Language-specific Insights

resurrection

The Greek and Latin that is translated as “resurrection” in English is translated in Chicahuaxtla Triqui and Pohnpeian as “live-up” (i.e. return to life) (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel) and in Iloko as panagungar: a term that stems “from the word ‘agungar,’ an agricultural term used to describe the coming back to life of a plant which was wilting but which has been watered by the farmer, or of a bulb which was apparently dead but grows again.” (Source: G. Henry Waterman in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 24ff. )

Likewise, in Matumbi yu’ya carries the meaning of “raise from the dead, resuscitate, come back from near death” and is used for dry plants that come back to life when you water them or sick children who revive after being healed. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)

In Estado de México Otomi, it is translated as “people will be raised from the dead,” in Teutila Cuicatec as “the dead having to come to life again,” in San Mateo del Mar Huave as “arose from the grave” (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), and in Kriol as gidap laibala brom dedbala or “get up alive from the dead” (source: Sam Freney in this article .)

See also resurrect / rise again (Jesus).

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Resurrection .

if God is for us

The Greek 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)

ambition, goal

The term that is rendered as “my ambition” or “my goal” in English is translation into Hakha Chin with an appropriate idiom drawn from the language of hunting in the forest: “the animal I kill” (source: David Clark)

It is translated as “put heart into” in Tzeltal and “very desirous,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), and in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) with Ehrenpflicht or “honorary obligation” (in Romans 15:20)

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

sexual promiscuity

The Greek that is translated in English as “sexual promiscuity” or similar is translated as

See also sexual immorality / fornication and adultery.

do not be conformed to this world𖺗 but be transformed by the renewal of your mind

The Greek 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, aw “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.)

slanderer

The Greek that is translated as “slanderer” or “backbiter” or similar in English is translated as “raised up lies about their fellow people” in Central Mazahua, as “talk ugly about their fellows” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui, as “those who give a vicious twist to what they hear” in Highland Totonac, and as “hunted people’s sin” in Huehuetla Tepehua. (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)

In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) it is translated as sie leisten Spitzeldienste or “they are informers.”