Language-specific Insights

with you/whom I am well pleased

The Greek that is translated as “with you (or: whom) I am well pleased” in English is often translated in other languages with figurative expressions

    “you are the heart of my eye” (Huastec)

  • “you arrive at my gall” (with the gall being the seat of the emotions and intelligence) (Mossi)
  • “I see you very well” (Tzotzil)
  • “my bowels are sweet with you” (Shilluk) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • “you pull at my heart” (Central Pame)
  • “my thoughts are arranged” (Mashco Piro)
  • “my heart rests in you” (Wè Southern) (source for this and two above: Nida 1952, p. 127).

I the LORD your God am a jealous God

The Hebrew that is translated in English as “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God” or similar is translated in Toraja-Sa’dan with an established figure of speech: “I am the Lord your God who will not that His face is drawn as water is drawn” (i.e “who will not that a person treats Him without respect, or refuses to figure with Him, or dishonors Him, or in passing Him by honors others above him.”) (Source: H. van der Veen in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 21 ff. ).

In Orma, the phrase is translated as “I, the Lord your God, will not tolerate if you bow down and worship them.” George Payton explains: “When we translated Exodus in Orma, we had difficulty translating ‘jealous’ in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. The first commandments in vv.3-5 read, ‘You shall have no other gods before me. 4 ‘You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents…’

“Verse 5 says ‘I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God’ The word jealous/jealousy in Orma is hinaafa. This word brings two negative connotations. One is feeling envious of someone else’s property, or of the prosperity of their livestock or the produce of their farms. In other words, envy or coveting what someone else has but you do not. The word hinaafa can also refer to a jealous husband in a bad way. When a husband is always suspicious of his wife being unfaithful, he easily flies into a rage when she does something that triggers his suspicions, even if she is innocent. Sometimes the husband attacks her or someone else and harms them because of his jealousy. Hinaafa communicates that idea of blind rage, often unreasonable or irrational. We had to choose a different way to communicate God’s attitude. God promised to punish them if they worship any gods because He will not put up with them if they do. We ended up translating vv3-5: ‘Apart from me, you shall not worship any other gods. You shall not make a statue of anything in heaven or anything on earth or anything in the waters. I, the LORD your God, will not tolerate if you bow down and worship them. If you do, I will punish even the children for the sin of their parents…'”

In Chichewa “‘jealousy’ very commonly includes a prominent sexual component” so the solution there was to translated “(a God) who does not allow competition with me” (source: Wendland 1987, p. 127) and in Chamula Tzotzil it is not appropriate to use the usual word for jealousy of humans in relation to God when translating the Hebrew term that is translated as “jealous” in English versions. Here “I get angry with those who go with others” is used (source: Robert Bascom).

son of encouragement

The Greek that is translated as “son of encouragement” in English is translated as

  • “one who makes people receive a helpful word” in Ojitlán Chinantec
  • “the person who makes our hearts be at peace” in Lalana Chinantec
  • “he will encourage us” in Isthmus Mixe
  • “one who enlarges (encourages) hearts” in Chichimeca-Jonaz
  • “one who comforts” in San Mateo del Mar Huave
  • “one who consoles people” in Tzotzil
  • “gives gladness to those who weep” in Desano (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • “The man who strengthens people’s interiors” in Bariai (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • “Child Who Turns Livers Good” in Mairasi (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • “owner of encouraging heart” in Hausa (source: Hausa Common Language Bible Back Translation)

See also Barnabas and encourage / comfort.

give thanks

The Greek that is translated as “give thanks” in English is Tzotzil as “saying to God: Because of you.” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)

vain (worship)

The Greek that is translated into English as “vain” or “in vain” in English is (back-) translated in various ways:

  • Guhu-Samane: “with the front teeth of their mouths they worship me” (“‘In vain’ caused puzzlement [because] why should their efforts to worship God produce no results, try as they may? [But the idiom] ‘with the front teeth of their mouths they worship me’ comes from the picture of one who is making a pretense at eating food, hence their deceit is apparent.’ Source: Ernest L. Richert in Notes on Translation December 1963: p. 4-7; reprinted in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 198ff. )
  • Cashibo-Cacataibo: “say I am important, but they do not believe it”
  • Kekchí: “has no meaning when they praise me”
  • Toraja-Sa’dan, Pamona: “uselessly”
  • Copainalá Zoque: “uselessly they remember”
  • Farefare: “their religion is their mouth”
  • Southern Subanen: “their worship has no meaning”
  • Tzotzil: “they say they love me, but this means nothing”
  • Southern Bobo Madaré: “they worship me but they do not mean what they say”
  • Central Mazahua: “it is of no value that they honor me”
  • San Blas Kuna: “their thinking is not in their hearts” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Mairasi: “tribute of theirs for me [which] will-be-on-their-own” (source: Enggavoter 2004)

implore (you by God)

The Greek that is translated into English as “(I) implore (or: adjure) (you) by God” is translated as:

See also implore / beg.

worries of the world / cares of this age

The Greek that is translated as “worries (or: cares) of the world (or: this age)” in English is (back-) translated in a number of ways:

  • Kekchí: “they think very much about these days now”
  • Farefare: “they begin to worry about this world-things”
  • Tzeltal: “their hearts are gone doing what they do when they pass through world” (where the last phrase is an idiomatic equivalent for “this life”
  • Mitla Zapotec and San Mateo del Mar Huave: “they think intensely about things in this world”
  • Eastern Highland Otomi and Pamona: “the longing for this world”
  • Tzotzil: “they are very occupied about things in the world”
  • Central Tarahumara: “they are very much afraid about what will happen in the world”
  • Shilluk: “the heavy talk about things in the world”
  • Bariai: “things of the earth are making them worried (lit. to have various interiors)” (source: Bariai Back Translation)

See also end of the age / end of the world.

foolishness of God

The Greek that is translated as “foolishness of God” in English is translated into Bunun as “if God was foolish then even his foolishness would exceed our wisdom.” (“The notion that God was foolish was thought to be a problem.”) (Source: Graham Ogden)

TIn Huixtán Tzotzil it is translated as “they mistakenly think that it is in vain what God says.” Huixtán Tzotzil frequently uses the verb -cuy to express “to mistakenly think something” from the point of view of the speaker. (Source: Marion M. Cowan in Notes on Translation 20/1966, pp. 6ff.)

The German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) navigates the issue of calling God foolish (and weak) by putting the words “foolishness” (»Unsinn«) and “weakness” (»Schwäche«) in quotation marks.

See also tempt God / put God to the test.