Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Corinthians 1:4:
Uma: “He strengthens our (excl.) hearts in all kinds of difficulties that hit us (excl.), so that with the strength that we (excl.) receive from him, we (excl.) strengthen the hearts of others who are in difficulties of whatever kind.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Whatever our (excl.) trouble is he encourages us (excl.) so that we (excl.) also know how to encourage our (excl.) companions when they are in all kinds of troubles. We (excl.) can help them because we (excl.) have already experienced help from God.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “He helps us (incl.) in all of our (incl.) troubles and because of this, we (incl.) can help other people who have any kind of trouble. The help that we (incl.) give, it is just the same as that which God helped us (incl.).” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “He comforts us in all our hardships/sufferings so that we will also know-how to comfort our companions when they have whatever-kind of hardship and we will be able-to-help-them -with that same help of God to us.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “He really does not leave us alone in our hardships, but rather he comforts (lit. causes-to-be-happy) our mind/inner-being, so that we also can cause-to-be-happy whoever has hardship. For whatever God gives us by-which-to comfort our mind/inner-being, that is indeed what we can give our companions who are being hardshipped.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Each time we suffer, it is God who comforts our hearts. But he wants that we also will comfort the hearts of our fellow men when we see them suffer. Let us do to our fellow men just like God does to us, in that he comforts our hearts.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Highland Totonac: “He is the one who comforts us as we are in trouble, so that we too may comfort others who are found in whatever trouble the same comfort with which God has comforted us.” (Source: Herman Aschmann in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 171ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 1:6:
Uma: “So also you Kristen people there in the village of Roma. God called you as well to become the portion of Yesus Kristus.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “You (pl.) the ones who are there in the place Roma are also included. You were chosen by God so that you belong to Isa Almasi.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And as for you there in the town of Rome, you’re included also in these people, for God has made a way so that you might believe and you might become the subjects of Jesus Christ.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Even you also there in Roma, you are included-with the people whom God has called/invited to be joined to Jesu Cristo.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Of these people whom God called to believe in Jesus Christ, you also were called by God to believe in Jesus Christ now.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Tzeltal: “As, for example, you whom Jesus Christ has called to himself.”
Highland Totonac: “And of these also were some of you who have been chosen in order that you will belong to Christ.”
Sayula Popoluca: “And you likewise I tell you that God called you so that Jesus Christ could make you his own.”
Isthmus Zapotec: “And among those people (I’ve just mentioned), you (pl.) are included because God has spoken to you that you should become Jesus Christ’s people (or followers).” (Source for this and three above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Corinthians 1:5:
Uma: “The suffering that Kristus got, much of that also we (excl.) get. But much also is the strength of heart that we (excl.) get from Kristus.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Because our (excl.) being persecuted is great like the persecution of Almasi, God’s helping us (excl.) is also great because of Almasi.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Even though we have to suffer great difficulty because we’ve been made one with Christ, also because of Christ, God’s help to us is big.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Because the manyness of our being-hardshipped like the sufferings of Cristo, exactly the same is the bigness of what God uses-to-help us because of our being-united with Cristo.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “For this is the truth, no matter how many are the hardships we endure because of our being united/tied-together with Cristo, much more plentiful is the comfort of mind/inner-being that we receive because of our being united/tied-together with him.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “When we suffer much like what suffering Christ went through, yet Christ will abundantly comfort our hearts then.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Highland Totonac: “Because just as we have more than enough of His sufferings in the same way we have more than enough of that which is Christ’s means of comfort.” (Source: Herman Aschmann in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 171ff. )
The Greek that is often translated as “church” in English is translated into Avaric as imanl’urazul ahlu: “the community of believers” or “the believing people.”
Magomed-Kamil Gimbatov and Yakov Testelets (in The Bible Translator 1996, p. 434ff. ) talk about the genesis of this term (click or tap here to read more):
“The word ‘Church’ presents particular difficulties, as we might expect when we think that even many Christians do not understand it correctly. When people today say ‘church,’ they often mean a particular building, or an organization consisting chiefly of clergy (priests and monks). It is even harder to find a word or combination of words which adequately translates the meaning for people unfamiliar with Christianity. Surprisingly, the Greek word ekklesia, indicating in the classical language ‘an assembly of the people,’ ‘a gathering of citizens,’ has come into Avar and other Dagestani languages in the form kilisa. This, like the word qanch (‘cross’), is an ancient borrowing, presumably from the time before the arrival of Islam, when Dagestan came under the influence of neighboring Christian states. In modern usage, however, this word indicates a place of Christian worship. Thus it is completely inappropriate as a translation of its New Testament ancestor ekklesia.
“We were obliged to look at various words which are closer to the meaning of the Greek. Some of these words are dandel’i (‘meeting’), danderussin (‘assembly’), the Arabic-derived mazhlis (‘meeting, conference’), zhama’at (‘society, community’), ahlu (‘race, people, family, group of people united by a common goal or interest’, as in the Arabic phrase ahlu-l-kitab ‘people of the Book’ or ‘people of the Scriptures’), which describes both Jews and Christians, and ummat (‘people, tribe’). In Islamic theology the phrase ‘Mohammed’s ummat’ means the universal community of Muslims, the Muslim world, in the same way as the Christian world is known as ‘Isa’s ummat.’ None of these descriptions on their own, without explanation, can be used to translate the word ‘Church’ in the New Testament. Thus, after long consideration, we adopted the phrase imanl’urazul ahlu, meaning ‘the community of believers,’ ‘the believing people,’ This translation corresponds closely to New Testament teaching about the Church.
“It is interesting that the same word ahlu with the meaning ‘tribe, community’ has been used by translators for different reasons in the introduction to the Gospel of Luke in order to translate the expression in the original Greek pepleroforemenon en hemin pragmaton (πεπληροφορημένων ἐν ἡμῖν πραγμάτων), which the Russian Synodal translation renders ‘about the events well-known amongst us’ (Luke 1:1). The expression ‘amongst us’ cannot be translated literally into Avar, but has to be rendered ‘among our people’; and here the same term was used as for the word ‘church’, literally ‘among our tribe, community (ahlu).'”
In Kamo “church” is fang-balla (“owners of writing-people”) when referring to the church community and “house of writing-people” when referring to a church building. David Frank explains: “In Kamo culture, Christianity was associated with writing, so Christianity is called balla, which they say means ‘people who write.’ Christianity is balla, and Christians are called fang-balla, which means ‘owners of Christianity.’ That is the term that is used for the church, in the sense of people, rather than a building. In Philemon 1:1b-2a, Paul says he is writing ‘To our friend and fellow worker Philemon, and to the church (fang-balla ‘owners of Christianity) that meet in your house.’ The word fang “owner’ is very productive in the Kamo language. A disciple is an ‘owner of learning,’ an apostle is an ‘owner of sending,’ a believer is an ‘owner of truth,’ a hypocrite is an ‘owner of seeing eyes.’ The expression ‘house of writing-people’ is used in Matthew 16:18, which reads in Kamo, ‘And so I tell you Peter, you are a rock, and on top of this rock foundation I will build my house of writing-people, and never even death will not be able to overcome it.” (See also Peter – rock)
In Bacama there also is a differentiation between the building (vɨnə hiutə: “house of prayer”) and the community (ji-kottə: “followers”) (source: David Frank in this blog post ).
In 16th-century Classical Nahuatl, a transliteration from Spanish (Santa Yglesia or Santa Iglesia) is typically used rather than a translation, making the concept take on a personified meaning. Ottman (p. 169) explains: “The church building, or more precisely the church complex with its associated patio, has a Nahuatl name in common usage — generally teopan, something like ‘god-place,’ in contradistinction to teocalli, ‘god-house,’ applied to a prehispanic temple — but the abstract sense is always Santa Iglesia, a Spanish proper name like ‘Dios’ or ‘Santa María’, and like ‘Santa María’ often called ‘our mother.’ As a personified ‘mother,’ in the European tradition as well as in Nahuatl, She instructs Her children or chastises them; as Bride of Christ, She both longs for Her heavenly rest and bears witness to it, in the ‘always-already’ of eschatological time; as successor to the Synagogue, the blindfolded, broken-sceptred elder sister who accompanies Her in painting and sculpture, She represents the triumphant rule of truth. ‘The Church’ can mean the clerical hierarchy; it can also, or simultaneously, mean the assembly of the faithful. It dispenses grace to its members, living and dead, yet it is also enriched by them, living and dead, existing not only on earth but in purgatory and in heaven.”
In Lisu the building (“church”) is called “house of prayer” (source: Arrington 2020, p. 196) whereas in Highland Totonac the community is referred as “those who gather together” (source: Hermann Aschmann in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 171ff. ), in Huehuetla Tepehua as “those who gather together who have confidence in Christ” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), in Uma as “Christian people” (source: Uma Back Translation), in Kankanaey as “the congregation of God’s people” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation), and in Tagbanwa as “you whom God separated-out as his people because of your being-united/tied-together with Jesus Christ” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).
In American Sign Language, “church” (as in the community of believers) is made up of the combination of the signs for “Jesus-into-heart” (signifying a believer), followed by the sign for “group.” (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Church” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
While British Sign Language also uses a sign that focuses on a group of people believing in Jesus (see here ), another sign that it uses combines the signs for “ringing the (church) bells” and a “group of people.” (Source: Anna Smith)
“Church” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 9:30:
Uma: “So, my words are like this: People who aren’t Israel people, they did not hunt for way to become straight in God’s sight. But there are some of them who became straight in his sight. God made them straight in his sight because of their faith.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then, what do we (dual) say about this? What we (dual) say is that the people not Yahudi, they did not aspire-to/try-to be forgiven and be considered straight in the sight of God. But they are now the ones forgiven and considered by God as straight because of their trust in Isa Almasi.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “What I am trying to say here is: as for the people who are not Jews, even though it never entered their minds that they would be considered righteous by God, there were some of them who by means of their faith, were made righteous just the same;” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “This then is the summary (lit. gathering-together) of these-things that I have said. The Gentiles who were not striving to be-made-righteous in God’s sight, they nevertheless gained the righteousness that is based on their faith in Cristo.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Thus the word is that the people who are not Jews are the people who did not seek as how to get right with God. But they were put right with him because they believed.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Highland Totonac: “Well, what does this mean? It is this, that the outsider people who were not searching how to toe the line to come out free, they are the ones who found it, that is, this coming out free that has its beginning in faith.”
Huehuetla Tepehua: “Well, what shall we say? This lets us know that those who aren’t Israelites found the straight life before God even though they didn’t hunt for it, They found the straight life when they put their confidence in Christ.” (Source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Corinthians 1:6:
Uma: “If we (excl.) get suffering, God uses-it-as-a-road so that we (excl.) can strengthen your hearts, relatives, so that you get goodness [salvation], for you also get sufferings like what we (excl.) get. So, when God strengthens our (excl.) hearts in our (excl.) sufferings, he will also strengthen your hearts, so that you will endure in suffering.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “We (excl.) endure persecution so that we (excl.) can encourage you and so that you will be saved. We (excl.) are/were helped by God so that you will also be included in his help. So then you really persevere enduring trouble like the trouble that we (excl.) are experiencing.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “When God allows us (excl.) to suffer hardship, the reason he allows us to suffer is so that you might be better off and that you might be given eternal life. And in the same way also, when we (excl.) are helped by God, this comes to be also His help for you. And by means of this, He strengthens your faith so that you also may be able to endure difficulty just like we are caused to endure.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Therefore the hardship that we (excl.) experience leads to the strengthening of your minds and your salvation, and the comfort moreover that we (excl.) experience leads to our (excl.) knowing-how to comfort you in our (incl.) difficulties so that you will be able to endure them.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well since it’s like that, even though we (excl.) are hardshipped because of this responsibility of ours(excl.) of teaching, this is for your benefit and salvation. And because God comforts us, we can also comfort you so that you also will endure the hardships with a good mind/inner-being that you are experiencing, just like us also.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “I am suffering now in order that I can comfort your hearts and your souls will be saved. When God comforts my heart, then you can find out how also your hearts will be comforted and your souls will be saved. Because when you go through the suffering like I have gone through, I want that you endure well all the suffering you must go through.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Highland Totonac: “But if we should be in trouble, it will turn out for your comfort and good, which will be made to become good for you when patiently you bear that same trouble which we also suffer. However, if we are comforted, it also is just that it might result in your comfort and good.” (Source: Herman Aschmann in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 171ff. )
Eugene Nida wrote the following about the translation of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek terms that are typically translated with “prophet” in English:
“The tendency in many translations is to use ‘to foretell the future’ for ‘prophesy,’ and ‘one who foretells the future’ for ‘prophet.’ This is not always a recommended usage, particularly if such expressions denote certain special native practices of spirit contact and control. It is true, of course, that prophets of the Bible did foretell the future, but this was not always their principal function. One essential significance of the Greek word prophētēs is ‘one who speaks forth,’ principally, of course, as a forth-teller of the Divine will. A translation such as ‘spokesman for God’ may often be employed profitably.” (1947, p. 234f.)
Following is a list of (back-) translations from other languages (click or tap for details):
Ayutla Mixtec: “one who talks as God’s representative”
Isthmus Mixe: “speaker for God” (source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Mezquital Otomi / Paasaal: “God’s messenger” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff. and Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Noongar: Warda Marridjiny or “News Traveling” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Kutu: mtula ndagu or “one who gives the prediction of the past and the future” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ebira: ọnịsẹ, a neologism that combines the prefix ọn for “a person” with ịsẹ for “prediction” (source: Scholz /Scholz 2015, p. 49)
French 1985 translation by Chouraqui: inspiré or “inspired one” (“someone in whom God has breathed [Latin: in + spiro]) (source: Watson 2023, p. 45)
Cherokee: adolehosgi (ᎠᏙᎴᎰᏍᎩ) or “discoverer of things,” a “term that was was traditionally applied to Cherokee medicine men or women who used divining.” (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 49)
In Ixcatlán Mazatec a term is used that specifically includes women. (Source: Robert Bascom)
“In some instances these spiritual terms result from adaptations reflecting the native life and culture. Among the Northern Grebo people of Liberia, a missionary wanted some adequate term for ‘prophet,’ and she was fully aware that the native word for ‘soothsayer’ or ‘diviner’ was no equivalent for the Biblical prophet who spoke forth for God. Of course, much of what the prophets said referred to the future, and though this was an essential part of much of their ministry, it was by no means all. The right word for the Gbeapo people would have to include something which would not only mean the foretelling of important events but the proclamation of truth as God’s representative among the people. At last the right word came; it was ‘God’s town-crier.’ Every morning and evening the official representative of the chief goes through the village crying out the news, delivering the orders of the chief, and announcing important coming events. ‘God’s town-crier’ would be the official representative of God, announcing to the people God’s doings, His commands, and His pronouncements for their salvation and well-being. For the Northern Grebo people the prophet is no weird person from forgotten times; he is as real as the human, moving message of the plowman Amos, who became God’s town-crier to a calloused people.” (source: Nida 1952, p. 20)
In British Sign Language it is is translated with a sign that depicts a message coming from God to a person (the upright finger) and then being passed on to others. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Prophet” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:
Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))
Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:
“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”
