The Hebrew that is rendered in English as “proverbs” (or “Proverbs” as the title of the book) is translated into Pökoot as ngötïnyö (or Ngötïnyö), which refers to use of figurative language that is used in such a way that things are being said in an indirect way. At the same time they communicate general wisdom. (Source: Gerrit van Steenbergen)
In the Tzeltal translation for the dialectal variant of Highland Tzeltal (Biblia Tzeltal yu’un Oxchuc soc Tenejapa, 2001), a term based on “head wisdom” is used. (See wisdom (Proverbs)).
In Literary Chinese and Mandarin Chinese use 箴言 / zhēnyán which means “motto” or “proverb,” but originally means “word of warning.” A number of other East Asian languages, including Japanese (箴言 / shingen), Korean (잠언), or Vietnamese (châm ngôn) use the same term. (Source: Zetzsche)
The Greek in Mark 4:20 that is translated as “accept” or “receive” in English is translated as “put it in their hearts” (Tzeltal), “take the word with truth” (Loma), or “to hear and understand” (Tumbuka).
The Greek, Latin and Ge’ez that is translated as “all the gentiles” or “all nations” in English is translated as “all people” in Tzeltal, as “all mankind” in Highland Totonac, or “the peoples who are everywhere” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui. (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
See also gentiles and nations.
The Greek that is translated as “tradition” in English is translated in these ways:
- Kekchí: “the old root-trunk” (in which the life of a people is likened to a tree)
- Central Tarahumara: “to live as the ancients did”
- North Alaskan Inupiatun: “sayings passed down from long-ago times”
- Navajo (Dinė): “what their fathers of old told them to follow”
- Toraja-Sa’dan: “the ordinance maintained by the forefathers”
- Tzeltal: “the word that has been kept from the ancients” (source for this and all above Bratcher / Nida)
- Gumuz: “the life of your fathers” (source: Loren Bliese)
- Obolo: “the deeds of the ground” (orọmijọn̄) (source: Enene Enene)
- Mairiasi: “the old things that are being held-onto” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “handed-down customs” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “praise (God)” in English is translated in a nuymber of ways:
In Dan a figurative expression for praising God is used: “push God’s horse.” “In the distant past people closely followed the horses ridden by chiefs, so ‘pushing’ them.” (Source: Don Slager)
The Greek terms that are translated as “reconcile” and “reconciliation” in English are translated in various ways. Nida (1952, pp. 140) says this:
“The North Alaskan Inupiatun describe reconciliation in the simple terms of ‘making friends again.’ That is to say, ‘God was in Christ making friends again with the world.’ The Uduk in the Sudan express this same truth, but in the rather interesting phrase ‘meet, snapping fingers together again.’ This expression is derived from the Uduk’s practice of snapping fingers together when they meet each other. Instead of shaking hands, they extend their thumbs and middle fingers and snap fingers together, but only friends will do this. Men who have something against each other refuse to acknowledge each other in this way. And so it is that the natural man is an enemy of God; he refuses to snap fingers with God, but God has come to reconcile man to Himself and through Jesus Christ has brought man into fellowship with Himself. Man and God may now meet ‘to snap fingers together again.’
“The Tai Dam of Indo-China employ quite a different figure of speech. They say that reconciliation consists in ‘rubbing off the corners.’ This does not refer to social acceptability, but to rubbing off the corners so that two objects, meant for each other, will fit together. Man is regarded as being incapable of fitting into the plan and fellowship of God because of the sin which has deformed him and which stands out as an ugly growth on his personality. The corners of iniquity must be rubbed off so that man may be reconciled to God and made to fit into God’s eternal plan for the world.”
Other translations include:
- “our hearts become good toward him” in Tzeltal
- “he makes us his friends again” in Huehuetla Tepehua
- “we are brought close to him” in Highland Totonac
- “he is no longer angry with us” in Sayula Popoluca
- “being put in a state of well-being with God” in Yatzachi Zapotec
- “opposition to God was healed” in Chol (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- “man has-a-good-relationship/is-in-harmony-again with God” in Muna (source: René van den Berg)
- “have become friends of God” in Western Bukidnon Manobo (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- “brought together with God” in Tenango Otomi (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- “receive Deo’s action of peace which came to us” in Bariai (source: Bariai Back Translation)
- “be at peace with Great Above One” in Mairasi (source: Enggavoter 2004)
The Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “pride” in English is translated as
- “continually boasting” (Amganad Ifugao)
- “lifting oneself up” (Tzeltal)
- “answering haughtily” (Yucateco) (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
- “unbent neck” (like llamas) (Kaqchikel) (source: Nida 1952, p. 151)
- “praising oneself, saying: I am better” (Shipibo-Conibo) (source: Nida 1964, p. 237).
- “bigness of head” (existing idiom: girman kai) in the Hausa Common Language Bible it is idiomatically translated as or (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
- “trying to make yourself the leader” in Mairasi (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- “make oneself important” (sick upspeeln) in Low German (source: translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006)
- “a haughty liver” in Yakan (source: Yakan Back Translation)
- “lift head” in Upper Guinea Crioulo (source: Nicoleti 2012, p. 78)
See also proud / arrogant and haughty / proud / heart exalted / exalt oneself above.
The Hebrew word chakam translated as “wisdom” in English is at the center of the book of Proverbs. William Reyburn and Euan Fry discuss the following in their Handbook on Proverbs (2000, p. 15ff.):
“The ‘wisdom’ that is the subject of Proverbs is not merely intellectual and philosophical. It is practical, involving what the person who is wise does in any given situation. It is ethical, meaning that it gives moral guidance and leads to right living. And it is religious, in that its foundation is God’s wisdom; as the book states, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’ (Prov. 9:10). (…) The term ‘wisdom’ covers a broad area of meaning. It actually can have a number of different meanings across the variety of contexts in which it is used; we should note particularly the following senses:
- ‘Intelligence’ or ‘shrewdness,’ which many languages recognize as being the equivalent of smartness or cleverness.
- ‘Good sense’ or ‘sound judgment,’ which in many cultures is regarded as the fruit of age or experience, and which is the basis of good and acceptable living.
- ‘Moral understanding,’ the ability to know what is right and what is wrong, and to live according to that knowledge.
- The capacity to think about the deeper problems of human life and destiny.”
In the Tzeltal translation for the dialectal variant of Highland Tzeltal (Biblia Tzeltal yu’un Oxchuc soc Tenejapa, 2001) the translation team made use of Tzeltal’s rich semantic inventory in this particular field and used three different terms that refer to different kinds of wisdom: p’ijil-o’tanil is “heart wisdom,” p’ijil c’op stands for “word wisdom” (also used for “knowledge“) and p’ijil jol is “head wisdom” (also used “understanding“).
See the individual articles that include the respective verse references:
See also wisdom.
