The Greek (and Hebrew) that is translated on many English versions as “Zeal for your house will consume me” is translated in various ways in other languages:
Yanesha’: “My protectiveness for your house completely possesses me.”
Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac: “So very much I want the house of God to be honored. And because of this I am treated with contempt.”
Tenango Otomi: “I look with respect on your house, even though I lose my life.”
Lalana Chinantec: “I cannot stand it, so much do I value the house where they worship You.” (Source for this and above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
Uma: “My heart boiled, because I love your (sing.) House, Lord.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “My love for your house o God, is like a fire in my liver which is destroying me.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Very great is my cherishing of your house, God, and that’s why it has become a reason for giving me a very painful breath.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “My extreme concern-for (lit. hurting-for) your (sing.) house, that will be my death.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “I really uphold/stand-up-for very much your house where you are worshiped even if it will cause my life/breath to be severed.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “I look with respect on your house, even though I lose my life.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
In Gbaya, the notion of “consume” (or “burn like a fire” in the Good News Translation) is emphasized with lɛk-lɛk, an ideophone “that is often used to describe the flames of a fire.”
Philip Noss (in The Bible Translator 1976, p. 100ff. ) explains: “A descriptive device common to Gbaya oral literature that is often found in translations of the Psalms is the ideophone. The ideophone may be identified with onomatopoeia and other sound words frequently seen in French and English comic strips, but in Gbaya and other African languages it comprises a class of words with a very wide range of meaning and usage. They may function verbally, substantively, or in a modifying role similar to adverbs and adjectives. They describe anything that may be experienced: action, sound, color, quality, smell, or emotion. In oral literature they are used not only with great frequency but also with great creativity.
Conforming to Gbaya literary style, the team used ideophones in its translation of the Psalms, although an average of less than two per psalm is a considerably lower rate of occurrence than in Gbaya narrative. There were two reasons for this limited usage. The first was that the Psalms are poetry rather than action narrative where their occurrence would be more common. The second was that in a tale being performed for artistic reasons, the ideophone may predominate over the action, whereas in the psalm the ideophone must complement without dominating or overshadowing the message. However, since the ideophone is an integral part of Gbaya literary expression, it could not be omitted. To do so would have rendered the translation colorless and unliterary.”
The Greek in Acts 24:16 that is translated “clear conscience towards God and all people” or similar in English is translated as “I do not owe either God or man” in Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac. (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
The Greek that is translated “born again” or “born from above” in English is translated in Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac as “have new life,” in Tenango Otomi as “live anew,” in Tojolabal as “become new like a little baby” (source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125), or in Iu Mien as ganh siang-yungz jiex or “again newly-born pass-through” (source: Arisawa 2017, p. 515)
The EnglishThe Translator’s New Testament (publ. 1973) translates this term in a way to cover both sides of its ambiguity: reborn from above.
The now commonly-used English idiom “born again” (meaning to be revived) was first coined in 1382 in the English translation by John Wycliffe (in the spelling borun ayen). (Source: Crystal 2010, p. 288)
For other idioms in English that were coined by Bible translation, see here.
The Greek that is translated into English as “anchor” in English is, due to non-existing nautical language, rendered as kayo’ barko (“an instrument that keeps the boat from drifting”) in Chol (source: Steven 1979, p. 76), “iron hooks” (“that make the boat stop”) in Isthmus Mixe, “irons called ‘anchors’ with ropes” in Teutila Cuicatec (source for this and above: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.), “weights, and thus they were able to make the boat stand” in Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac (source: Larson 1998, p. 99), “an iron attached to a rope attached to the boat so that it may not drift away” in Lalana Chinantec (source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation, March 1965, p. 2ff.), “a thing that makes the water vehicle stand still” in Kamwe (source: Roger Mohrlang in here), “the metal piece that was in the water that detained the boat” in Eastern Highland Otomi (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), “iron crab” in Bawm Chin (source: David Clark), and “big canoe stopping metal” in Kouya.
Eddie Arthur tells the story of the translation into Kouya: “A slightly more prosaic example comes from Paul’s sea voyages in the Book of Acts. In Acts 27, when Paul’s ship was facing a huge storm, there are several references to throwing out the anchor to save the ship. Now the Kouya live in a tropical rain-forest and have no vessels larger than dug-out canoes used for fishing on rivers. The idea of an anchor was entirely foreign to them. However, it was relatively easy to devise a descriptive term along the lines of ‘boat stopping metal’ that captured the essential nature of the concept. This was fine when we were translating the word anchor in its literal sense. However, in Hebrews 6:19 we read that hope is an anchor for our souls. It would clearly make no sense to use ‘boat stopping metal’ at this point as the concept would simply not have any meaning. So in this verse we said that faith was like the foundation which keeps a house secure. One group working in the Sahel region of West Africa spoke of faith being like a tent peg which keeps a tent firm against the wind. I hope you can see the way in which these two translations capture the essence of the image in the Hebrews verse while being more appropriate to the culture.”
In Toposa a term is used that originally meant “pole, log.” “In its most common meaning nyeloyit̥i refers to a pole or a log that is used to tie animals to in order to slow them down and yet allow them to move about for grazing. It is this resemblance to anchors, especially drift anchors, that helps the audience to understand the function of anchors in seafaring.” (Source: Schröder 2026, p. 101)
Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing an anchor in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)
The Greek in John 3:17 that is often translated as “condemn the world” in English is translated as “to punish those of the world” in Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac and as “to condemn the people of the world because they had sinned” in Lalana Chinantec. (Source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125)
The Greek in John 14:10 that is translated as “I am in the Father and the Father in me” in English is translarted as “I am with my Father and my Father is with me” in Chol, “My Father and I are one” in Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac, and “My Father and I are the same” in Ojitlán Chinantec. (Source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)
The Greek in Acts 27:39 that is translated as “bay with a beach” in English is translated as “hand of the sea and it had sand” in Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac and as “where the sea made an opening into the land, with a level place next to the sea” in Rincón Zapotec. (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
“Bay” on its own is translated as “edge of the land where water was more quiet” in Tetelcingo Nahuatl. (Source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation, March 1965, p. 2-20)
