Western Highland Purepecha

conversion, convert, turn back

The Greek that is often rendered in English as “to be converted” or “to turn around” is (back-) translated in a number of ways:

North Alaskan Inupiatun: “change completely”
Purepecha: “turn around”
Highland Totonac: “have one’s life changed”
Huautla Mazatec: “make pass over bounds within”
San Blas Kuna: “turn the heart toward God”
Chol: “the heart turns itself back”
Highland Puebla Nahuatl: “self-heart change”
Pamona: “turn away from, unlearn something”
Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “turn around from the breast”
Luvale: “return”
Balinese: “put on a new behavior” (compare “repentance“: “to put on a new mind”)
Tzeltal: “cause one’s heart to return to God” (compare “repentance”: “to cause one’s heart to return because of one’s sin”)
Pedi: “retrace one’s step” (compare “repentance”: “to become untwisted”)
Uab Meto: “return” (compare “repentance”: “to turn the heart upside down”)
Northwestern Dinka: “turn oneself” (compare “repentance”: “to turn the heart”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
Central Mazahua: “change the heart” (compare “repentance”: “turn back the heart”) (source: Nida 1952, p. 40)
Western Kanjobal: “molt” (like a butterfly) (source: Nida 1952, p. 136)
Latvian: atgriezties (verb) / atgriešanās (noun) (“turn around / return”) which is also the same term being used for “repentance” (source: Katie Roth)
Isthmus Mixe: “look away from the teaching of one’s ancestors and follow the teachings of God”
Highland Popoluca: “leave one’s old beliefs to believe in Jesus” (source for thsi and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

justification, justify

The Greek that is translated as “justify” in English is translated into Tzotzil in two different ways. One of those is with Lec xij’ilatotic yu’un Dios ta sventa ti ta xc’ot ta o’ntonal ta xch’unel ti Jesucristoe (“we are seen well by God because of our faith in Jesus Christ”) (source: Aeilts, p. 118) and the other is “God sees as righteous” (source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.).

Other (back-) translations include:

Bilua: “straigthened” (Rom 3:20: “Nobody can be straightened in God’s presence…”) (source: Carl Gross) (see also: righteous)
Western Highland Purepecha: “he sees him with the goodness of his Son” (“justification”)
Highland Puebla Nahuatl: “heart-straightening”
Western Kanjobal: “having a straight soul” (source for this and two above: Nida 1952, p. 145)
Central Mazahua: “no longer carrying sin in God’s estimation.”
Rincón Zapotec: “come out good before God”
Guhu-Samane: “God called one right” (source for this and two above: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.)
Mairasi: “already straight: completely clean” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Uma: “straight in God’s sight” (Source: Uma back-translation)
Yakan: “be reckoned straight/righteous by God” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Ekari: “maa nigajawii (“deem us right through favor”) (source: Marion Source in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37f. )
Tzeltal: “exonerated us of our sin in God’s sight” (source: Marianna C. Slocum in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 49f. )
Kwara’ae: “regard as righteous” (source: Norman Deck in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 34ff. )
Manikion: “heart sits next to Jesus” (source: Daud Soesilo)
Obolo: ben itip-oyerebet isan̄a: “take away condemnation” (source: Enene Enene)
Kui: “to obtain release to become a righteous person” (source: Helen Evans in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. )
Highland Totonac: “make free”
Sayula Popoluca: “call righteous”
Isthmus Zapotec: “clean hearts”
Central Tarahumara: “make people to be right-doing”
Tzeltal: “straighten heart” (Source for this and two above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Warao: “straighten obonja.” Obonja is a term that “includes the concepts of consciousness, will, attitude, attention and a few other miscellaneous notions” (source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. See other occurrences of Obojona in the Warao New Testament.)

mercy

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin terms that are typically translated as “mercy” (or “compassion” or “kindness”) in English are translated in various ways. Bratcher / Nida classify them in (1) those based on the quality of heart, or other psychological center, (2) those which introduce the concept of weeping or extreme sorrow, (3) those which involve willingness to look upon and recognize the condition of others, or (4) those which involve a variety of intense feelings.

While the English mercy originates from the Latin merces, originally “price paid,” Romance languages (Italian, Spanish, Corsican, Catalan) and other Germanic languages (German, Swedish, Danish — Barmherzigkeit, barmhärtighet and barmhjertighed, respectively) tend to follow the Latin misericordia, lit. “misery-heart.”

Here are some other (back-) translations:

Ngäbere: “tender heart”
Mískito: “white heart”
Amganad Ifugao: “what arises from a kind heart”
Vai: “purity of heart”
Western Kanjobal: “his abdomen weeps”
Kipsigis: “cry inside”
Shilluk: “cry continually within”
Navajo: “feel great sorrow” (“with the connotation of being about to cry”)
Kpelle: “see misery”
Toro So Dogon: “know misery”
Western Highland Purepecha: “be in pain for”
San Miguel El Grande Mixtec: “be very sorry for”
Mezquital Otomi: “have increasing love for”
Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “showing undeserved goodness” (“closely identified with grace”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
Yatzachi Zapotec: “pity-love”
Central Mazahua: “very much pity people”
Alekano: “help people who are suffering”
Guhu-Samane: “feeling sorry for men” (source for this and three above: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.)
Warao: “kobe (= the abdominal region, including the heart) hurts” (source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. )
Latvian: žēlastība, the same term that is also used for grace (source: Katie Roth)
Iloko: asi — also means “pity” and is used for a love of the poor and helpless (source: G. Henry Waterman in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 24ff. )
Bilua: “forgiving love” (source: Carl Gross)
Luang: “inside goodness” (source: Kathy and Mark Taber in Kroneman [2004], p. 533)
Mairasi: “have good intestines” (see Seat of the Mind) (source: Lloyd Peckham)

honor (God)

The Greek that is often translated as “honor” in English is translated as “say my name” (Huehuetla Tepehua), “make me great” (Highland Totonac), “good what is said about me” (Tzeltal), “speak well of me” (Western Highland Purepecha), “lift up my name” (San Blas Kuna and Kpelle).

fear (of God)

The Hebrew and Greek that are translated as “fear (of God)” (or: “honor,” “worship,” or “respect”) is translated as “to have respect/reverence for” (Southern Subanen, Western Highland Purepecha, Navajo, Javanese, Tboli), “to make great before oneself” (Ngäbere), “fear-devotion” (Kannada — currently used as a description of the life of piety), “those-with-whom he-is-holy” (those who fear God) (Western Apache) (source for this and above: Reiling / Swellengrebel), “revere God” Lalana Chinantec, “worship God” (Palantla Chinantec) (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), “obey” (Chichewa) (source: Ernst Wendland), or with a term that communicates awe (rather than fear of an evil source) (Chol) (source: Robert Bascom).

Bullard / Hatton (2008, p. 8) say the following about this concept: “As the writer of Proverbs states in 1:7, ‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.’ (…) ‘The fear of the Lord,’ that is, human fear of God, is an exceptionally difficult concept to express, at least in English. Other languages may have more appropriate terms. The idea probably is rooted in the most ancient days when people were indeed afraid of any deity. But in Israel the concept of fearing God was transformed by God’s revelation into a much fuller idea. Basically, as used in the Bible, the fear of God refers to the proper attitude of reverence and awe before the Holy One. To fear God is to recognize one’s own place as a mere mortal before the Creator, one’s place as a sinner before the Judge, one’s place as a child before the Father, one’s place as the recipient of God’s love. It thus involves submission, repentance, trust, and grateful love toward the One who is fearsome in holiness, in justice, in power that both protects and punishes, and in love. Using the word “fear” is sometimes as good as we can do, but often we will alternate that word with terms like ‘reverence’ or ‘awe.’”

praise (God)

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The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “praise (God)” in English is translated in a nuymber of ways:

Tae’: “make-great” / “make-great the name”
Western Highland Purepecha / Morelos Nahuatl: “speak well of”
San Blas Kuna / Kpelle: “lift up the name”
Huehuetla Tepehua: “sing the name”
Highland Totonac: “make good”
Tzeltal: “say good about”
Navajo: “make known something good about” (source for this and above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
Isthmus Mixe: “place (God) big”
Chuj: “say good words about (God)”
San Mateo del Mar Huave: “honor (Father God)” (source for this and three above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

In Dan a figurative expression for praising God is used: “push God’s horse.” “In the distant past people closely followed the horses ridden by chiefs, so ‘pushing’ them.” (Source: Don Slager)

comfort from love, consolation of love

The Greek that is translated into English as “comfort from love” or “consolation of love” is translated into Navajo as “if by loving your minds can be put to that place of refuge.” (Source: Nida 1964, p. 228)

In Western Highland Purepecha “consolation” in this verse is translated as “God takes sadness from our hearts” and in Aymara as “preparing the heart.” (Source: Nida 1952, p. 131)

the ends of the earth

The Greek that is translated as “the ends of the earth (or: world)” is translated in Bilua as “the bottom of the sky” (= horizon) (source: Carl Gross), in Western Highland Purepecha as “beyond the horizon” (source: Nida 1947, p. 158), and in Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “to the far horizons” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.).