Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 4:15:
Uma: “There are people who can be compared to the seeds that fall on the road. They do hear God’s words, but the King of Evil-ones comes and makes-them-forget/distracts them, with the result that they no longer in-heart those words.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “And the other people are figuratively like the way where the word/message of God spilled onto. When they hear the message, immediately the leader of demons goes there to grab the message from their minds.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “That which is planted which fell on the path, that’s like people who hear th word of God, and Satan appeared and makes it so that they forget the word which they had heard.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “The ones-that-fell on the path, they are compared to the people who hear (things)-concerning God’s ruling. Whereupon Satan goes immediately and he removes from their minds the words that they heard.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “What is meant by the pathway which got scattered on is the people who hear this teaching but then just forget it for it is quickly taken away by Satanas.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Mezquital Otomi: “The seeds that fell along the road are like people who hear God’s word, but right away Satan comes and causes them to forget the word which has been told to them.”
Tzotzil: “Just like the seed that falls on the road and is eaten by the birds, thus are some people who having heard the word of God, the devil comes and he takes out the word of God from their hearts.” (Source for this and one above: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 13:11:
Uma: “We must do all this, relatives, because we know what is proper for us to do in this time. Let’s wake up from our sleep, because the time has almost arrived for the Lord Yesus to come lift us from this evil world. From the first of our believing in the Lord until now, the time of the Lord Yesus’ arrival has gotten closer-and-closer.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “That’s why you ought to do that, especially because you know that not long and Isa Almasi arrives again. At the beginning of our (dual) believing in Isa Almasi, it was as if the day when God will rescue/save us (dual) was still somewhat distant but now it is already very near. If you are figuratively people who are sleeping you ought/must now awake.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “It’s necessary that we do this for we know what is the proper thing to do at this time. Because starting from now, the time in the future when God will finish His setting us free is nearer than it was at the time long ago when we believed. And because of this, we must not be like people who have fallen asleep, but we must be like people who are on their guard.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “We must do this, because we know that the time in which we are now living is valuable/important. If I compare this time to the night, I say that we must wake-up, because our salvation is nearer than when we believed at first.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “These then are the words by which you must walk. Now be aware, concerning the day when you believed the good news, it has now well gone past. Now day by day comes nearer the day when Christ our Savior will come. We should not be just taking it easy.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Mezquital Otomi: “All this is what we ought to do because we know that the hour has come for seeking God more. And soon our Savior will come to take us away from this world. The time is nearer than when we first believed.”
Isthmus Zapotec: “It is necessary that you do all that these words say because it is now late. The day when we believed it appeared that it lacked yet much time but now already is coming rapidly the day when God is to save us.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 9:49:
Uma: “According to the Law of Musa long ago, all food that is offered to God must be salted. So all every person must be made holy with suffering.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Isa said yet, ‘All people have to pass through fire, that means through difficulties, in order that their trust becomes strong.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Every disciple of mine shall be prepared by means of salt and fire, which is to say, by means of hardship, so that his faith might be strenghtened.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “‘All people, they must experience difficulties so-that their behavior becomes-good, like the food that must be salted so-that it is delicious.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “It’s true, there are hardships which will be experienced by all, which cause improvement of their ways/nature. For like the action of salt and fire, these hardships remove whatever is not good or is worthless.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Shuar: “If a person wants to give a meat killed gift to God, he is to salt it that it be good. So also people will taste/experience suffering like fire so that their heart may be good.”
Mezquital Otomi: “The animals long ago, those that were burned as gifts for God, it was necessary that salt be put on them as God had commanded. Also, you all are like those animals which are burned, because it is necessary that you pass through bad happenings.”
Tlahuitoltepec Mixe: “All of God’s people are going to suffer here on earth and when they thus do they will result much better. Thus we will imagine it like an animal sacrifice comes out much better when it is sacrificed with salt.”
Usila Chinantec: “Everyone will be made good through suffering, which feels like fire. All offerings to God are acceptable to him when they are salted.”
Mopán Maya: “Thus it was. They put salt on the animals they burn before God. It is the same with someone who is believing/obeying me. He will have tribulation [meet pain] so that that man will become good before God,”
Totontepec Mixe: “Everyone will have hearts like good salt when they have suffered here. This suffering is like fire. . .”
Sierra de Juárez Zapotec: “Everyone is going to be tried with suffering in this world.” (Source for this and six above: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): “This fire is as imperishable as salt. Everyone comes into contact with it. If it is not consumed, it is preserved.”
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 14:7:
Uma: “For there is not one of us who lives following our own desires. Nor is there one of us who dies following our own desires.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “All of us (incl.) belong to Isa Almasi, our (incl.) Leader. That’s why in our (incl.) life and in our (incl.) death we (incl.) ought to please him not ourselves (incl.).” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For there isn’t any one of us believers that doesn’t belong to God while he’s still on the earth or whether he is already dead. For while we are still alive we are subjects of God.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Because all of us who believe, it is not our being-honored/praised that we are searching for in our living and even in our dying,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “No one can decide on his own how he will live, because all of us are in the hand of our Lord Jesus Christ. While we are living we are in his hand. When we have died we are in his hand.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Mezquital Otomi: “Because not one of us lives to do what we want to do ourselves, and not one of us dies according to our own will.”
Highland Totonac: “Because no one of us is our own boss in our living, and neither is any of us our own boss when we die.”
Sayula Popoluca: “We don’t live just for ourselves, nor will we die because we want to.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 12:27:
Uma: “So, from those words of God, we clearly know that Abraham, Ishak and Yakub were alive. For it is not people who are dead who worship God, it is people who live who worship him. How wrong that thinking of yours is.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “God is God of the living not God of the dead. (That means that even though Ibrahim and Isahak and Yakub have died long-ago, they live there in heaven because they still worship God.) You are really mistaken/at-fault in your thinking.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “which is to say, they were still worshipping God for the one who worships him, even if he dies, he still has life. That’s why you are very much mistaken.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “What this means to say is that the dead live again, because God, he is not the God of dead people but rather the living. Therefore it is true that you are thoroughly mistaken.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Of course he is not the God of people who are dead but on the contrary, alive. Therein it’s clear that Abraham and company (i.e. Isaac and Jacob) are alive again even though they had already died. Your understanding really is very wrong.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Mezquital Otomi: “Because God says he is the God of those three men who have died, we all know that they still live and worship him. …”
Tzotzil: “Well then, I say to you, even though the forefathers of Moses are dead people, God spoke about them as if they were living people. Therefore you should know they are still living because God spoke thus. …”
Ocotlán Zapotec: “If God is God of Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham, he is God of those who are alive, even though they have died. …”
Quiotepec Chinantec: “God is the God of the living. He is also the God of the dead because they are not dead to Him, they also are living.”
Ocotlán Zapotec: “If God is God of Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham, he is God of those who are alive, even though they have died.” (Source for this and four above: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 15:8:
Uma: “Consider this: Kristus came to the earth to help Jewish people, in order that the promises of God to the ancestors of Jews would be fulfilled, with the result that is would be clear to all people that God’s Word is true.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “For I tell you that the reason Isa Almasi came to help us (excl.) the Yahudi, is so that he could show that God is trustworthy and so that God’s promises to our (excl.) ancestors would be fulfilled,” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “It’s true what I say to you, that as for Christ, He was made to be like a servant to the Jews so that He might show them that it’s really true that God is going to fulfill the promises He made long ago to their ancestors.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Don’t forget that Cristo came to help the Jews in order to show that God is trustworthy, because he fulfilled what God promised their ancestors.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “You see that Christ came in order to bless the Jews. Concerning the word which was promised to our ancestors long ago, he came to bring it to happen. Thus it is seen that God does not forget the word he has promised to bring about.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Mezquital Otomi: “But I declare that the Lord Jesus Christ worked among the Jews so it would be seen that God truly fulfilled what he promised to their grandfathers.”
Huehuetla Tepehua: “This is what I want to tell you. Jesus Christ came here to this world for the purpose of helping the Israelites. In that way it would be shown that God tells the truth and fulfills what he promised to our ancient fathers.”
Teutila Cuicatec: “I tell you that our Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed God’s Word among the people of the nation of Israel showing that God kept his promise that he gave to their forefathers.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse (“our fathers ” in English translations), translators often select the exclusive form.
Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.
The Yagua translators justify this by saying “Our choice here is exclusive assuming that the Samaritan woman to maintain the independent and factious spirit which this account shows existed between Jews and Samaritans.”
Source: Paul Powlison in Notes on Translation with Drills, p. 165ff.
In the Mezquital Otomi translation the inclusive form was chosen because “according to the Samaritans, Mt. Gerizim had been the scene of the sacrifice of Isaac and Abraham’s meeting with Melchizedek; and in their version of the Pentateuch it, and not Mt. Ebal, was the site of the first Hebrew sacrifice after the people had passed over Jordan into the Holy Land.”
Source: Nacy Lanier in Notes on Translation with Drills, p. 167ff.
Another opinion on using the inclusive pronoun for this verse and the remainder of the story:
“The Samaritan woman, in my view, is trying to get the better of Jesus; she appeals to Jacob (v. 12) and to ‘our fathers’ (v. 20) as to authorities higher than Jesus. If this is true, then it was important for her to show that those authorities were acknowledged by Jesus also. Therefore, we can imagine her to have thought or said ‘Your and my ancestor’ (v. 12) or ‘ancestors’ (v. 20) — inclusive pronoun in both verses.
“As for the phrase ‘who gave us the well’, there is certainly much truth in the consideration: “Since the well was in Samaritan territory, presumably she would use the exclusive form.” Yet, the inclusive can be defended here also, I think. With the remark that Jacob and his sons drank from the well, she is pointing back to a time anterior to the present antithesis between Jew and Samaritan; the well was given to ancestors of both peoples. Moreover, she comes to fetch water from the well and Jesus hopes to quench his thirst with its water. “The well is of common interest for both you and me,” she may have meant. It seems possible to find a third appeal to higher authority in v. 25. The woman has acknowledged Jesus as a prophet, but to the Messiah even a prophet has to bow; he, the prophet, as well as she, will have to be shown all things by the Messiah. Accepting this interpretation, we again have to use the inclusive ‘we’, Yet there is a difference with the verses first mentioned. In v. 12 and v. 20 the pronominal first person plural was used in phrases connected with the past; v. 25 points to the future, to the time when the Messiah will come and teach. A consciousness among the Samaritans of a Messianic belief common to both Jews and themselves is a necessary presupposition of the interpretation of v. 25 given above. So we are led to the preliminary question whether such a consciousness existed in Jesus’ times.”
Following are a number of back-translations of John 1:20:
Yatzachi Zapotec: “He said to them clearly, ‘I am not the Christ, the person whom God is to send to help the nation of us Israelites.'”
Ojitlán Chinantec: “He said, ‘I am not the Christ, the chosen of God for a particular task.’ John showed the truth. He did not speak lies.”
Huehuetla Tepehua: “Well he admitted the truth. He immediately made it plain to them that he wasn’t Christ whom it was said God would send.”
Mezquital Otomi: “. . . I am not the Christ, whom God chose.”
Alekano: “Then not denying it, revealing it, he told them this: ‘I am not the Christ.'”
Chol: “John did not keep it a secret . . . ” (Source for this and above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
Uma: “Yohanes answered them plainly, he said to them: ‘I am not the Redeemer King.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Yahiya did not hide (anything) instead really confessed/spoke the truth, he said, ‘I am not the Almasi.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And this is what John said because he did not hide it. He said, ‘As for me, I am not the one chosen by God to rule.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Juan didn’t deny the truth of it but rather he admitted saying, ‘I am not the Messiah.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “He really didn’t make-claims for himself but on the contrary he told the truth, saying, ‘It’s not I who am the Cristo who is that promised Savior King.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “John straightly spoke. He said, ‘I am not the Christ whom God appointed to rule.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
