Language-specific Insights

mistreat and stone

The Greek in Acts 14:5 that is translated into English as “mistreat them and stone them” or something similar is is translated in Quetzaltepec Mixe with the existing idiomatic expression “whip and stone.”

gods

The Hebrew and Aramaic that is translated as “gods” in English is translated into Pass Valley Yali as “the good spirits (of the deceased one).” (Source: Daud Soesilo)

The Greek in 1 Corinthians is translated in Quetzaltepec Mixe similarly with a term that makes clear that these are good or bad spirits, not gods which can be compared to God. (Source: Robert Bascom)

fast (Luke 5:33)

The Greek word that is translated as “fast” in English is translated in Quetzaltepec Mixe as “fast and do not drink” in Luke 5:33 to correspond to the second part of the verse which says (in English) “but your disciples eat and drink.”

See fast (verb).

kingdoms of the world

The Greek that is translated as “kingdoms of the world” is translated in Quetzaltepec Mixe with a phrases denoting “rich empires” rather than a collection of all the ethnic groups (source: Robert Bascom).

In the Kölsch translation (Boch 2017) it is translated as “all the great and beautiful things of this world” and in the Mandarin Chinese Union Version very literarily and elegantly as “the 10,000 nations and the glory and the glory of the 10,000 nations (万国与万国的荣华 — Matthew 4:8) and “the 10,000 nations under the heaven” (天下的万国 — Luke 4:5). (Source: Jost Zetzsche)

spit and touched

The Greek that is translated as “(then he) spit and touched” is translated in Quetzaltepec Mixe in (linguistically required) greater detail as “Jesus spit on his own fingers and then put his fingers on the eyes of the blind man (or: the tongue of the mute man).”

old (commandment)

The Greek in 1 John 2:7 that is translated as “old (commandment)” in English is translated in Quetzaltepec Mixe as “this is not the first time this commandment has been told to you…” because “old” has the connotation of “obsolete.”