Following are a number of back-translations of 1 John 4:21:
- Uma: “So, this is Kristus’s command to us: whoever loves God must love their relatives also.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “This is the command that Almasi gave to us (incl.) that whoever loves God should also love his fellow-man.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For God has commanded us (incl.) that as for anyone whose love for God is true, he must also love his companion.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “What God has commanded us is this: the one who loves God, he must also love his fellow.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “Because this is what he commanded us, that whoever holds God dear, it’s essential that he also values his sibling in believing.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “God commands us this that the person who says that he loves God must also love his brother.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “This command God gives us: If we love God, likewise we must love our fellows.”
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “And here is the law which God left us. He who loves (esteems) God, but then he must also esteem his sibling, love him.”
- Tzotzil: “Thus is his command that he told us: If you love God, you must love your brother also, he told us.” (Source for this and two above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)
- Candoshi-Shapra: “This is God’s order: ‘The one who loves God should love his brother also,’ that’s what He says.”
- Yanesha’: “These are the words he told us: If we love our Father, let us love also our countrymen.”
- Aguaruna: “If you love me, your brother also love him!’ God says.” (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 2 John 1:11:
- Uma: “For the people who greet them, it’s the same as accompanying/going-along-with them in their evil work.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “Because whoever greets him, it is as if he joins in his bad doings.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For even if you merely welcome him, you inadvertently help him in his evil behaviour.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “Because if you do that, you will be helping (him) in the evil that he is doing.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “Because whoever makes-friends with him, he is causing himself to be in harmony with that evil he’s doing.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “Because the one who greets him does just as though he encourages him to teach the word which isn’t right.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “If we tell him, ‘Come in, brother’, it means that together we are doing evil.”
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “Because whoever asks God’s help in regard to him, it is just as though he helped his bad deeds.”
- Isthmus Zapotec: “Because one who tells him to enter also is erring as he is erring.” (Source for this and three 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: “In order to arrive in Galilee we passed through the district of Samaria.”
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 many people came where we were to listen to Jesus’ words, and they said about him. . .”
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 not one of us who were there understood. . .”
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: “Before dawn Jesus arrived at the shore but we did not recognize him.”
Following are a number of back-translations of John 1:23:
- Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac: “John answered them, ‘I am as one who cries in the desert and says, ‘Put your thoughts right in order that you might hear the Lord when he comes.’ That is what God’s prophet who is called Isaiah was saying when he said, ‘Straighten the Lord’s road.'”
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “Then he said to them, ‘I am the person who speaks loudly in the unpopulated place. I say, ‘Change your hearts in order that you may obey the Lord when he comes.’ It is like Isaiah said, the person who spoke God’s word long ago.'” (Source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
- Uma: “Yohanes answered them with the words of the prophet Yesaya long ago, he said: ‘I here [am], The person who calls in the wilderness: ‘The Lord is about to arrive. Prepare his road ahead-of-time for him!’ ‘” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “Yahiya answered the same as what Prophet Isaya wrote in the holy-book. Yahiya said, ‘I am a person calling loudly in the lonely place. I say: Make the way straight which God will soon pass by on.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then John answered, and his answer was like that which was written long ago by the prophet Isaiah. John said, ‘I am the prophesied person whose preaching can be heard in the land where no one lives. He said, ‘Straighten out the way the Lord will follow.’ ‘” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “‘I am the fulfillment of what Isaias prophesied that there would be someone shouting in a place with no inhabitants saying, ‘Prepare the path of the Lord so that it will be made-straight.’ ‘ said Juan.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “When Juan answered again, there was something he quoted which had been said by a prophet of long ago, who was Isaias, who said, ‘As for me, a likeness of me is a voice which can be heard in the wilderness place (lit.place where one could starve), and what it is saying is, ‘Improve/make-good the trail where the Lord/Chief will walk.”” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “John said, ‘I am he about whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, ‘There will be a person who will speak loudly in the wilds. He will say, Prepare because the Lord is going to come.’ ‘” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations of James 1:15:
- Uma: “If he follows the desires of his heart, in-the-end he will do sin. And if he continues to do sin, finally he will die and be separated from God.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “His greedy-desire gives him thoughts to do bad. As he keeps thinking (about it) finally he goes-through-with-it/proceeds-with-it and does that evil. So-then if a person is used-to doing evil the result is he will be put in hell.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And if he fulfills his desires, he sins. And the end of that person, if he keeps on doing wrong is death without end.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “If then he thinks about doing that-aforementioned-thing that he wants, that is the source of sin, and the outcome of a person’s sins, it is death and separation from God forever.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “For as long as one’s own desire which is disgusting is indulged, the outcome is sin. And when sin has now been able to flesh-out/fruit, there is no other result of it than death which is unending punishment.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “When a person does that evil which came to his mind, then it is sin. This person who is sinful, now must await punishment when he continues on sinning.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- Guhu-Samane: “Then it overwhelms the man and the sin becomes reality, and in return the man encounters death.”
- Tzotzil: “If we let the coveting of our hearts grab its strength, thus we will seek our sin; if sin has grabbed its strength, we will be lost because of it.”
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “If we obey our evil hearts, we are doing evil; and if we continue doing evil the day will come when God will desert us.”
- Sayula Popoluca: “When that evil he wants stays in him, it gives room for sin to grow in him, and that sin when it grows big, then it kills him.” (Source for this and three above: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.)
- German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): “The whole thing is then like twofold begetting and childbearing: A person’s instincts are like a womb that conceives the evil thought and gives birth to the evil deed. The evil deed, for its part, matures and grows, and gives birth to death.” (see also complete verse (James 1:18))
