The Greek that is translated in English as “mustard seed” is translated in Muna as “wonolita seed.” René van den Berg explains: “The mustard plant rarely exceeds 50 cm in height. A wonolita is a big forest tree growing from a tiny seed.”
In the Bislama and Uripiv translations it is translated as “banyan.” “The banyan tree is one of the biggest in the islands, and it grows from a tiny seed. We (Uripiv) added a footnote to explain to more advanced readers what we had done: ‘Here Matthew compares the kingdom of God to a mustard seed, but since mustard doesn’t grow here, we put banyan, so that Matthew’s meaning will be clear.’” (Source: Ross McKerras)
In Elhomwe it is translated as “tree seed” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext) and in Yakut as “larch seed,” a small seed which does indeed grow into a large tree” (source: David Clark in The Bible Translator 2015, p. 117ff. ).
In Gbaya is is translated with the ideophone kɛ̧́ɛ̧́ which “denotes a very tiny and barely visible object. (…) The Gbaya team applied it to faith instead of referring to a mustard seed which is unknown to Gbaya readers.” Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)
The Greek in Luke 19:22 that is translated as “wicked slave” in English is translated idiomatically in Yakut as “you fellow with black thoughts.” (Source: David Clark in The Bible Translator 2015, p. 117ff. )
The Greek that is translated as “wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather” or similar in English is translated in Mairasi a lot more specific as “if you see the mother of flocks of corpse-eating birds, Long-tailed Buzzard, Grey-faced Buzzard, White-breasted sea Eagle, or Brahminy Kite, then there is something dead and rotting, a dead person’s body, or a dead wilderness animal is over there.” (Aij ner nenem naa, tuao, iamba, sende fut namba in netomwan andani, orom umburu joet tan, nere neavo, sas warenar joetnyaa fovar atat.)
In Tangoa, a cultural substitute is used: “When you see the flying foxes flying to one location, you know that there is a ripe mango tree there” (Vara ko hite na karai la lo avu vano hin te jara, o pa levosahia vara te pahai mo mena atu.). A footnote explains in that translation that “when the last days come close, and people see all these things happening, they can be sure that it won’t be long before the Son of Man appears on the earth.” (Source: Ross McKerras)
In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) it is translated as “wherever there is carrion, the vultures will gather in the blink of an eye (blitzschnell).”
For Yakut neither eagles nor vultures are known, so the translation became “ravens,” which are known. In Chechen, the term chosen was “crows.” (Source: David Clark in The Bible Translator 2015, p. 117ff. )
The Greek in Luke 12:37 that is translated as “fasten his belt” or similar in English is translated in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) with Kellnerschürze umbinden or “tie on the waiter’s apron.”
The Greek in Luke 12:35 that is translated as “be dressed for action” or literally as “gird your loins” in English is translated idiomatically in the FrenchNouvelle Français Courant as “roll up your sleeves” and in Yakut as “have your belts done up tight,” both of which are idioms in their respective languages. (Source: Katie Badie [French] and David Clark in The Bible Translator 2015, p. 117ff. ) [Yakut])
The phrase that is translated in English as “fattened calf” is translated in Fuyug as “the calf full of grease” and in Yakut it is specified as a “two-year-old.” (Source: David Clark)
In some Hindi translations it is translated as mota pashu (मोटा पशु) or “fattened animal” to avoid the traditionally negative association with slaughtering cows. (In the case of पवित्र बाइबिल, the Common Language Hindi Bible, a footnote is added that says “In the original text: ‘calf.'”)
The Greek in Luke 13:12 that is sometimes translated as “Woman” in English is translated in Yakut as “older sister.” Since a direct translation of “Woman” would have been rude, “the translators assumed that because the woman Jesus healed had been crippled for eighteen years, she was probably older than Jesus, so they had him address her with the polite form, ‘older sister.'”
