superlative (Matt 22:36; 39)

Since there is no grammatical superlative in Fuyug, the question that is translated in English typically as “which commandment of the law is the greatest,” becomes “in the middle of the word of God, which word is big?” Then the second most important commandment is “the big word that follows.”

slow to anger

The phrase that is typically translated in English as “slow to anger” is rendered in Bawm with the idiom “be of a long mind” (source: David Clark), in Kako as “have a long heart” (source: Reyburn 2002, p. 190), and in Akan as “his chest is slow to grow weed” (see anger) (source: Gladys Nyarko Ansah in Kövecses / Benczes / Szelid 2024, p. 21ff.).

Sere also quick to anger and patient / patience.

crops are white

The phrase in John 4:35 that is translated as “the crops white (or: ripe) for harvest” in English is translated in Hiri Motu as “the crops are ripe and big and ready to eat.” The word for “ripe” hints at bananas and the word for “big” hints at sweet potatoes.

In Chokwe the white seed “mystified the reader (…) Ripe harvest-ready grains is ‘red,’ which in this land of few colour distinction is about the equivalent of ‘golden.’ To make send for the passage we felt justification in changing ‘white’ to ‘red.'” (Source: D. B. Long in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 87ff. )

father's wife

The Greek in 1 Corinthians 5:1 that is typically translated as “father’s wife” in English and is understood as “stepmother” had to specifically be clarified in Bawm Chin as “stepmother.”

the early rain and the later rain

The Hebrew that is translated as “the early rain and the later rain” is translated in Tibetan as “rain at the appropriate time.” David Clark (in: Clark / Desnitsky 2009 , p. 22) explains: “In Deuteronomy 11:14 there is mention of ‘the early rain and the later rain,’ referring to the autumn rain and the spring rain in the Holy Land. A literal translation in Tibetan would have been meaningless, and ‘summer rain and winter rain’ would have been ecologically misleading, so the translator used a set expression in Tibetan meaning ‘[rain] at the appropriate time.’ This captures the focus of the Hebrew without distorting the weather patterns of the eastern Mediterranean.”

See also early rain.

travel through the whole island

In Kahua, unsurprisingly for an island language, there is a basic contrast in verbs of motion between travel by land and travel by sea. In Acts 13:4 it was explicit that Barnabas and Saul “sailed” to Cyprus, but once on the island, did they travel around by sea or by land? The translators assumed that the statement that is translated into English as “traveled through the whole island” implied travel by land, and used the appropriate verb.

bring his blood on us, make us responsible for his death

The Greek in Acts 5:28 that is translated into English as “make us responsible for his death” or “bring his blood on us” is translated into Fuyug as “throw his blood on our backs” (source: David Clark), as “intend to bring this man’s blood upon us furthermore you are trying to blame us for that person’s death” in Teutila Cuicatec, as “you want to throw the guilt on us that Jesus died” in Lalana Chinantec, and as “you want to charge us for Jesus’ death” in Desano (source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) it is translated a with und wenn es nach eurem Wunch ginge, müssten wir allesamt für Jesu angeblich unschuldig vergossenes Blut büßen or “and if it were up to you, we would all have to atone for Jesus’ supposedly innocently shed blood.”