Lloyd Peckham explains the Mairasi translation: “In secret stories, not knowable to women nor children, there was a magical fruit of life. If referred to vaguely, without specifying the specific ‘fruit,’ it can be an expression for eternity.”
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “firstborn” in English is translated in a number of ways:
“he/she that opens the gown” in Batak Toba (because formerly a woman stopped wearing a gown and started using a bodice after the birth of her first child)
“he/she that damages the stalk (i.e. the body)” in Uab Meto (source for this and above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
“oldest child” in Isthmus Zapotec (source for this and one above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
“firstborn child, who was a boy” in Elhomwe (to make clear, without ambiguity, that Mary did not have daughters before) (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
In Bawm Chin, the term can imply the existence of younger siblings, so a translation is needed that brings out the fact that Jesus is superior to all else, not just the first of a series. (Source: David Clark)
In Isthmus Zapotec it is translated as “snobby” and in Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “thinking they are the people of worth.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
In Elhomwe it is “to lift oneself up,” i.e. “to be pompous.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
“the fathers from way back when” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
“chiefs over each of the clans of Israel” in Bariai (source: Bariai Back Translation)
“our twelve grandfathers” in Kupsabiny (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
“twelve children from where Jews came-from” in Hiligaynon (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
The Greek that is often translated as “desires of the flesh” in English is translated in Ixcatlán Mazatec as “human desires” (source: Robert Bascom), in Mezquital Otomi as “the desires of our old life,” in Tzeltal as “doing what your bodies want,” and in Huehuetla Tepehua as “doing the things that your thoughts like (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.).
In Enlhet it is translated as “wantings of the innermost.” “Innermost” or valhoc is a term that is frequently used in Enlhet to describe a large variety of emotions or states of mind (for other examples see here). (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )
The Greek in Romans 2:14 that is often translated into English as “they are a law to themselves” is translated these ways:
Bilua: “they follow their own law” (source: Carl Gross)
Huehuetla Tepehua: “it is just as if they had a law in their hearts”
Highland Totonac: “on their own they think of the law they should do”
Yatzachi Zapotec: “what their head-hearts tell them to do is like the law for them”
Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “their very hearts is a law which issues orders to them”
Tzeltal: “it is because there are commandments in their hearts”
Sierra de Juárez Zapotec: “show that they themselves know what they ought to do” (source for this and five above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Uma: “their own hearts become like the Lord’s Law to them” (source: Uma Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “they have a Law there in their breath” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “their minds are like their law which directs them” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
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:
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)
In Highland Puebla Nahuatl there is no immediate equivalent for the Greek that is translated with the English term “heir.” So here an expression is used that means “someone who will receive the property (or: things).” (Source: Nida 1947, p. 200f.) Likewise, in Chimborazo Highland Quichua the translation is “those who receive what belongs to their father” (source: Julia Woodward in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 140ff. ) and in Sayula Popoluca “will receive all that God has for us” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.).
