The phrase in Acts 7:51 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”
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”
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)
The Greek in Revelation 7:14 that is translated as “washed their robes and made them white” is translated in Copainalá Zoque as “have been pardoned and washed from their sins.” (Source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation, March 1965, p. 2ff.)
In Saluan the word “wash” (nombaso’i) is based on the word for “blood” (baso’), giving an interesting added layer of meaning to the concept of “wash in blood.” See the repeated word for “blood” in the translation of Revelation 7:14b: Aha nombaso’imo juba’ nu aha nu baso’ nu Anak nu Domba aijo’ da mopute’. (Source: this blog and this verse of the Saluan Bible)
The Greek that is often translated into English as “all she had to live on” is translated into “all she had; this was her food” into Tabasco Chontal or “all she was going to eat” into Copainalá Zoque).
The Greek that is translated in English as “full armor” or similar is translated in Copainalá Zoque as “full metal suit” (source: William Wonderly in The Bible Translator 1953, p. 14ff. ), in Mairasi as “all warfare clothes” (source: Enggavoter 2004), and in Bariai as “all the fighting things” (source: Bariai Back Translation).
The Greek that is translated as “(they) insulted him and shook their heads” in English is translated in Dobel with the culturally equivalent “(they) continuously bit their lips at him and abused him.”
In Nüpode Huitoto, “shake their heads” is translated with the cultural equivalent “stick out their chins” (source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.), in Chol with “spitting on the ground,” in Copainalá Zoque with “clapping the hands” (source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation, March 1965), p. 2ff.), and in Chichewa (interconfessional translation) as “showing their scorn” (“‘wagging their heads’ is understood as a nonverbal expression of frustration, grief, or even surprise — source: Wendland 1987, p. 110).
In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) idiomatically with verzogen höhnisch das Gesicht und spotteten or “tauntingly grimaced at him and mocked him.”
The Greek that is often translated as “(you are) not partial to any” into English is translated as “you do not look at what is on the surface” into Shipibo-Conibo) and “you do not just see a man’s face” into Copainalá Zoque (source: Bratcher / Nida).
In Gumuz it is translated as “you do not look into face of men” (= do not make people bigger) (source: Loren Bliese) which is the same way the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) translates it.
The German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) as unparteiisch und unbestechlich or “impartial and incorruptible.”
The Greek that is translated into English as “vain” or “in vain” in English is (back-) translated in various ways:
Guhu-Samane: “with the front teeth of their mouths they worship me” (“‘In vain’ caused puzzlement [because] why should their efforts to worship God produce no results, try as they may? [But the idiom] ‘with the front teeth of their mouths they worship me’ comes from the picture of one who is making a pretense at eating food, hence their deceit is apparent.’ Source: Ernest L. Richert in Notes on Translation December 1963: p. 4-7; reprinted in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 198ff. )
