left.”
San Mateo del Mar Huave: “Then Paul went upstairs again. There they ate. When they were done eating, then they continued talking until morning. Then he left there.” (Note: this verse is taken either to refer to the Lord’s Supper, or to ordinary eating, or to both, or to a fellowship meal plus communion. Also can be Paul alone, or whole group.) (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
According to Anne Garber Kompaoré (in Le Sycomore 3/2009, p. 34ff. ), there are 4 ways to identify cardinal directions:
1. celestial bodies, especially the sun and certain stars
2. geographical landmarks, for example a mountain, sea, or river (depending on its position or the direction in which the water flows) etc.
3. climatic phenomena, such as the wind and the direction from which rain comes
4. bodily reference points, especially front, back, left, and right, in relation to celestial bodies or geographical landmarks
Following are examples of how these are practically implemented by various languages: (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight)
Celestial Bodies
East and west are often translated by the rising and the setting of the sun (note that the origin of English and other Indo-European languages is “dawn” for “east” and “evening” [i.e. sun-down] for “west”):
Maan: “where the sun comes up” and “where the sun goes down” (source: Don Slager)
Kankanaey: “from the coming-out of the sun “and “going-away of the sun” (source: Kankanaey back-translation)
Northern Emberá: “from where the sun comes up” and “from where the sun falls” (source: Charles Mortensen)
Ejamat “the side where the sun comes from” and “the side where it sets” (source: David Frank in this blog post )
Tzeltal: “where the sun pours-out” (west) (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
Northern Ngbandi: “the sun behind the chief’s house” (east — the chief lives traditionally at the eastern side of the village, therefore he does not get the sunlight into his eyes) and “under the sun” (west)
Northwestern Dinka: “earth behind” (east — the place behind the earth, i.e. the area where the sun rises)
Jula: “salt village” (north — because salt comes from the north, from the Sahara Desert) and “kola village” (south — since kola comes from the coastal region to the south) (source: Garber Kompaoré)
Matumbi: “toward the beach” (East) (the coast is in the eastern direction in Matumbi-speaking areas), “north” and “south” can be defined as above or below another place (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Acoli: “right” (of the local White Nile) (north) and “left” (of the White Nile) (south)
Zande: “interior (dry) land” (east); “place-inside-country” (north / south) — Zande, like a number of other languages, including Matengo and Hehe, traditionally only has three cardinal directions.
Belanda Bor: “lower place” (north) and “higher place” (south)
Turkana: “(up)stream” (north) and (down)stream (south)
Mono (DRC): “water place” (south) (source for this and five above: Mietzner / Pasch)
Climatic Phenomena
Shilluk: “opening westwind” (north) and “opening eastwind” (south)
Swahili used to have six directions. In reducing them to four, kusini and kaskazini which used to refer to south-west and north east respectively (the directions from where the two monsoons blow) have become the terms for “south” and north.” (source for this and one above: Mietzner / Pasch)
Bodily Reference Points
Nuer / Burun: “face” and “sun face” respectively (both: east)
Kalenjin: “eye sun” (east) (this and the one above indicate that the sun is “facing” the spectator from its position in the east:
Shilluk: doesn’t use a fixed position of the speaker, instead it has “eye sun morning” for east and “eye sun evening” for west
Mono (DRC): “foot-sun” (east — the start of the sun’s journey)
Burun: “sun leg” (west — the end of the sun’s journey)
Bari: “back” (north — when people are facing south, north is at their back) (source for this and above: Mietzner / Pasch)
Northern Emberá “the looking [left] hand” (north) and “the real [right] hand” (south) (source: Charles Mortensen)
Morelos Nahuatl: “from above” (north) and “from below” (south) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
When all four directions are mentioned, translators tend to avoid listing the four, sometimes verbose terms, and chose solutions like “all directions” (such as in Maan or Manya (source: Don Slager). Yakan has “from the four corners of the earth” (source: Yakan back-translation) and Western Bukidnon Manobo “from the four directions here on the earth” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo back-translation).
The Hebrew text that gives instructions where to place items in the tabernacle with the help of cardinal directions (north and south) had to be approached in the Bambam translation specific to spacial concepts of that culture. Phil Campbell explains: “There are no words in Bambam for north and south. In Exodus 26:35, God instructs that the table is to be placed on the north side and the lamp on the south side inside the tabernacle. The team wants to use right and left to tell where the lamp and table are located. In many languages we would say that the table is on the right and the lampstand is on the left based on the view of someone entering the tabernacle. However, that is not how Bambam people view it. They view the placement of things and rooms in a building according to the orientation of someone standing inside the building facing the front of the building. So that means the table is on the left side and the lampstand is on the right side.”
