Following are a number of back-translations of 1 John 1:8:
- Uma: “If we say that we have no sin(s), we are deceiving ourselves, and we do not take-to-heart the true teaching.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “If we (dual) say that we have no sin whatsoever/there is no sin of ours (dual), we (dual) deceive ourselves and there is no truth in our (dual) livers.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “If we say that we don’t have any sin, we are trying to get our breath to believe a lie, and we are not obeying the true doctrine.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves (lit. our own bodies; so also any reflexive expressions from now on) and we don’t agree-to (lit. say-yes-to) the truth of the matter (lit. of it).” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “Well, if we are saying also that as for us, we have no sin, we are only lying to ourselves, and the truth is far from us.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “If we say that we do not have our sins, we are deceiving ourselves then, it is not true what we say.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “If we say we have no evil in our head-hearts, we deceive ourselves and we do not speak true words.”
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “If we try to say that there is none in us sin, but then we are deceiving ourselves, and we don’t know what truth is.”
- Tzotzil: “If we say, ‘There is not my sin,’ we deceive ourselves for sure. It is in vain that thus we say.” (Source for this and two above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)
- Candoshi-Shapra: “If we say, ‘Surely we have no sin,’ we deceive ourselves saying that. We are not at all doing straight.”
- Yanesha’: “If when we say, I, there is not my, sin, we deceive ourselves; those which are the true words have not arrived on us in our hearts.”
- Aguaruna: “‘I’m one who does not sin,’ if we say, we deceive ourselves, not speaking the truth;” (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 1 John 3:1:
- Uma: “No kidding the bigness of God the Father’s love to us, to the point that he calls us his children. And thus indeed it is. We are indeed God’s children. People who don’t believe in Yesus don’t know that we are God’s children, for they do not know God.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “Listen! Really great is God’s love towards us (incl.). Because of his great love we (incl.) are called his children by him. And we really are God’s children hep. Because most people in this world don’t know God, therefore they don’t know us (incl.).” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “We are very dear in the breath of our Father God, for just look, He has called us His sons, and we really are His sons now. The people here on the earth who are enemies of God, they don’t recognize us as sons of God for they also do not recognize who He is.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “Let us think about God’s extreme love for us, because on account of that amazing love of his, he counts us as his children, and so indeed we are. But those who don’t believe, they don’t acknowledge that we are his children, because neither have they acknowledged God who is our Father.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “Just think-about (lit. walk on with your mind) how much is the big-size of the valuing of us by God the Father. This valuing by him is really very big, because he now regards us as his children. Well now, it truly is like that, that we are now children of God. But well, as for the majority of people here in this world/land, they don’t know/acknowledge God, that’s why of course, they don’t acknowledge us either whom he has adopted.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “Let us know that God our Father truly loves us, because now we are the children of God. And it is true that we are the children of God. But other people do not know that we are the children of God because they do not know God.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “Think how very much our father God loves us. He loves us very much in that he has done so that he is able to say we are his children. People whose heads are sitting (who are concerned about) just what is happening on this earth do not understand that we are God’s children because they do not understand who God is.”
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “We believers, let us think. Very much love our Father has done to us, in that he said to (about) us that we are God’s children. And we really are God’s children. So those who follow the world can’t know (understand) that we are God’s children, because they don’t know our Father, God.”
- Tzotzil: “Hear how it is our Father God loves us that he says to us ‘You are my children.’ Therefore people don’t know us because they don’t know our Father God.” (Source for this and two above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)
- Candoshi-Shapra: “How greatly the Father loves us! Doesn’t He say of us, ‘My children?’ We are God’s children, that’s what we are. The dwellers in the world don’t recognize God. That’s why they don’t recognize us either.”
- Yanesha’: “This, you take note of, how he causes us to know, Father how exceedingly he loves us. He wants us to say (know) we are God’s children. We are his children, of a truth. People on this earth, no one knows Christ how he is, that’s why, we, too, no one knows how we are, too.”
- Aguaruna: “Listen (notice this), our Father, greatly loving us, ‘My child you be,’ saying, he chose us, he having done so we are his children; however people don’t know we are God’s children because they don’t know Him, ‘He is like that.’ saying.”
- Murui Huitoto: “In what way does God love us? We are named God’s children.” (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 1 John 4:10:
- Uma: “This is what is called love. It wasn’t us who first loved God. It was God [emphatic] who first loved us, to the point that he ordered his Child here to be our redeemer so that our sins could be forgiven.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “True love (is) not our (dual) love for God, but God’s love for us (dual). And because of his love to us (dual) he sent his Son to the world so that our (incl.) sins would be forgiven because of him.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “True love is not our (incl.) loving God, but rather it is His loving us (incl.) and His sending His Son here so that by means of His allowing Himself to be killed, our sins might be forgiven.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “This is the nature of love that has no lack/fault: it is not our love for God, but rather the love that God showed us when he sent his Child to undergo/pay-for the punishment of our sins so that they would be forgiven.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “This is true holding dear, not our holding dear of God, but rather his holding dear which has valuing of us. For he caused his Son to come here to us to be made a sacrifice, so that we might be forgiven for our sins.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “No matter how much we love God, we can never love as much as he loves us. God showed us that he loved us when he sent his Son to die in order to take care of our sins.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “We did not love God, he surprisingly loved us and he sent his son who died to pay for our guilt in order that we may be at peace with God.”
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “God showed us love that is true, because he sent here his Son who delivered-up himself to pay for our sins. And however much we love (think on) God, we can never love (think on) him as he thinks on us.”
- Tzotzil: “See how it is God loves us (in). It is not because we first loved God. It was first he loved us. Therefore he sent his Son. He paid for our sins on the cross.”
- Sayula Popoluca: “In this way we know that God loves us: it is not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and he sent his son to die for our sins so God would pity us.” (Source for this and three above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)
- Candoshi-Shapra: “It isn’t as if we loved God. But He, however, loving us sent His Son. In order to pacify (satisfy) Himself concerning our sins (be content not to punish) He sent Him. By that we learn how to love.”
- Yanesha’: “Thus appears love: we, we didn’t love our Father, but this, he, he loved us. He sent his son thus to pay for our sins.”
- Aguaruna: “We loving God, that isn’t greatest love, but God loving us he sent his son, ‘Their sins let him pay the price of!’ saying, that is true love.” (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 1 John 5:21:
- Uma: “My children, be careful that you not worship lords that are not true.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “My children-grandchildren, don’t make-into-God anything other than the true God. Wassalam” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “My children, avoid worshipping anything which is not the true God.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “My children whom I love, be sure to distance-yourselves from false-gods/idols.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “My like children, be careful what you believe-in/obey and serve. Make sure that there is nothing at all with which you will replace this true God.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “Listen, my children, do not worship the idols which are merely manufactured.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “My little children, do not worship anything other than only God.”
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “My dear children, we must not believe the deceiving (untrue) gods. This is what we will think on now.”
- Tzotzil: “Therefore, my children, idols are not useful to us in any way (means that we should not have anything to do with them). Thus let it be.”
- Candoshi-Shapra: “Children whom I live, listen! Don’t believe in false gods. That’s all.”
- Yanesha’: “My little ones, be careful. Do not make another your Father.”
- Aguaruna: “Don’t make (for yourself) other gods little children.”
- Murui Huitoto: “Children, beware of imitations of God.” (Source for this and three above: Mildred Larson in Notes on Translation, July 1965, p. 1-15)
- Garifuna: “My children/offspring. Don’t you bow down (worship) before whatever thing that is not God.” (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: “Then he said to us, “Come and see.” And we went with him and saw where he lived and we stayed with him a few hours, because at that time it was already about four o’clock.”
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 he said to us. . .”
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 Jesus said to us. . .”
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: “Sunday night at dark we disciples were gathered together. The doors were shut because we were afraid of the important people of the Israelites. Then all of a sudden we realized that Jesus was standing in our midst and he said to us. . .”
