The Greek in Romans 8:21 that is translated as “bondage to decay” or similar in English is translated as “they continually die” in Highland Totonac, as “the hand of rottenness” Isthmus Zapotec, and as “every animal must die, every tree must decay, every herb must dry up” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui. (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Language-specific Insights
if God is for us
The Greek in Romans 8:31 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)
character
The Greek in Romans 5:4 that is translated as “character” (or “experience”) in English is translated in the following ways:
- Pitjantjatjara: “we become with strength and don’t fall, and God seeing us is pleased” (source: Carl Gross)
- Hopi: “maturity”
- Isthmus Zapotec: “standing firm”
- Central Tarahumara: “being called as doers of good”
- Miahuatlán Zapotec: “showing people we really believe in Christ”
- Central Mazahua as “knowing that we passed well” (source for this and four above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- Bariai “God is happy with us because we overcome/surpass various kinds of testings” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
See also complete verse (Romans 5:4).
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.
dishonor God
The Greek in Romans 2:23 that is usually translated in English as “dishonor God” is translated in various ways:
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “defame God’s character”
- Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “have no reverence before God”
- Tabasco Chontal: “cause God to be hated”
- Sayula Popoluca: “put God in a bad light”
- Highland Totonac: “put God to shame”
- Tzeltal: “cause embarrassment to God”
- Isthmus Zapotec: “err against God”
- Central Tarahumara: “become an enemy of God” (source for all above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- Bariai: “your eyes mock God” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
- Kupsabiny: “insult God” (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
- Mairasi: “oppose God” (Enggavoter 2004)
- Hiligaynon: “causing- God -to-be-ashamed” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
See also complete verse (Romans 2:23).
peace with God
The Greek in Romans 5:1 that is translated as “peace with God” in English is translated as “there’s nothing between us and God” in Hopi, as “we are at fellowship with God” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui, as “God has no anger toward us” in Huehuetla Tepehua, as “we have a good relationship with God” in Isthmus Zapotec, and as “we are living well with God” in Mezquital Otomi. (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
firstborn
The Greek that is translated as “firstborn” in English is translated in a number of ways:
- “he/she that opens the gown” in Batak Toba (because formerly a woman stopped wearing a gown and started using a bodice after the birth of her first child)
- “he/she that damages the stalk (i.e. the body)” in Uab Meto (source for this and above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
- “the oldest son of all” in Mezquital Otomi
- “oldest child” in Isthmus Zapotec (source for this and one above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- “firstborn child, who was a boy” in Elhomwe (to make clear, without ambiguity, that Mary did not have daughters before) (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
In Bawm Chin, the term can imply the existence of younger siblings, so a translation is needed that brings out the fact that Jesus is superior to all else, not just the first of a series. (Source: David Clark)
See also only begotten son / (one and) only son and firstborn.
principalities / rulers
The Greek that is translated as “principalities” or “rulers” in English is translated in various ways:
- North Alaskan Inupiatun: “evil spirits”
- Hopi: “those who are first”
- Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “one who is prominent in heaven”
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “important bad angels”
- Isthmus Zapotec: “spirits who have power”
- Central Tarahumara: “other great spirits”
- Huehuetla Tepehua: “big angels”
- Highland Totonac: “the ones who control things” (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- Mairasi: “powerful ones” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- Bariai: “the bad bush-spirits and various kinds of tambaran spirits of the earth” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “those supernatural beings who are in the very deep places” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)