complete verse (Matthew 12:35)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 12:35:

  • Uma: “People who are good, definitely speak words that are good, because they continually think-about good [things/matters]. So also evil people, their words are also evil, because they continually think about evil [things/matters].” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “A good person has good customs and says good things because he is/has good in his liver. But a bad person because he is/has bad in his liver therefore his customs and his speech are bad.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “A person whose custom is good, what he says also is good. A person whose custom is bad, what he says is also bad.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The good person, what he brings-out is good, because of-course what is stored in his mind is good. But the bad person, what he brings-out is bad, because of-course what is stored in his mind is bad.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Because as for a person whose nature/ways are good, what comes out of his mouth is always good, because wholly good is what he stores in his mind. However as for the person who stores wholly evil in his mind, wholly evil indeed comes out of his mouth.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The good person speaks the good word because his heart is good. But the person whose heart is not good has evil words in his heart and these come from his mouth.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): “Like a large chest, a person’s heart contains a store from which he draws what he shares with others. If the heart contains a treasure, then what a person passes on is good. If it contains only worthless junk, he is passing on bad things.”

complete verse (1 Thessalonians 4:7)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Thessalonians 4:7:

  • Uma: “Because what was God’s intention in calling us (incl.), relatives? He did not call us (incl.) in order to do wrong. He called us (incl.) and he gave us his Spirit who is holy, in order that our lives be holy. So anyone who refuses this teaching, is not refusing men. It is God [emp.] he is refusing.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “For we (incl.) were not chosen by God so that we (incl.) do bad/do immoral things, but he wishes that we (incl.) are holy/clean.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For God has made us believers in him so that our activity might become worthy of a person who belongs to him. He does not want our activity to be immoral.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Because God did not choose us (incl.) in order for us to do what is filthy but rather so that we would follow a holy way-of-life.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For God has determined that we will live lives which are righteous/straight, not lives which disgust him.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Because God called us in order that we live for good. God does not want that we live for evil.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): “The fact that God has called us does not mean that nothing else matters, but that he has called us into holiness, and that means distinction, in which everything does matter.”

complete verse (Matthew 5:3)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 5:3:

  • Uma: “‘Blessed are the people who know how pitiful are their lives in the sight of God, for they are the ones who will be the God’s people/subjects, and God will be their King.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “‘Better off (lit. better yet) are the people who know, that God is not pleased with them, if they do not trust in him, because God is ruling over them.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “He said, ‘Much better off are those who know they can’t do good if God doesn’t help them, because God will take good care of them when he rules.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘Fortunate are the people who know that they are poor in ability in the sight of God, because they are the ones who are included in his ruling.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “‘The people can be happy who regard themselves as really having no ability of their own to rely on but only on God, because they will be able to be included in his kingdom.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “‘The good fortune will be met by the people who are as though poor, because they find in their hearts that they lack what is good. Because these are the people who will enter the hand of God who is in heaven.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): “Blessed are the poor people who are tormented, for they will be free when God is king.”
  • Enga: “God blesses those who set their hearts upon Him alone … ” (source: Adam Boyd on his blog)

complete verse (Matthew 16:26)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 16:26:

  • Uma: “What is the use we (incl.) gather all the riches of the world, if we (incl.) do not receive good life in the future. For there is nothing that we (incl.) may exchange for that good life.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “For a person, even if he owned all the wealth in the world, there would be no use in it if he does not have everlasting life. For there is no wealth in the world that can redeem him so that he has everlasting life.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Even if a person comes to own the whole world, it is worthless for him if he is not given life forever. For there is nothing which he can exchange so that he will be able to own life forever.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Because what do-you-suppose will a person be-able-to-gain if he comes-to-own the entire world and then his life is lost and he is punished for ever? None! Because there is nothing that a person can give-in-exchange for his life.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For what does a person gain, even supposing all the wealth here in the world would be his, if his soul/spirit will be lost-permanently because it will have to go there to hardship/suffering which is without ending? Of course there’s nothing he can do which could free him from there.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Because the person will not gain anything even though he becomes the owner of all the world and then loses his soul. No matter how much money he will pay, yet he is not able to save his soul.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “For if a man is receiving all the things on the earth, yet he misses out on good life after his death, how will all those things of his help him? For no one is able to buy his living of later on.” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): “What good is it if the whole world lies at your feet, but you have to pay for it with your heart? What is more precious than one’s heart?”
  • Imbabura Highland Quichua: “‘Suppose a man were to get and have all whatever there is in this world. Although it is thus, if he went and lost his soul, what good would it be? . . . ‘” (Source: S. Levinsohn in Journal of Translation 18/2022, p. 67ff. )

complete verse (1 Thessalonians 5:7)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Thessalonians 5:7:

  • Uma: “Because people who sleep and get-drunk, sleep and get-drunk at night.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “It is at night hep that people sleep and it is also at night that the people who drink are always drunk.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “He who sleeps, sleeps in the night, and he who gets drunk, also gets drunk in the night.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Because the night is the sleeping-time of people and the getting-drunk-time of drunkards.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For isn’t it so that night is the time when people sleep and get drunk?” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Those who sleep sleep in the night. Those who get drunk get drunk in the night.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): “Both who sleep at night and who are drunk at night belong to the darkness.”

complete verse (Matthew 5:32)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 5:32:

  • Uma: “But I say: whoever divorces [lit., releases] his wife, but his wife did not do wrong behavior [sexual connotation], he sins, because the one who divorces causes [lit., carries] his wife to commit adultery, if she should marry again. And the man who marries another’s ex-spouse, he also is committing adultery.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But I, I say: when a man divorces his wife, and his wife has not committed adultery, the man is the reason for the adultery of the woman if she marries again. And whoever marries her commits adultery also.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “But my teaching is: if a man that divorces his wife and she has not committed adultery against him, this man commits sin, for by means of this he is saying that his wife has committed adultery against him. And the man who marries that woman who was divorced by her husband, also sins.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But I say to you that the man who divorces his wife except if she committed-adultery (lit. manned-with), he causes-her-to-become an adulteress (lit. one who mans-with) if she marries again. The man also who marries a woman who has-been-divorced sins just the same by adultery (loan kamalala).'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But now/today, I am the one saying to you (pl.) that a man has sinned who divorces his wife when she hasn’t been compromised/acted-immorally-with by another man. Of course he has sinned because he will have caused this wife of his to fall-into-sin(fig.) of immorality if she then marries someone else. And whoever marries this woman who has been divorced, he also will have committed immorality.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “But I tell you that concerning a woman who is divorced by her husband, if she then marries another man, these two are committing sin. But it is the sin (fault) of the man who divorced the woman that this happens, because only a woman who has committed adultery can be divorced.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): “Anyone who separates from his wife without her having broken the marriage causes her to break the [existing] marriage. And whoever marries a woman whose husband has separated from her breaks her [still existing] marriage.”

complete verse (Acts 13:41)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 13:41:

  • Uma: “‘Be careful, you who disparage. You will be surprised seeing my deeds, in the end you will be punished with death. Because at this time, I do something that is very powerful. Yet you refuse to believe it, even though someone explains it to you.’ ‘” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “‘You who do not believe, and who make fun/mock, look/watch-out. You will be very amazed at what-I-do, and you will perish,’ says God, ‘because while you are yet alive, I will do (something) and you will not believe it, even if you are told.’ ‘” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “‘You who scorn, you’ll be very surprised at what I am going to do. And you will die because there is that which I will do which you will see. However, you will not believe it even though there is someone to explain it to you.’ ‘” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘Listen, you who ridicule, because I will do something in your lifetime that will be an amazement to you, but you will nevertheless die, because you do not believe that it will be done, even though there is someone who-tells-it correctly to you.’ ‘ That was the ending of what Pablo said to them.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “which says, ‘Listen to this, you who habitually-insult. You really will be amazed at what will come to you which will cause your downfall/being-permanently-lost. Because I will do something in your time which, even if it keeps being told to you what I will do, you won’t acknowledge it as true.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): “‘I will accomplish something so great in your lifetime that when someone tells you about it, you will stand there with your mouths open and not believe it and think it’s madness. And then you will perish.'”

For the Old Testament quotes, see Habakkuk 1:5 (from the Greek Septuagint).

complete verse (1 Timothy 2:11)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Timothy 2:11:

  • Uma: “Women must be silent listening to teaching with low [humble] hearts.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Women also when they are being taught/preached to they ought to listen only and they should be willing to be taught.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “It’s necesssary for the women that they carefully listen to what is taught to them, and not chatter. And it’s necessary that they always submit themselves to their masters.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The women should also keep-quiet in their learning of God’s word and humble (lit. lower) themselves to the one who is teaching.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “It is also necessary that women aren’t talkative in the gathering-place. Rather, they are to be listening well with meekness/patience.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “During the time in which the word is taught to the people, the woman must not speak, they must be respectful.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): “Unlike the young men who learn noisily in school, the women shall learn the teachings that were passed down quietly and they shall pay attention to strict submission.”