The Greek in Romans 2:23 that is usually translated in English as “dishonor God” is translated in various ways:
See also complete verse (Romans 2:23).
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 as “despise” in English is translated as
The Greek in Romans 12:2 that is translated in English as some form of “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” is translated into Bilua as “you must not follow this generation’s behavior, but you must allow God in your heart that he make you new in your life and thinking.”
The first part of this phrase (“(don’t be) conformed to this world”) is translated as “live doing as other people do who live here in the world” in Central Tarahumara, as “do like mankind does, people who are here on the earth” in Yatzachi Zapotec, as “do like people in this sinful world” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui, and “the life of those who walk in sin” in Mezquital Otomi.
The second part (“be transformed by the renewal of your mind”) is translated as “let the way you think become new and changed” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui, as “change so that what you think may become new” in Sayula Popoluca, as “let God change your head-hearts in order that your thoughts will he changed” in Yatzachi Zapotec, as “be different since the Holy Spirit has made your mind new” in Huehuetla Tepehua, and as “in a different way think well” in Central Tarahumara. (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “adultery” in English (here etymologically meaning “to alter”) is typically understood as “marital infidelity.” It is (back-) translated in the following ways:
- Highland Totonac: “to do something together”
- Yucateco: “pair-sin”
- Ngäbere: “robbing another’s half self-possession” (compare “fornication” which is “robbing self-possession,” that is, to rob what belongs to a person)
- Kaqchikel, Chol: “to act like a dog” (see also licentiousness)
- Toraja-Sa’dan: “to measure the depth of the river of (another’s) marriage”
- North Alaskan Inupiatun: “married people using what is not theirs” (compare “fornication” which is “unmarried people using what is not theirs”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
- Purari: “play hands with” or “play eyes with”
- Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “talk secretly with spouses of our fellows”
- Isthmus Zapotec: “go in with other people’s spouses”
- Tzeltal: “practice illicit relationship with women”
- Huehuetla Tepehua: “live with some one who isn’t your wife”
- Central Tarahumara: “sleep with a strange partner”
- Hopi: “tamper with marriage” (source for this and seven above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- German: Ehebrecher or “marriage breaker” / Ehe brechen or “breaking of marriage” (source: Zetzsche)
- In Falam Chin the term for “adultery” is the phrase for “to share breast” which relates to adultery by either sex. (Source: David Clark)
- In Ixcatlán Mazatec a specification needs to be made to include both genders. (Source: Robert Bascom)
- Likewise in Hiligaynon: “commit-adultery-with-a-man or commit-adultery-with-a-woman” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
See also adultery, adulterer, adulteress, and you shall not commit adultery.
The Greek in Romans 8:26 that is translated as “intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words” is translated as “is the one who asks in our place when we just sigh, we do not find the words to say” in Highland Totonac, as “when we cannot speak, we groan in our hearts, then the Holy Spirit himself pleads to God for us” in Hopi, as “instead, the very good Spirit of God himself for us asking speaks with God. And he only speaks with groanings, he does not speak so we can understand” in Central Tarahumara, and as “the Holy Spirit himself groans in our hearts in a way which we cannot tell how he does, because he very much prays to God for us” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui. (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
“Too deep for words” is translated in Catholic Mandarin Chinese Sigao version and the Protestant Union Version with a Chinese idiom: wúkě yányù (無可言喻 / 无可言喻), lit. “cannot (expressed in) metaphors.” (Source: Toshikazu S. Foley in Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies, 2011, p. 45ff.)
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “glorify God” in English is rendered as “wake God up” in Guerrero Amuzgo.
Other translations are “say that God is very great” (Central Tarahumara), “say how good God is” (Tzotzil), “speak about God as good” (Tzeltal), “give God a great name” (Highland Puebla Nahuatl), “give God highness” (Kipsigis), “take God out high” (in the sense of “to exalt”) (Huautla Mazatec), “make great / exalt” (Toraja-Sa’dan, Javanese), “lift up God’s brightness” (Kpelle), “show God to be great” (Central Pame), “make God shine” (Wayuu), “make God’s name big” (Huastec), “make God important” (Isthmus Zapotec) (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida), or “say to God: You are of good heart” (Huichol) (source: Nida 1964, p. 228).
In Waama this is translated as “make God’s name big.” (For the translation into Waama, five categories of verb doxazo and the noun doxa were found that were all translated differently, see glorify (reveal God’s or Jesus’ glory to people)).
In Shipibo-Conibo it is translated as “brag about God” (“This may strike some at first as being an unspiritual approach, but it surely is Pauline, for Paul used the word ‘to brag’ when he declared his confidence in Jesus Christ and in the salvation of the world which God wrought through His Son.”) (Source: Nida 1952, p. 162)
See also Let us praise his glory! (image).
The Greek that is translated as “building up” in many English versions is translated in Chol with a term that specifically indicates to make others better (here and elsewhere, in their faith in Christ). (Source: Robert Bascom)
In Huehuetla Tepehua it is translated as “have more confidence in Christ,” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “cause that their hearts grow strong with reference to the way of God,” in Yatzachi Zapotec as “to become stronger in their faith,” and in Central Tarahumara as “so that they can believe better yet.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
