The Greek in Mark 3:21 that is translated as “beside himself” or “lost his mind” or other variations in English is (back-) translated by the following languages like this:
- Tzeltal: “his head had been touched” (“an expression to identify what might be called the half-way stage to insanity”)
- Amganad Ifugao: “he acts as though he were crazy”
- Shilluk: “he is acting like an imbecile”
- Shipibo-Conibo: “his thoughts have gone out of him”
- Pamona: “he is outside his senses”
- Indonesian: “he is not by his reason” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida 1961)
- Mairasi: “his vision/thinking dried up” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
The Greek that is translated as “with you (or: whom) I am well pleased” in English is often translated in other languages with figurative expressions
- “you are the heart of my eye” (Huastec)
- “you arrive at my gall” (with the gall being the seat of the emotions and intelligence) (Mossi)
- “I see you very well” (Tzotzil)
- “my bowels are sweet with you” (Shilluk) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
- “you pull at my heart” (Central Pame)
- “my thoughts are arranged” (Mashco Piro)
- “my heart rests in you” (Wè Southern) (source for this and two above: Nida 1952, p. 127).
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “go in peace” into English is an idiomatic expression of farewell which is translatable in other languages as an idiomatic expression as well:
The Greek that is translated into English as “care for no man” or “defer to no one” (in the sense of not seeking anyone’s favor) is translated in Tabasco Chontal as “you say the same thing to everyone” and in Shilluk as “you show the same respect to everyone.” In Shipibo-Conibo it is “in your mind no one is anything,” in Chol it is “your heart is equally straight in the presence of all men” and in Tzeltal “it does not matter who — all of us are equal as far as you are concerned.”
The Greek in Mark 4:19 that is translated as “worries (or: cares) of the world (or: this age)” in English is (back-) translated in a number of ways:
- Kekchí: “they think very much about these days now”
- Farefare: “they begin to worry about this world-things”
- Tzeltal: “their hearts are gone doing what they do when they pass through world” (where the last phrase is an idiomatic equivalent for “this life”
- Mitla Zapotec and San Mateo del Mar Huave: “they think intensely about things in this world”
- Eastern Highland Otomi and Pamona: “the longing for this world”
- Tzotzil: “they are very occupied about things in the world”
- Central Tarahumara: “they are very much afraid about what will happen in the world”
- Shilluk: “the heavy talk about things in the world”
- Bariai: “things of the earth are making them worried (lit. to have various interiors)” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
See also end of the age / end of the world.
The Greek that is translated with “moved with compassion (or: pity)” in English is translated as “to see someone with sorrow” in Piro, “to suffer with someone” in Huastec, or “one’s mind to be as it were out of one” in Balinese (source: Bratcher / Nida).
See also compassion.
The Greek in John 3:30 that is often translated in English as “He must increase, but I must decrease” is translated in Shilluk as “He must come in out of the morning, and I must go out into the night.” Nida (1952, p. 159) explains: “Christ must come in out of the misty dawn of our own neglect to take His rightful place of Lordship, while the life of self must recede and be lost in the night of selflessness.”
The Greek in Genesis 12:3 that is often translated in English as “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse” is translated in Shilluk as “I will bless those who pray for a blessing for you, and those who call a curse upon you I will call to be cursed.” In Shilluk God can only give blessings and cannot curse people.
See also curse and cursed.
