Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 1:3:
Uma: “That Good News tells who the Child of God is, our Lord Yesus Kristus. According to his birth as mankind, Yesus is the descendant of King Daud of old. But that Yesus is also the Child of God, for he is holy the same as God. That is clear because God caused him to live again, and with that amazing sign he made-clear that he indeed is the Child of God.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “This good news is about God’s Child/Son, Isa Almasi, our (incl.) Leader. He was born in the world a descendant of King Da’ud when he was a human being.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “This is the news about our Lord Jesus Christ, son of God. And as for this Jesus, he became a human for he was born as a descendant of the long ago King David.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “What this good news talks-about, it is his Child Jesu Cristo who is our Lord. As concerning his personhood, he was a descendant of King David.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “This good news tells about our Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God. It tells that he became a person, and tells that he is the descendant of the ruler David.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Isthmus Zapotec: “This gospel teaches us of His son who came from among the children (family) of David at the time when he came to be a person of this world, and He is Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Central Tarahumara: “And this very Good Word of God speaks advising us about the Son of God, who is our Lord Jesus Christ. And here in the world Jesus Christ was born as a baby boy. And he was born as one of David’s grandsons like.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Hausa: “This gospel is about his Son Jesus Christ our Lord it is. By human he is from the tribe of David,” (Source: Hausa Common Language Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 34:30:
Kupsabiny: “he does not accept sinners to rule over people or to cause those people to suffer.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “He prevents the Godless man from ruling, so that he may not become a trap for the people.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
HausaCommon Language Bible: “God can put into power someone who does not fear him, someone who sets traps for the people” (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
Hiligaynon: “so-that he could put-an-end the governing of the ungodly men that can-harm the people.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989): “false (or: perverted) spirit) (Abergeist).
Sissala: kaŋtɔŋ, which traditionally referred to “either a spirit of natural phenomena such as trees, rivers, stones, etc., or the spirit of a deceased person that has not been taken into the realm of the dead. Kaŋtɔŋ can be good or evil. Evil kaŋtɔŋ can bring much harm to people and are feared accordingly. A kaŋtɔŋ can also dwell in a person living on this earth. A person possessed by kaŋtɔŋ does not behave normally.” (Source: Regina Blass in Holzhausen 1991, p. 48f.)
Umiray Dumaget Agta: hayup or “creature, animal, general term for any non-human creature, whether natural or supernatural.” Thomas Headland (in: Notes on Translation, September 1971, p. 17ff.) explains some more: “There are several types of supernatural creatures, or spirit beings which are designated by the generic term hayup. Just as we have several terms in English for various spirit beings (elves, fairies, goblins, demons, imps, pixies) so have the Dumagats. And just as you will find vast disagreement and vagueness among English informants as to the differences between pixies and imps, etc., so you will find that no two Dumagats will agree as to the form and function of their different spirit beings.” This term can also be used in a verb form: hayupen: “creatured” or “to be killed, made sick, or crazy by a spirit.”
Yala: yapri̍ija ɔdwɔ̄bi̍ or “bad Yaprija.” Yaprijas are traditional spirits that have a range presumed activities including giving or withholding gifts, giving and protecting children, causing death and disease and rewarding good behavior. (Source: Eugene Bunkowske in Notes on Translation 78/1980, p. 36ff.)
Lamnso’: aànyùyi jívirì: “lesser gods who disturb, bother, pester, or confuse a person.” (Source: Fanwong 2013, p. 93)
Paasaal: gyɩŋbɔmɔ, “beings that are in the wild and can only be seen when they choose to reveal themselves to certain people. They can ‘capture’ humans and keep them in hiding while they train the person in herbalism and divination. After the training period, which can range from a week to many years, the ‘captured’ individual is released to go back into society as a healer and a diviner. The gyɩŋbɔmɔ can also be evil, striking humans with mental diseases and causing individuals to get lost in the wild. The Pasaale worldview about demons is like that of others of the language groups in the area, including the Northern Dagara [who use kɔ̃tɔmɛ with a similar meaning].” (Source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
In the still widely-used 1908 Tswana (also: Setswana) translation (by Robert Moffat, revised by Alfred Wookey), the term badino or “ancestor spirit” is used for “demon,” even though in the traditional understanding there is nothing inherently negative associated with that term. Musa Dube (in: Journal of Society of New Testament 73, 1999, p. 33ff. ) describes this as an example of “engaging in the colonization of the minds of natives and for advancing European imperial spaces. The death and burial of Setswana culture here was primarily championed through the colonization of their language such that it no longer served the interests of the original speakers. Instead the written form of language had equated their cultural beliefs with evil spirits, demons and wizardry. This colonization of Setswana was in itself the planting of a colonial cultural bomb, meant to clear the ground for the implantation of a worldwide Christian commonwealth and European consciousness. It was a minefield that marked Setswana cultural spaces as dangerous death zones, to be avoided by every intelligent Motswana reader or hearer of the translated text.”
In Kachin, the term Nat (or nat) us used for “demon” (as well as “devil” and “unclean/evil spirit“). Like in Tswana, the meaning of Nat is not inherently negative but can be positive in the traditional Nat worship as well. Naw Din Dumdaw (in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 94ff.) argues that “the demonization of Nat created a social conflict between Kachin Christians and Kachin non-Christians. Kachin converts began to perceive their fellow Kachins who were still worshipping Nats as demonic and they wanted to distance themselves from them. Likewise, the Nat-worshiping Kachin community perceived the Kachin converts as betrayers and enemies of their own cultural heritage. (…) The demonization of the word Nat was not only the demonization of the pre-Christian religion but also the demonization of the cultural heritage of the Kachin people. When the word Nat is perceived as demonic, it creates an existential dilemma for Kachin Christians. It distances them from their cultural traditions.”
