grieving

The Greek that is translated as “grieving” or “sorrowful” in English is often translated metaphorically:

  • “his stomach died” (Mezquital Otomi)
  • “he was heavy in his stomach” (Uduk)
  • “his heart was pained” (Kpelle)
  • “he was sick in his mind” (Amganad Ifugao)
  • “his heart hung” (Loma)
  • “his heart was spoiled” (Mossi) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida 1961)
  • “his interior was crying” (Bariai) (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • “heart got shocked” (Kupsabiny) (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • “insides/heart-became-bad” (Mairasi ) (source: Enggavoter 2004)

See also sorrow and Seat of the Mind for traditional views of “ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling.”

adultery

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The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “adultery” in English (here etymologically meaning “to alter”) is typically understood as “marital infidelity.” It is (back-) translated in the following ways:

  • Highland Totonac: “to do something together”
  • Yucateco: “pair-sin”
  • Ngäbere: “robbing another’s half self-possession” (compare “fornication” which is “robbing self-possession,” that is, to rob what belongs to a person)
  • Kaqchikel, Chol: “to act like a dog” (see also licentiousness)
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: “to measure the depth of the river of (another’s) marriage”
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “married people using what is not theirs” (compare “fornication” which is “unmarried people using what is not theirs”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Purari: “play hands with” or “play eyes with”
  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “talk secretly with spouses of our fellows”
  • Isthmus Zapotec: “go in with other people’s spouses”
  • Tzeltal: “practice illicit relationship with women”
  • Huehuetla Tepehua: “live with some one who isn’t your wife”
  • Central Tarahumara: “sleep with a strange partner”
  • Hopi: “tamper with marriage” (source for this and seven above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • German: Ehebrecher or “marriage breaker” / Ehe brechen or “breaking of marriage” (source: Zetzsche)
  • In Falam Chin the term for “adultery” is the phrase for “to share breast” which relates to adultery by either sex. (Source: David Clark)
  • In Ixcatlán Mazatec a specification needs to be made to include both genders. (Source: Robert Bascom)
  • Likewise in Hiligaynon: “commit-adultery-with-a-man or commit-adultery-with-a-woman” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

See also adultery, adulterer, adulteress, and you shall not commit adultery.

moved with compassion

The Greek that is translated with “moved with compassion (or: pity)” in English is translated as “to see someone with sorrow” in Piro, “to suffer with someone” in Huastec, or “one’s mind to be as it were out of one” in Balinese (source: Bratcher / Nida).

The English translation by Michael Pakaluk (2019) uses “was keenly affected” in Mark 1:41.

See also compassion.

implore (you by God)

The Greek in Mark 5:7 that is translated into English as “(I) implore (or: adjure) (you) by God” is translated as:

See also implore / beg.

adulterer

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “adulterer” in English would imply “I only take unmarried girls” in Telugu, so it was necessary to be more generic and say “I go after other women” (source: David Clark).

In Central Subanen an “adulterer” is “one who can’t be trusted” (source: Bratcher / Nida) and in Yagaria as “woman-theft man” (source: Renck 1990, p. 139)

See also adulteress and adultery.

perplexed

The Greek in Mark 6:20 that is translated into English as “perplexed” is translated as

  • “his heart was gone” in Tzeltal
  • “hard chased” (as in animals in a hunt) in Piro
  • “his mind was killing him” in Navajo (Dinė)
  • “his stomach rose up” in Farefare
  • “he was very irresolute” (i.e. “it was all wrong with him”) in Indonesian
  • “his heart was very divided” in Javanese (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida 1961)
  • “confused his head” in Hiligaynon (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • “his heart was agitated” in Uma (source: Uma Back Translation)
  • “his thinking was difficult” in Kankanaey (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)

See also Seat of the Mind for traditional views of “ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling” as well as perplexed, perplexed / puzzled, or troubled / perplexed,

vain (worship)

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. )
  • Cashibo-Cacataibo: “say I am important, but they do not believe it”
  • Kekchí: “has no meaning when they praise me”
  • Toraja-Sa’dan, Pamona: “uselessly”
  • Copainalá Zoque: “uselessly they remember”
  • Farefare: “their religion is their mouth”
  • Southern Subanen: “their worship has no meaning”
  • Tzotzil: “they say they love me, but this means nothing”
  • Southern Bobo Madaré: “they worship me but they do not mean what they say”
  • Central Mazahua: “it is of no value that they honor me”
  • San Blas Kuna: “their thinking is not in their hearts” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Mairasi: “tribute of theirs for me [which] will-be-on-their-own” (source: Enggavoter 2004)