Language-specific Insights

conspire

The Greek in Mark 3:6 that is sometimes translated as “conspire” (or: “giving counsel”) into English is translated into Shilluk with the idiom “gathered mouths together.”

See also conspire (Anuak)

He must increase𖺗 but I must decrease

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.”

Seat of Emotions, Seat of the Mind

Cultures and languages equate different parts of the human body with the seat of the mind. Following is a theoretical framework that categorizes different approaches:

“[We] use the word ‘mind’ as a shorthand term for ‘ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling’ of which different cultures, or different periods of the same culture, may have different understandings. (…) Cultural models of the mind and more scientific approaches in philosophy and/or medicine have in various cultures invoked central parts of the human body as the locus of the mind. The major loci have been the abdomen region, the heart region and the head region or, more particularly, the brain region. These three types of conceptualizations can be labeled ‘abdominocentrism’, ‘cardiocentrism’, and ‘cerebrocentrism’ (or ‘cephalocentrism’), respectively. These three labels only intend to capture the idea that the region in question is the main centre, which does not exclude a similar role for body parts in other regions.”

(Source: Sharifian, Farzad et al. (eds.) Culture, Body, and Language: Conceptualizations of Internal Body Organs across Cultures and Languages. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2008. p. 3f.)

Equally, and related to that, the seat of emotions is located in many different, culture-specific parts of the body. Bratcher / Nida (p. 78) say: “Though the heart is spoken of in the Bible as the center of intellectual and emotive elements of human experience, in other languages the heart may have no such value. In some languages the corresponding centers are the viscera (Western Kanjobal), the liver (Laka), the stomach (Uduk), the gall (Toraja-Sa’dan) and the head (Anuak), though in the neighboring Shilluk demons may be in one’s head, but the liver and heart are the center of most other psychological activities. Whether one is to use ‘heart’ or some other part or organ of the body depends entirely upon the manner in which in any language such psychological experiences are described.”

For an article on Biblical anthropology, see Biblical Anthropology and Ancient Science by John Roberts.

leprosy, leprous

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The Greek and Hebrew terms that are often translated as “leprosy (or: defiling/skin disease)” or “leprous (person)” in English is translated in Mairasi as “the bad sickness,” since “leprosy is very common in the Mairasi area” (source: Enggavoter 2004).

Following are various other translations:

  • Shilluk: “disease of animals”
  • San Mateo Del Mar Huave: “devil sore” (this and the above are indigenous expressions)
  • Inupiaq: “decaying sores”
  • Kaqchikel: “skin-rotting disease” (source for this and three above: Eugene Nida in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 34f. )
  • Noongar: “bad skin disease” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Usila Chinantec “sickness like mal de pinta” (a skin disease involving discoloration by loss of pigment) (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Hiligaynon: “dangerous skin disease” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “fearful skin disease” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “terrible rotting” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Newari: “infectious skin disease” (source: Newari Back Translation)

Targumim (or: Targums) are translations of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic. They were translated and used when Jewish congregations increasingly could not understand the biblical Hebrew anymore. Targum Onqelos (also: Onkelos) is the name of the Aramaic translation of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) probably composed in Israel/Palestine in the 1st or 2nd century CE and later edited in Babylon in the 4th or 5th century, making it reflect Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. It is the most famous Aramaic translation and was widely used throughout the Jewish communities. In Leviticus 13 and 14 it translates tzaraat as a “quarantining affliction” — focusing “on what occurs to individuals after they suffer the affliction; the person is isolated from the community.” (Source: Israel Drazin in this article ). Similarly, the English Jewish Orthodox ArtScroll Tanach translation (publ. 2011) transliterates it as tzaraat affliction.

See also stricken and leprosy healed.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Leprosy (Word Study) and Bible Translations Are for People .

peace (inner peace)

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The Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Greek that is usually translated into English as “peace,” when referring to one’s inner peace, is (back-) translated with a variety of idioms and phrases:

In American Sign Language it is signed with a compound sign consisting of “become” and “silent.” (Source: Yates 2011, p. 52)


“Peace” in American Sign Language (source )

See also peace (absence of strife) and this devotion on YouVersion and this one on Bible Gateway .

love your neighbor as yourself

The Greek and Hebrew that is translated in English as “love your neighbor as yourself” is translated in Shilluk, Anuak, and Nuer as “love your neighbors as yourselves.” In those and other languages a plural form has to be used if it is to be applied to more than one person where in English a singular can stand for many (compare everyone, each, whoever, any). (Source: Larson 1998, p. 42)

See also he who / whoever and neighbor.

compassion

The Hebrew, Greek, Ge’ez, and Latin that is typically as “compassion” in English (“compassion” comes from the Latin compatior and means suffering with) is translated in various ways:

  • Shilluk´: “cries in the soul” (source: Nida, 1952, p. 132)
  • Q’anjob’al: “crying in one’s stomach” (source: Newberry and Kittie Cox in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. )
  • Aari: “has a good stomach” (=”sympathetic”) (source: Loren Bliese)
  • Una: “has a big liver” (source: Kroneman 2004, p. 471)
  • Uma: “heart is moved (lit., far-away)” (source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Chitonga: “to have the intestines twisting in compassion/sorrow for someone” (kumyongwa) (source: Wendland 1987, p. 128f.)

See also pain-love, moved with compassion (pity), and Seat of the Mind for traditional views of “ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling.”