Language-specific Insights

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)

character

The Greek 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.

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.

patriarchs

The Greek that is often translated as “patriarchs” in English is translated as

  • “first old fathers” in Isthmus Zapotec
  • “the ancient fathers” in Tzeltal
  • “the old important people who lived long ago were forefathers of the Israelites” in Yatzachi Zapotec
  • “the ancient fathers” in Highland Totonac
  • “the 12 sons of Jacob” Central Tarahumara
  • “the fathers from way back when” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • “chiefs over each of the clans of Israel” in Bariai (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • “our twelve grandfathers” in Kupsabiny (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • “twelve children from where Jews came-from” in Hiligaynon (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

principalities / rulers

The Greek that is translated as “principalities” or “rulers” in English is translated in various ways:

dishonor God

The Greek that is usually translated in English as “dishonor God” is translated in various ways:

See also complete verse (Romans 2:23).