Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 3:7:
- Uma: “So, maybe there are some who think like this: ‘If it is really because of our crooked actions that God’s uprightness ends up being more apparent and he is praised, why does he punish us because of our sins?'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “Perhaps you say, ‘As for me, even if I lie, yet because of my lie it becomes even more clear that God does not lie therefore he is praised. Na, why does God judge me that I am a sinner and-what’s-more he is praised because of my sin?'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And there are also some foolish people who say, ‘It’s better if we tell lies because when people realize that we are liars they will think that God, by contrast, is not a liar, and they will praise Him and that will be very good. And if by means of our lies it is made clear that the words of God are by contrast true, why are we still punished because of our lies?'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “There is perhaps someone who is answering-back saying, ‘I oughtn’t to be condemned to be punished on account of my lies, because on account of my lies, the trueness of God’s word is increasingly seen and he is honored/praised thereby.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “But if one lies, then it makes it apparent that God’s word is supremely good because He never lies. Then is it possible that we say it is not right to be judged for our sins?” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “And there is another foolish word that those people say. They say we can know that very fine are the true words that God speaks. Because very different is his word from the lying words which we speak. So say they. So therefore it is good that we tell lies and it isn’t right that God should say that we bear sin, say they.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 15:17:
- Uma: “From my connection with Kristus Yesus, I am proud [my heart is big] to recount the work that I have worked for God.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “Because I belong already to Isa Almasi, I am not ashamed to make well-known about what I do for God.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And because of Jesus Christ’s help to me, I’m not ashamed to tell about everything that I’ve been able to do as a servant of God.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “So because of my being-one-with Cristo Jesus, I can boast-about my aforementioned serving God.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “I thank Jesus Christ that the work I do for God has turned out well.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- Miahuatlán Zapotec: “Therefore I feel it is all right if I become a little happy [polite way to talk about boasting] concerning the things that Jesus Christ did for you through my agency.”
- Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “And thanks to Christ Jesus I can speak well concerning my work which is the work of God.” (Source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 3:23:
- Uma: “For we have all sinned, and we are not fit/worth to get/obtain a share in God’s glory [lit. God’s bigness of life].” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “All have equally sinned, there is not even one of them praised by God.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “All mankind have sinned and they do not count even as much as one fingernail toward the very high rank of God.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “Because all of us have sinned, and we cannot attain/reach God’s goodness.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “For all people have sin. No one comes out doing that good God wants that people do.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- Tzeltal: “We all have sin. Equally we have not been able to equal the goodness of God.”
- Huehuetla Tepehua: “All men have sinned. There is no one really straight like God has measured it.”
- Isthmus Zapotec: “We have all of us sinned and now not one of us is worth anything in God’s sight.”
- Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “And all of them have committed sin and God can’t say a good word about any of them because all of them fail to become good.” (Source for this and three above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
The Greek, Latin, Ge’ez, and Hebrew that is translated with “joy” or “gladness” in English is translated with various strategies:
- Baoulé: “a song in the stomach” (see also peace (inner peace))
- Bambara: “the spirit is made sweet”
- Kpelle: “sweet heart”
- Tzeltal: “the good taste of one’s heart”
- Uduk: “good to the stomach”
- Mískito: “the liver is wide open” (“happily letting the pleasures flooding in upon it”) (source for this and above: Nida 1952)
- Mairasi: “good liver” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- Noongar: koort-kwabba-djil or “heart very good” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
- Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “refreshed heart” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.).
- Hausa Common Language Bible: farin ciki or “white stomach.” Other languages that use the same expression include Southern Birifor (pʋpɛl), Dera (popolok awo), Reshe (ɾipo ɾipuhã). (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
See also Seat of the Mind for traditional views of “ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling,” happiness / joy, and exceeding joy.
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 4:5:
- Uma: “But our connection/relationship with God is not that. For it is not because of our behavior that God receives us. If we believe in God, even though we are wrong/guilty, he says we are straight in his sight just because of our faith in him.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “If/when a person does good so that, he says/thinks, God will forgive his sin and God will consider him straight, he is really wrong/mistaken. For it is not because of our (dual) good deeds but because of our (dual) trusting God, the one who forgives sins, that we (incl.) are forgiven and considered straight by God.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And God’s considering us (incl.) righteous is not like that because it’s just His favor to us. The reason God considers us (incl.) to be righteous is not because we carried out what He told us to do, but rather only because we believed in Him who is able to make transgressors righteous.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “But if a person doesn’t work-for his salvation but rather believes in God that he is the one who counts a sinner as righteous, his faith is the reason God counts him as righteous.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “But God does not tell us that we must do work in order to clear our sins. Because he gives us the favor of clearing our sins. It is just that we believe what God says will happen.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- Tzeltal: “But the one who believes in the one who sets free from their sins those who are sinners, it is now through his belief of heart that he will have his heart made straight, not through his good work which he has done.”
- Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “But we receive freely as a favor that which God does for us, and God is able to say that our hearts are straight when we still lack of becoming entirely good in our hearts. Well then, we believe in God, and on account of our belief, God reckons up that our hearts are straight.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- Chichewa (interconfessional translation, 1999): “But a person having believed, instead of depending on his/her works, God who views sinful people that they are not guilty, that person on believing [a syntactic, object front-shift], God views him/her that s/he is right[eous] in his eyes.” (Source: Wendland 1998, p. 112)
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 4:22:
- Uma: “Because of that faith of his, there is written in the Holy Book long ago that says: ‘God said Abraham was straight in his sight.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “Therefore because Ibrahim really believed God’s promise to him, ‘he was considered straight by God’ as is written in the holy-book.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And because of that faith of Abraham, it was written long ago that God considered him to be righteous.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “And this faith of his was the reason that God counted him as righteous.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “Concerning the faith Abraham had, this is why God cleared his sins.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- Tabasco Chontal: “That’s why God told Abraham that he would accept him, because of that which he believed.”
- Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “Therefore on account of his believing in God, God reckoned up that his heart was straight.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).
Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).
In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
See also nations.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 8:38:
- Uma: “‘You dwell in the midst of evil people who do not follow me. But who[ever] is embarrassed to confess/admit that they follow me and are embarrassed of my teaching, I also will be embarrassed to confess/admit that he is my follower when I come from heaven. At that time, I the Child of Mankind will descend here with the holy angels, I will shine with the power of my Father.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “Whoever is ashamed to say-in-front-of the people that he is my disciple, and that he follows my teaching, – and the people nowadays most of them are sinful and do not follow God, – I, the Son of Mankind, I will also be ashamed to recognize him as my disciple, when I come back here together with the holy angels surrounded by the brightness/glory of my Father God.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Anyone who is ashamed of me and ashamed of my teaching in this time when many people are wicked and reject God, I, the Older Sibling of Mankind, will be ashamed of him also when I return with my angels and I am clothed in the powerful shiningness of my Father God.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “People nowadays are thoroughly sinful. They have-left God to go look-for other god/gods. Whoever of them rejects me who am Child of a Person and my teachings, I will also reject him when I come, my companions being my holy angels and showing my Father’s honor.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “The truth is, as for the mass of people today, their nature/ways are evil and they really don’t follow/obey the will of God. Well since it’s like that, whoever will be ashamed/embarrassed to submit to me and admit-the-truth of my word, then really I, who am the One From Heaven Born of Man/human, will be ashamed of him on my returning here, it then being evident that the praiseworthiness/glory of my Father is with me, and my companions being the very-far-from-ordinary angels.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “For these people are people who have left God and who do sin. And there are those who won’t associate themselves with me and my words before these people. And I’m the true relative of the people. But I won’t associate myself with the one not willing to associate himself with me. And so it will be when I come. I will become all glorious. And the angels who are clean in heart will come with me.”
- Palantla Chinantec: “So don’t make that you won’t know me or my word if you want me to recognize you when I return, I who have become your fellow-man. Because I will make that I don’t know whoever made not to know me before their fellows who don’t fear God and are guilty of sin. Because I will return holding my Father’s staff [that is, not holding a literal staff but symbolical of authority], angels of heaven with me.” (Source for this and above: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
