The Greek in Romans 8:21 that is translated as “bondage to decay” or similar in English is translated as “they continually die” in Highland Totonac, as “the hand of rottenness” Isthmus Zapotec, and as “every animal must die, every tree must decay, every herb must dry up” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui. (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Language-specific Insights
inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Mark 4:38 / Luke 8:24)
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse (“we are perishing” in English translations), Yagua translators selected the inclusive form, including Jesus (the Sierra Totonac and the Tok Pisin translators did as well). The Yagua translators justify this by saying, “Did the disciples think of their Lord as about to perish with them, or were they selfishly only thinking of their own safety, or did they feel He at least would not perish? We translated this one with the inclusive, giving the disciples the benefit of the doubt, since they had waited so long to waken Him, they couldn’t have been too selfish in their thinking.” (Source: Paul Powlison in Notes on Translation with Drills, p. 165ff.)
Different versions of the Bible in Marathi have chosen different solutions for this. The versions by Pandita Ramabai (NT publ. 1912) chose the exclusive form and B. N. Athavle the inclusive form in his translation (publ. 1931). The Bible Society’s version (initially the British, later the Indian BS) in their revision of the 1950s also chose the exclusive form, despite strong protests of the revision committee’s chair H.G. Howard who interpreted Jesus’ strong rebuke of the disciples in succeeding verses due to the fact that the disciples had included him in their worries, which would necessitate the inclusive form. (Source: H.G. Howard in The Bible Translator 1925, p. 25ff. )
if God is for us
The Greek in Romans 8:31 that is translated as “if God is for us” in English is translated as
- “if God is in fellowship with us” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui
- “if God does not abandon us” in Miahuatlán Zapotec
- “if God is united with us” in Yatzachi Zapotec
- “God is the one who helps us” in Huehuetla Tepehua
- “God himself loves us” in Teutila Cuicatec
- “if God is in our favor” in Isthmus Zapotec
- “if God is our helper” in Highland Totonac (source for this above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- “if God is ours” in Kupsabiny (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
- “if God is on our side” in Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006
- “we can say that God is really defending us” in Hiligaynon (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
- “now we are friends with God” in Tenango Otomi (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- “if Above-One is the One who guards us” in Mairasi (source: Enggavoter 2004)
not based on knowledge
The Greek in Romans 10:2 that is translated as “not based on knowledge” or similar in English is translated as “don’t understand how God likes it” in Huehuetla Tepehua, as “not in the correct way” in Highland Totonac, as “don’t know what God wants” in Yatzachi Zapotec (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), and in Elhomwe as “real knowledge.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
fit, worthy
The Greek that is rendered into “worthy” or “fit” in English versions is translated into Sierra Totonac as “proper” / “chief” — “I am not proper / chief enough.” (2nd translation into Sierra Totonac of 1999.)
See also worthy and not worthy / not fit.
eternal life
The Greek and Ge’ez that is translated in English as “eternal life” is translated in various ways:
- Berik: “good living forever” (source: Kroneman 2004, p. 536)
- Asháninka: “keep on living”
- Aguaruna: “will always live”
- Yanesha’: “immortal state forever”
- North Alaskan Inupiatun: “endless life”
- Tsafiki: “live forever with God”
- Lalana Chinantec: “heart will be alive forever” (source for this and five above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125)
- Tagalog: buhay na walang hanggan: “life which has no boundary”
- Iloko: biagna nga agnanayon: “continuing life” (source for this and one above: G. Henry Waterman in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 24ff. )
- German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989): “never-ending life”
- Huehuetla Tepehua: “life forever up in heaven” (source: Larson 1998, p. 279)
- Kele: loiko: “survival: enduring through crisis, catastrophe and death” (source: William Ford in The Bible Translator 1957, p. 203ff. ).
- Highland Totonac: “have life, the kind that is for always”
- Central Mazahua: “live continually” (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- Samoan: ola e fa‘avavau or “life until the end of time” (source: John Bradshaw in The Bible Translator 1967, p. 75ff. )
- Mairasi: “life fruit” (source: Enggavoter 2004).
Lloyd Peckham explains the Mairasi translation: “In secret stories, not knowable to women nor children, there was a magical fruit of life. If referred to vaguely, without specifying the specific ‘fruit,’ it can be an expression for eternity.”
See also eternity / forever and salvation.
Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Eternal Life in John .
adultery
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.
despise
The Greek that is translated as “despise” in English is translated as
- “not think anything of” in Huehuetla Tepehua
- “he is of no account to you” in Tzeltal
- “say you are better” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui
- “hate” in Yatzachi Zapotec
- “speak evil of” in Sayula Popoluca
- “reject” in Highland Totonac, as “not respect” in Central Tarahumara
- “act superior to” in Isthmus Zapotec (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- “their eyes mocked them” in Bariai (source: Bariai Back Translation)