The Greek and Hebrew terms that are often translated as “leprosy (or: defiling/skin disease)” or “leprous (person)” in English is translated in Mairasi as “the bad sickness,” since “leprosy is very common in the Mairasi area” (source: Enggavoter 2004).
Usila Chinantec “sickness like mal de pinta” (a skin disease involving discoloration by loss of pigment) (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Hiligaynon: “dangerous skin disease” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “fearful skin disease” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “terrible rotting” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Newari: “infectious skin disease” (source: Newari Back Translation)
Targumim (or: Targums) are translations of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic. They were translated and used when Jewish congregations increasingly could not understand the biblical Hebrew anymore. Targum Onqelos (also: Onkelos) is the name of the Aramaic translation of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) probably composed in Israel/Palestine in the 1st or 2nd century CE and later edited in Babylon in the 4th or 5th century, making it reflect Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. It is the most famous Aramaic translation and was widely used throughout the Jewish communities. In Leviticus 13 and 14 it translates tzaraat as a “quarantining affliction” — focusing “on what occurs to individuals after they suffer the affliction; the person is isolated from the community.” (Source: Israel Drazin in this article ). Similarly, the English Jewish Orthodox ArtScroll Tanach translation (publ. 2011) transliterates it as tzaraat affliction.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 3:5:
Kupsabiny: “Trust God with all your stomach/heart. Do not depend on your own thoughts alone.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Trust God from [your] inmost heart. Don’t go just on your own understanding.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “[You (sing.)] trust in the LORD with all your (sing.) heart, and you (sing.) do- not -trust on your (sing.) own wisdom.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Concentrate all your (sing.) thoughts to trust in God, so-that it will not be your (sing.) own understanding that you (sing.) trust-in.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Hdi: “In the grain grain of your heart, put your head on Yawe, do not go lean your body/self on your intelligence!” (Source: Drew Maust)
Following are a number of back-translations of Ruth 4:13:
Noongar: “So, Boaz took Ruth and Ruth became his wife. They lay together and God blessed Ruth. She became pregnant and bore their son.” (Source: Bardip Ruth-Ang 2020)
Eastern Bru: “Then Boaz took Ruth to be his wife. They lived together. And God gave Ruth a son.” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “So Boaz married Ruth, and the LORD willed that Ruth became-pregnant. Some time-later Ruth gave-birth to a son.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “So Boaz took Ruth home, and she became his wife. He slept with/had sexual relations with her and Yahweh enabled her to become pregnant, and she gave birth to a son.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Following are a number of back-translations of John 1:17:
Yatzachi Zapotec: “Moses taught the ancestors of us Israelites the law of God, but Jesus Christ came to teach that God loves mankind, and he teaches us all the true words of God.”
Huehuetla Tepehua: “The law about the things of God, the one who gave it was Moses. But the love which was to us and the truth came into being because of Jesus Christ.”
Umiray Dumaget Agta: “Even though Moses was caused to speak the rules of God, Jesus Christ was the one appointed to show mercy and to declare the truth.”
Guerrero Amuzgo: “. . . but Jesus Christ is the source of all favor and of the words that are true.”
Chol: “… . Jesus Christ came and gave us the goodness of his heart and truth.”
Tenango Otomi: “By means of Moses the law of God is known. But by means of Jesus Christ the love of God and the true word are known.” (Source for this and above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
Uma: “From the prophet Musa we received the Law of the Lord God. But [it is] from Yesus Kristus that we really know God, and his grace to us.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “The law of God was given/sent to mankind by Musa but God’s love and the truth are given to mankind by Isa Almasi, he is the one called the Word of God.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And by means of Moses, God brought down to earth the laws. But by means of Jesus, God brought down to earth his love/grace for us and the true doctrine.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Because God made-known his law through Moses, but his mercy/kindness and the truth concerning him, he made-known to us through Jesu Cristo.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Because God gave his laws to Moises which he was commanding us, but that grace/mercy of his and truth concerning himself, he caused us to comprehend through Jesu-Cristo.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “The Law was-given by God to us (incl.) through Moises, but mercy and truth arrived to us (incl.) through Jesus-Christ.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Mairasi: “We have already received the prohibitions Belonging to Above-One, we received them from Musa himself. But His good insides and tuber were revealed in Yesus Kristus.” (Source: Enggavoter 2004)
Bariai: “For the law came about by Moses’ hand, and then the action of kindness and true talk came about by Iesus Kristus’ hand.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Kupsabiny: “Moses gave us the laws and the Savior Jesus brought for us love and the words of truth.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 3:6:
Kupsabiny: “Put God first/ahead in everything you are doing, then it is when your ways/paths will be straight/flow well.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “No matter what you do, remember the Lord! He will show you the way.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Remember the LORD in all you (sing.) do, and he will-guide you (sing.) in the right path.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “He is the one you (sing.) are-to-acknowledge and follow in all you (sing.) do and he will-prepare the path-you-(sing.)-take so-that it-will-be-made-straight.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Hdi: “In all that you do, remember him, he will attend to the edge of your foot.” (Source: Drew Maust)
The Greek and Hebrew that is typically translated as “covenant” or “testimony” in English and refers to the stone tablets that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai are translated in Kupsabiny as “two stones (that are flat-and-thin) on which the law is written,” in Hiligaynon as “the wide stone on which is-written the Law.” (Source: Kupsabiny and Hiligaynon Back-Translations), and in the interconfessional Chichewa translation (publ. 1999) as miyala iŵiri ija yolembedwapo mau a chipangano or “those two stones on which are written the words of the agreement” (Source: Wendland 1998, p. 110).
In the EnglishTranslation for Translators it is translated as stone slabs and in the New English Bible as Tokens (source: Elizabeth Lewis).
EnglishTranslation for Translators: “show that I am innocent/have not done what is wrong” / Easy English Bible: “show that I am not guilty of wrong things”
Following are a number of back-translations of Ruth 2:1:
Noongar: “Now, a relative of Naomi, he was named Boaz. He was a relative of Naomi’s husband, famous in the tribe of Elimelech.” (Source: Bardip Ruth-Ang 2020)
Eastern Bru: “Naomi had a person from the clan of her husband Elimelech. That person was named Boaz, and he was a person who had great authority, and he was also rich.” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: (verses 1-3) “One day, Ruth said to Noemi, ‘Allow me to go to the field to glean the heads-of-grain of a man who will-allow me to do it.’ Noemi said to her, ‘Okay child, you(sg) go.’ So Ruth went-out and gleaned the heads-of-grain that were-left-behind by the harvesters. And it-so-happened that she gleaned there at the field of Boaz the relative of Elimelec. Boaz was a wealthy and famous man.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “There was a man in Bethlehem who belonged to the clan of Naomi’s dead husband, Elimelech. He was rich and well-known/influential. His name was Boaz.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
