The phrase that is translated into English as “uncircumcised in heart and ears” is translated into Afar as “You are people who have hearts that refuse God, and ears closed saying we didn’t hear God’s message.” (Source: Loren Bliese)
Other translations for “uncircumcised in heart and ears” include:
- Rincón Zapotec: “it doesn’t enter your hearts or your ears. You are like those who don’t even believe”
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “hard are your hearts and not a little bit open are your ears”
- Morelos Nahuatl: “you have your heart as unbelievers, you do not want to hear God’s word”
- Highland Popoluca: “you never wanted to do God’s will, never truly believed”
- Teutila Cuicatec: “you are just the same as those who do not believe God’s word because you do not obey”
- Huichol: “you have not been marked with God’s sign in your hearts or in your ears” (or: “you are unruly and unsubmissive like an untamed, unbranded bronco”)
- Ojitlán Chinantec: “you do not have the word-sign in your hearts. Your ears are clogged”
- Copainalá Zoque: “you just don’t understand”
- Isthmus Mixe: “your hearts and minds are not open” (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
- Kaqchikel: “with your hearts unprepared” (source: Nida 1964, p. 220)
- Elhomwe: “like people who do not know God” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
- Chichewa (interconfessional translation) “hard-headed.” (Source: Wendland 1987, p. 130)
- Bariai: “You aren’t able to receive knowledge, certainly not. You shut your ears always to Deo’s talk.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
- Low German 1975 translation by Rudolf Muuß: “Your hearts and ears are no better than those of the heathen”
- Uma: “No kidding your stubbornness! No kidding your making yourselves deaf to hearing the Word of the Lord God!” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “Your livers are livers not obeying/following God. And how deaf are your ears. You do not listen-to/heed God’s word/message.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
See also uncircumcised and stiff-necked.
The Greek that is often translated in English as “the Way,” referring to the young church in Acts, is translated in a number of ways:
- Isthmus Mixe: “those who follow the good words about Jesus Christ”
- Morelos Nahuatl; “the Jews who followed that man Jesus
- Lalana Chinantec: “the people who took the trail of Jesus”
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “all who believed on Jesus”
- Rincón Zapotec: “those who had received as truth Christ’s word”
- Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac: “those who walk in the road of the Lord”
- Chichimeca-Jonaz: “who believed that message” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
- Elhomwe: “those who lived according to the Way of the Lord” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
- German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): “Christian(ity)”
In the Mandarin Chinese Union Version, the most commonly used Protestant Chinese Bible, it is translated as zhèdào (这道) or “this way.” Note that dào (道) or “way” is the same word that is also used for Logos (usually “Word” in English) in John 1:1 and elsewhere (see Word / Logos).
The Greek that is translated as “living oracles” or “living words” or similar in English is translated in the following ways:
The Greek that is translated as “author of life” in English is translated as
The Greek that is translated in English as “(you) whitewashed wall” is translated in a number of ways:
- Lalana Chinantec: “you are like a masonry wall on which they have put white paint. It is no longer evident what it is like inside.” (Source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation, March 1965, p. 2ff.)
- Bariai: “a disintegrating wall and yet they applied paint to it so that it merely looks good” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
- Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac: “deceiver”
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “you talk up above (not from the heart)”
- Morelos Nahuatl: “you change words (you are a hypocrite)”
- Mezquital Otomi: “you two faced person”
- Rincón Zapotec: “you who make your face broad” (source for this and four above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
- Dan: “whitewashed tomb” (to highlight the hypocrisy) (Source: Don Slager)
- Mairasi: “you bad person and you liar trying to be like a clean person” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
See also complete verse (Acts 23:3) and complete verse (Matthew 23:37).
The Greek that is translated as “(small) rudder” in English is translated in the following ways:
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “(a small) stick”
- Mezquital Otomi: “a (little) metal”
- Rincón Zapotec: “(little) wooden hand” (source for this and two above: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.)
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “thing that is in the water that steers the boat”
- Teutila Cuicatec: “paddle that steered the ship” (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
- Tetelcingo Nahuatl: “board to steer” (source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.).
See also ship and anchor.
The Greek that is translated as “brothers and fathers” in English is translated in various ways:
- Purari: “younger and older brothers” (source: David Clark)
- Mairasi: “fathers, friends, in-laws & all” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- Bariai: “companions and elders” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
- Teutila Cuicatec: “all of you, officials of our nation and my brothers”
- Isthmus Mixe: “old men and brothers” (according to order of respect)
- Lalana Chinantec “companions, men”
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “you men, fathers”
- Chichimeca-Jonaz: “you who are our relatives, and you whom I made my fathers”
- Highland Popoluca: “my older uncles”
- Rincón Zapotec: “elders and brothers” (source for this and six above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
The Greek that is translated into English as “gnashed their teeth” or “ground their teeth” is translated in Pwo Karen as “their eyes were green/blue with anger” (source: David Clark), in Yao as “they had itchy teeth” (“meaning they very anxious to destroy him”) (source: Nida / Reyburn, p. 56), in Estado de México Otomi as “gnashed their teeth at him to show anger” (to specify their emotion) (source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation, March 1965, p. 2ff.), in Coatlán Mixe as “ground their teeth in anger like wild hogs,” in Rincón Zapotec as “showed their teeth (like a dog) because of their anger” (source for this and before: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), and in Gullah as suck dey teet or “suck their teeth” (source: David Frank).
In the the widely-used Mandarin Chinese Union Version it is translated with an existing Chinese proverb: yǎoyá qièchǐ (咬牙切齿 / 咬牙切齒) or “gnash teeth, grind teeth.” (Source: Zetzsche)
See also gnashing of teeth and contempt / scorn / ridicule / abuse.
