Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 9:20:
- Uma: “Let’s not say things like that, relatives! It is not appropriate [lit., it doesn’t hit the road] if we mankind talk-back like that to God. Is it appropriate for a pot say to the person who made it like this: ‘What did you (sing.) make me like this for!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “Don’t say that. Who are you (sing.) that you (sing.) talk-back-to/defy God and-what’s-more you are just human? Can the paliyuk (clay pot) say to the person who makes it, ‘Why do you (sing.) make me like this?'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And what I say to that is: can we, his created beings, answer back to God? Can we who are just made, ask Him who made us, saying ‘why did you make me this way?'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “But what I reply is, you (sing.) who are a mere person, where perhaps do you (sing.) get your (sing.) authority to argue-with God? Can a pot perhaps say to the one who shaped it, ‘Why did you make me like this?'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “I suppose that there is someone who wants to say to me: ‘How come then God says that the people have sin? Because no one can go against what God has determined’ they will say to me. Now we, being just people, who are we to say that we do not look well upon what God has determined? Take a pot, for instance, can it say to the maker of pots: ‘I do not look well upon the form in which you have made me’ it will say.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Mezquital Otomi: “But I answer them: Who are you to stand up to God? Should the bowl made of hard clay complain to him who made it: Why did you make me this way?”
Isthmus Zapotec: “But man, who are you that you shouldn’t be agreeable to what God does? As though a pot has the right to say to the one who made it: Why did you make me like this?!”
Huehuetla Tepehua: “No, man, don’t talk like that. Who are you that you can talk back to God? A clay cup, can it say to a maker: Why did you make me like this?” (Source for this and two above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 11:46:
- Noongar: “Jesus said, ‘Very terrible also for you Law Men! You put loads on the backs of people, loads too heavy (lit.: “sweat-making”) to carry but you don’t raise up one of your fingernails to help them to carry their loads.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
- Uma: “Yesus replied: ‘Disaster also to you religion teachers! Because you burden [lit, cause-to-carry-on-back] the people with rules and customs that are heavy. But you do not want to help them carry that load. You do not support [it] for them with even a finger.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “‘Yes,’ said Isa. ‘You also are to be pitied, the teachers of the religious law. For you make it heavy/difficult for the people with the laws which they are not able to do/carry out and you don’t help them even a little bit in doing so.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus said, ‘You also, the teachers of the Law, pity you also because there are very many difficult things that you make the people do, but you don’t help them in any way to do these things.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “Then Jesus said, ‘Pitiful also are you teachers of the law, because you have-the many-people -carry-heavy -loads which are the many rules that you force them to follow, but you don’t however join-in-carrying even a little-bit.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “Jesus replied, saying, ‘Really very hard is what is in store for you also, explainers of law. Because through your teaching, it’s like you bundle up big bundles which you cause to be shouldered by people who aren’t able to shoulder them. But even your little finger, you don’t want to touch with it to lend-a-hand/help-out.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 14:3:
- Uma: “They were singing, singing a kind of new song in front of the Seat of God and in front of the four living things and the elders around that Throne. Their song, no other person can/may learn it, just that one hundred forty-four thousand. They are the ones redeemed by the Lamb from among the people of the world.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “The one hundred and fortyfour thousand people stood there facing the throne of God and the four angels of-different-kind and the elders. They sang a new song and nobody could learn that song except they, the one hundred and fortyfour thousand, because they are the ones redeemed from the ruling of the leader of demons while they were still on earth.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And as for these people, they are before the seat of God, and they are also before the four creatures who have breath and before the elders. And then they sang a new song and the only ones who know how to sing the song are the one hundred and forty-four thousand people who were redeemed on the earth by the young sheep.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “The one hundred and forty four thousand people were standing facing the throne and the four living creatures and leaders. They were singing a new song which no one else knew but they alone, because they are the ones who were redeemed from the world.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “As for that crowd, those one hundred and forty four thousand people, they were standing in the presence of God who was sitting on his seat of kingship, and in the presence of those four created living beings and also those twenty four elders. I heard that they were singing a new kind of song. No-one else knows that song, but only those, that crowd, for from all the people here in the world they are the ones who were chosen being like bought by that one referred to as Young Sheep so that they would be his people.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “They sang a new song before where God was seated there where the twenty-four surrounded him, where the four stood at each corner to his chair. This song they sang was one no one knows except only the one hundred and forty-four thousand, those people who had been saved on the earth.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 10:19:
- Uma: “Also let us not say/think like this: ‘The Israel people did not understand God’s purpose to give salvation [goodness] to mankind.’ They did understand it! First of all, there is the Word of God that was announced by the prophet Musa, it sounds like this: ‘You Jews, I will make you jealous when you see my love to people who are not Jews. You will be irritated/angry [lit., your hearts will be little]at them seeing my care/watching-over people who did not know me.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “I have another question: Didn’t the nation Isra’il understand that the nations not Yahudi belong to God also? They indeed really understood. Musa was the first who answered. God caused him to write his words, God said, ‘I will heed/pay-attention-to the people not Yahudi, the people of whom you say that they are a nation/tribe without use. So then you (pl.) will be jealous and you will be angry because I heed/pay-attention-to people who do not know me.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And it might be that we (incl.) are thinking mistakenly that the descendants of Israel have not understood what was preached to them. However, they have already understood it before, because there’s a written word of God long ago to them by means of the word of Moses in which he says, ‘I will cause you Jews in the future to be jealous of my helping the people who are not my chosen ones. And I will make it so that you become angry because of my pitying the people who long ago did not know who I am,’ he said.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “One other question: Is it maybe possible that they didn’t understand what they heard? They indeed understood, because even the Gentiles, they were able-to-understand-it. Here is what God said to the Jews which Moses wrote saying, ‘I will make-you -jealous on account of collective-people that you despise. I will make-you -angry on account of collective-people who know nothing concerning me.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “So then, didn’t the Jews understand in their hearts about the word which was told to them? But other people understood in their hearts about the word they were told. In past days Moses said: ‘God will save the people who are not Jews in order that the Jews will be jealous of those who are saved. They will be angry because the people who do not have intelligence are the ones who encountered the blessings of God.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
For the Old Testament quote, see Deuteronomy 32:21.
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 12:24:
- Noongar: “See the crows! They don’t plant seeds or harvest seeds. They don’t have grain stores. God gives them food to eat! You are greater than birds!” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
- Uma: “Consider/think-about crows. They do not farm, they do not harvest, they do not have storehouses or storage-containers. But even so, God still gives them food. Even more so you, because in God’s sight your lives are more [important] than the lives of birds, and his taking-care-of you is more than his taking-care-of birds.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “Look at the crows. They don’t plant or harvest and they don’t have anything to store their food in. But God feeds them. You are much more valuable than birds.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Think about the crows; they do not plant; they do not harvest; they have no storehouses to put anything in. And in spite of that, God sees that they have food. Now, how much more He will take care of people who are much more precious to Him than crows!” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “Consider the birds, they don’t plant and harvest, neither do they have storage-racks and granaries, but they (reassurance particle) don’t suffer-hunger, because God gives them what they eat. You are far-away more-valuable than birds, is it not so?” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “For just think about (lit. walk your mind/thinking over) birds which are crows. Isn’t it so that they don’t plant or harvest, and they have no silos? But they don’t starve for they are fed by God. Well, isn’t it so that you are much greater that these birds?” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 16:7:
- Uma: “From there, I heard speaking/words from the offering burning table that said: ‘O Lord God, thus/so indeed! Your (sing.) punishing is certainly true/right and straight. Your (sing.) power/authority surpasses all.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “Then I heard again a voice from the place of the (sacrificial)-altar. The voice said, ‘O God, you are the Most-Powerful God. Your judgment is straight/right and true.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Then I heard someone speaking at the sacrificial altar who said, ‘Oh powerful God, Lord of all, it is really true that correct and righteous is Your punishment on mankind!'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “I also heard a voice from the altar saying, ‘Oh Lord God who is all powerful, what that-aforementioned angel said is true (particle of appreciation/empathy), because what you (sing.) are doing to punish people is correct and righteous.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “And then I also heard speech coming from there at that altar, saying, ‘God who has surpassing supernatural-power, your judging is really righteous/just and truth.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “Again I heard someone speak at the altar. He said: ‘You Lord, my God, truly you have all power. Concerning the punishment you give, it is proper that you thus do,’ he said.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 11:30:
- Uma: “Long ago you did not submit to God. But at this time you have obtained God’s love, because of the rebelling/rejecting of the Jews.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “Na, you also the not Yahudi, formerly you did not obey/follow God. But now you are pitied by God because the Yahudi rejected (turned-their-backs-on) God.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “As for you also who are not Jews, long ago you would not obey God. But now he has pitied you because the Jews will not obey him now.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “You who are Gentiles, you didn’t believe/obey God back then, but now, you benefit-from the grace/mercy of God because of the Jews’ not believing.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “At the first, the people who were not Jews rejected what God said. But now because also the Jews rejected what God said, God now has given his grace to those people who are not Jews.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 12:56:
- Noongar: “You hypocrites (lit.: “double-tongued”)! You can see the earth and sky. You know the signs of rain and wind. So, why can you not see the signs of these days? ” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
- Uma: “Hey, you who are good on just the outside! You know very [well] how to discern signs in the sky and on the earth. Why do you not know how to discern what is done by the Lord God at this time!” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “You there, you pretend to be ignorant. You know – surprise – what the meaning is when you watch the appearance of sky and earth, why on-earth don’t you know the meaning of what happens at this time now?'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Your custom is a lie? Because when you look at the heaven and earth you can tell what the weather is going to do, but evidently you don’t understand what God is doing today by means of me.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “You who are fake intelligent! If you are able to distinguish the signs in the sky and on the earth concerning the weather, why then don’t you know the meaning of the signs that God has been showing concerning me?'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “You who pretend to believe-in/obey God, you take-notice-of the signs here on earth and in the sky. Well why don’t you take notice of the signs of this time?” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
