Following are a number of back-translations of 1 John 4:6:
- Uma: “But we, relatives, we are-children of God. People who know God hear and receive our teaching. People who are not children of God don’t receive our teaching. That is a sign so that we know who is controlled by the Influence/Spirit that is true and who is controlled by the influence/spirit that deceives.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “But we (incl.) belong to God. Whoever knows God listens to us (incl.). Whoever does not belong to God does not listen to us (incl.). Like this we (dual) can know whether the teaching is from the Spirit of God or no.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “But as for us (incl.), by contrast, we belong to God, and because of that anyone who is a friend of God listens to our teaching. However, anyone who does not belong to God does not listen to our (incl.) teaching. By means of this we can tell who are the ones inspired by the Holy Spirit who teaches the truth and who is inspired by a lying spirit.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “But as for us, we are God’s children, so those who like to listen to what we are teaching, they are our companions who know God, but those who are not God’s children, they don’t-like to listen. That is one of the ways-we -know where what is being taught is coming from, whether it came-from the Holy Spirit who is the source of truth or Satanas who is the source of lies.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “But as for us, we are now in submission to God. And whoever knows/acknowledges God, that is who listens to us. The one who is not in submission to God, he doesn’t listen to us. Therein we will know the true word which comes from the Espiritu Santo and the lying word which comes from Satanas.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “But we are God’s people. He who is acquainted with God likes to hear the word we (excl.) teach the people. But he who is not acquainted with God does not want to hear the word we (excl.) teach the people. By this we can know which person speaks the true word, and which person does not speak the truth.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “We are God’s children. And the people who are acquainted with God heed us. The people who are not God’s children do not heed us. It happens thus so we know who has the Spirit of God in his head-heart, the one who speaks the truth, and who has in his head-heart the deceiver who speaks lies.”
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “But we are God’s children. Whoever knows God, hears well our word, but those who are not God’s children do not hear us well. In this way we know which are true and which are not true.”
- Tzotzil: “We, we are the children of God. Therefore those who also know God, respect our words. Those who are not children of God do not respect our words. Thus we know those who truly tell God’s word. Thus we know also those who deceive.” (Source for this and two above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)
- Candoshi-Shapra: “We are of God. The one who came to know God enjoys listening to our words. By that we recognize the true-kind (trueness). The one who isn’t of God that one doesn’t enjoy listening to our words. By that also we recognize error-kind (wrongness).”
- Yanesha’: “We, we are of the category-lineage of our Father. Those who know how our Father is, they listen to us. Those who are not of the category-lineage of our Father, they will not listen to us. Therein we know following which are true, they also, followings which are not true.”
- Aguaruna: “But we belong to God. Therefore those who know God, ‘he is like that’ saying listen to us, but those who have not known God don’t listen to us. Therefore we can know which are true thoughts and which are not true thoughts.” (Source for this and two above: Mildred Larson in Notes on Translation, July 1965, p. 1-15)
1 John 4.7″
Following are a number of back-translations of 1 John 5:17:
- Uma: “All evil doing, sin is its name. But there is sin(s) that does not bring eternal punishment.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “All doing bad is certainly sin, but there is sin that draws God’s wrath.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Sin is any kind of evil doing, and there is a sin whose result is not death.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “It is admittedly true that all bad that is done is sin, but there is nevertheless sin that can be forgiven so it does not lead to punishment that has no end.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “The truth is, each thing we do which is opposed to the will of God, that is sin. But except for that which I mentioned, there is indeed forgiveness.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “All that is evil is sin. But there are sins which can be forgiven a person.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “Everything which people do which does not go straight (is not righteous) is evil. But there is evil which people do which does not make them and their head-hearts like a dead person.”
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “All whenever one departs in regard to the good, it is sin. But sometimes one sins not taking the evil road for good.”
- Tzotzil: “All that is bad-evil, it is sin. There is sin that we will not be lost (eternally) because of it.” (Source for this and two above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)
- Candoshi-Shapra: “All bad-kind is sin. However, not all are the kind with which one dies.”
- Yanesha’: “All that is not fitting, that is sin. However, there is our sin therein we die.”
- Aguaruna: “All bad is sin. But there is also sin which does not arrive us at death.” (Source for this and two above: Mildred Larson in Notes on Translation, July 1965, p. 1-15)
Following are a number of back-translations of 3 John 1:15:
- Uma: “Goodness to you. Many greetings from all your friends here. Deliver for me my greetings to all my friends who are there, every one of them. Finish here.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “May your liver be peaceful. All your friends send word that they love/remember you. Tell for me our (incl.) friends one by one that I remember/love them. Wassalam” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “May your (sing.) life be peaceful. All your (sing.) friends here send-greetings. Please greet our friends there one-by-one. This is all I am able to say.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “May God give you peace of heart. Your friends here greet you. Please greet our friends there where you are.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “May you have peace in your heart. Your friends who are here greet you. Greet our (ex) friends there each one.”
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “May God rest your hearts. Your friends who are (live) here send you greetings. Greet our friends, each one who is (lives) there. This is what I tell you now.”
- Isthmus Zapotec: “May your heart be quiet. Your friends send you greetings. Give greetings to each one of our friends.” (Source for this and two above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)
In the Yatzachi Zapotec translation of the Gospel of John, any reference to the evangelist and presumed narrator is done in the first person.
The translator Inez Butler explains (in: Notes on Translation, September 1967, pp. 10ff.):
“In revising the Gospel of John in Yatzachi Zapotec we realized from the start that the third person references of Jesus to himself as Son of Man had to be converted into first person references, but only more recently have we decided that similar change is necessary in John’s references to himself as ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved.’ As I worked on those changes and questioned the informant about his understanding of other passages in the Gospel, I discovered that the reader misses the whole focus of the book as an eyewitness account unless every reference to the disciples indicates the writer’s membership in the group. In view of that we went back through the entire book looking for ways to cue in the reader to the fact that John was an eyewitness and a participant in a many of the events, as well as the historian.
“When the disciples were participants in events along with Jesus, it was necessary to make explicit the fact that they accompanied him, although in the source language that is left implicit, since otherwise our rendering would imply that they were not present.”
In this verse, the Yatzachi Zapotec says: “The next day John was standing with two of us disciples of his.”
In the Yatzachi Zapotec translation of the Gospel of John, any reference to the evangelist and presumed narrator is done in the first person.
The translator Inez Butler explains (in: Notes on Translation, September 1967, pp. 10ff.):
“In revising the Gospel of John in Yatzachi Zapotec we realized from the start that the third person references of Jesus to himself as Son of Man had to be converted into first person references, but only more recently have we decided that similar change is necessary in John’s references to himself as ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved.’ As I worked on those changes and questioned the informant about his understanding of other passages in the Gospel, I discovered that the reader misses the whole focus of the book as an eyewitness account unless every reference to the disciples indicates the writer’s membership in the group. In view of that we went back through the entire book looking for ways to cue in the reader to the fact that John was an eyewitness and a participant in a many of the events, as well as the historian.
“When the disciples were participants in events along with Jesus, it was necessary to make explicit the fact that they accompanied him, although in the source language that is left implicit, since otherwise our rendering would imply that they were not present.”
In this verse, the Yatzachi Zapotec says: “Then we gathered . . .”
In the Yatzachi Zapotec translation of the Gospel of John, any reference to the evangelist and presumed narrator is done in the first person.
The translator Inez Butler explains (in: Notes on Translation, September 1967, pp. 10ff.):
“In revising the Gospel of John in Yatzachi Zapotec we realized from the start that the third person references of Jesus to himself as Son of Man had to be converted into first person references, but only more recently have we decided that similar change is necessary in John’s references to himself as ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved.’ As I worked on those changes and questioned the informant about his understanding of other passages in the Gospel, I discovered that the reader misses the whole focus of the book as an eyewitness account unless every reference to the disciples indicates the writer’s membership in the group. In view of that we went back through the entire book looking for ways to cue in the reader to the fact that John was an eyewitness and a participant in a many of the events, as well as the historian.
“When the disciples were participants in events along with Jesus, it was necessary to make explicit the fact that they accompanied him, although in the source language that is left implicit, since otherwise our rendering would imply that they were not present.”
In this verse, the Yatzachi Zapotec says: “Judas thought that not because he pitied the poor people, but rather because he was a thief. He carried the money all of us used, and he secretly took money from it.”
In the Yatzachi Zapotec translation of the Gospel of John, any reference to the evangelist and presumed narrator is done in the first person.
The translator Inez Butler explains (in: Notes on Translation, September 1967, pp. 10ff.):
“In revising the Gospel of John in Yatzachi Zapotec we realized from the start that the third person references of Jesus to himself as Son of Man had to be converted into first person references, but only more recently have we decided that similar change is necessary in John’s references to himself as ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved.’ As I worked on those changes and questioned the informant about his understanding of other passages in the Gospel, I discovered that the reader misses the whole focus of the book as an eyewitness account unless every reference to the disciples indicates the writer’s membership in the group. In view of that we went back through the entire book looking for ways to cue in the reader to the fact that John was an eyewitness and a participant in a many of the events, as well as the historian.
“When the disciples were participants in events along with Jesus, it was necessary to make explicit the fact that they accompanied him, although in the source language that is left implicit, since otherwise our rendering would imply that they were not present.”
In this verse, the Yatzachi Zapotec says: “And even though I arrived first, I went into the grave afterward, and when I saw those things, I believed that Jesus had come to life.”
Following are a number of back-translations of John 12:40:
- Asháninka: “He will cause them to be blind; he will erase from them their understanding, lest they see, lest they know, lest they turn to me, lest I save them.”
- Huehuetla Tepehua: “God made the men blind in their understanding, and he made their hearts hard. In that way they couldn’t understand with their understanding, and they couldn’t believe anything in their hearts, and they couldn’t think differently in their hearts so that I could make their hearts better.”
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “God has caused the hearts of these people to be unresponsive, so that they are unheeding. He has caused them to see but not to realize what that which they are seeing means, and to hear but not to understand what that which they are hearing means. They would perhaps repent of their sins and permit God to renew their hearts if they understood it and if they realized what it meant.” (Source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
- Uma: “‘The Lord God says: ‘I purposely made them blind, so they couldn’t see. I made their hearts hard, so their hearts were not clear. That’s why they won’t be given goodness [salvation] by me.’ ‘” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “‘Their eyes are made blind by God so that they do not see, and he made their minds dull so that they do not understand. So-then their livers are not changed, says God, therefore I do not take their sins away.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Isaiah also said, ‘As for God, he caused them to become blind so they couldn’t see. He also caused that their breaths become hard so that they may not believe because they might give up evil and call on him for help.’ That’s why they didn’t believe in Jesus.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “‘God has blinded them and has hardened their minds lest they be able-to-see and able-to-understand and they face him so that he will heal them.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “‘He blinded their eyes and he made their heads hard so that they wouldn’t be able to see or understand, or be able to return to him so that he might make them well.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “‘God covered their sight in order that they would not see with their eyes. And he covered their hearts in order that their hearts would not find (understand) how the word is. And their hearts won’t change to follow God, so that he won’t forgive them.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
