Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 8:11:
Uma: “God brought Jesus back to life by the power of the Holy Spirit, and it is that Holy Spirit also who dwells in our hearts. So, even though our bodies will die, God will certainly bring our bodies back to life by the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells in our hearts.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “If it is true the Holy Spirit is there dwelling in your liver, God will cause you (pl.) also to be alive like he caused Isa Almasi to be alive from his death.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “As for God, He is the one who raised Jesus Christ. And if the Holy Spirit whom He sent, lives here in us, then we will also be raised from the dead by means of the Holy Spirit that lives here with us.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Another-thing, God is the one who made-Cristo -alive again, so if his Spirit is in you, he will also make-alive your bodies that die because of the Holy Spirit who stays in you.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “It is God who caused that Christ resurrected when he had died. He also will cause that our bodies will resurrect after we have died. Because we now walk with the Holy Spirit.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Tabasco Chontal : “God raised up Jesus from the dead. If his Holy Spirit is in you, just like God raised up Jesus, in the same way God will cause to live also your bodies which will die. He is going to raise your bodies because his Holy Spirit is in you.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Kupsabiny: “And when a person has the Holy Spirit who made Jesus to resurrect from the dead, that same Spirit will make that person to resurrect and will give him a new life.” (Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Bariai: “God lifted back Jesus from his death. And so if God’s Straight Spirit is living in your interiors, then he’s going to lift you back from your death also, similarly as he lifted back Christ from his death. He’s going to do like this by the Straight Spirit’s power who is living in your interiors.” (Bariai Back Translation)
Eugene Nida wrote the following about the translation of the Hebrew, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Greek terms that are typically translated with “prophet” in English:
“The tendency in many translations is to use ‘to foretell the future’ for ‘prophesy,’ and ‘one who foretells the future’ for ‘prophet.’ This is not always a recommended usage, particularly if such expressions denote certain special native practices of spirit contact and control. It is true, of course, that prophets of the Bible did foretell the future, but this was not always their principal function. One essential significance of the Greek word prophētēs is ‘one who speaks forth,’ principally, of course, as a forth-teller of the Divine will. A translation such as ‘spokesman for God’ may often be employed profitably.” (1947, p. 234f.)
Following is a list of (back-) translations from other languages (click or tap for details):
Ayutla Mixtec: “one who talks as God’s representative”
Isthmus Mixe: “speaker for God” (source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Mezquital Otomi / Paasaal: “God’s messenger” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff. and Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Noongar: Warda Marridjiny or “News Traveling” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Kutu: mtula ndagu or “one who gives the prediction of the past and the future” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ebira: ọnịsẹ, a neologism that combines the prefix ọn for “a person” with ịsẹ for “prediction” (source: Scholz /Scholz 2015, p. 49)
French 1985 translation by Chouraqui: inspiré or “inspired one” (“someone in whom God has breathed [Latin: in + spiro]) (source: Watson 2023, p. 45)
Cherokee: adolehosgi (ᎠᏙᎴᎰᏍᎩ) or “discoverer of things,” a “term that was was traditionally applied to Cherokee medicine men or women who used divining.” (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 49)
In Ixcatlán Mazatec a term is used that specifically includes women. (Source: Robert Bascom)
“In some instances these spiritual terms result from adaptations reflecting the native life and culture. Among the Northern Grebo people of Liberia, a missionary wanted some adequate term for ‘prophet,’ and she was fully aware that the native word for ‘soothsayer’ or ‘diviner’ was no equivalent for the Biblical prophet who spoke forth for God. Of course, much of what the prophets said referred to the future, and though this was an essential part of much of their ministry, it was by no means all. The right word for the Gbeapo people would have to include something which would not only mean the foretelling of important events but the proclamation of truth as God’s representative among the people. At last the right word came; it was ‘God’s town-crier.’ Every morning and evening the official representative of the chief goes through the village crying out the news, delivering the orders of the chief, and announcing important coming events. ‘God’s town-crier’ would be the official representative of God, announcing to the people God’s doings, His commands, and His pronouncements for their salvation and well-being. For the Northern Grebo people the prophet is no weird person from forgotten times; he is as real as the human, moving message of the plowman Amos, who became God’s town-crier to a calloused people.” (source: Nida 1952, p. 20)
In British Sign Language it is is translated with a sign that depicts a message coming from God to a person (the upright finger) and then being passed on to others. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Prophet” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 5:4:
Uma: “And if we become able to endure, we can defeat temptation, to-the-point-that God likes our behavior. And if we know that God likes our behavior, our hope in God gets stronger-and-stronger.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “If/when we (incl.) endure our (incl.) hardships, God is pleased with us (incl.). And if/when we (incl.) know that God is pleased with us we (incl.) are assured that there is (something) good that we (incl.) expect/hope-for from God.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And if we are able to endure, this pleases God; and when we know that God is pleased with our behavior, then it is absolutely true that there is something good which we can expect.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “And when we have endured hardship, it is confirmed that our faith is steady/persevering. And if our faith is persevering, we expect that God’s plan for us will be fulfilled.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “When we endure all the suffering we go through then God looks well upon us. When God has looked well upon us then we know that there will come the day we will see the good he gives.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “And when we are strong in enduring trouble, then we will indeed be proven men, and if we are proven men, then we will wait for God to do well with us.”
Teutila Cuicatec: “When we find patience it comes out that we are good, when it comes out that we are good we hope in God.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Mairasi: “Furthermore that fact of our having well-split bones [diligence] will increasingly work in our liver until we will experience good life/behavior. Then that good life/behavior which we experience will work in our liver with the result that our vision resting place [hope] will increasingly certainly get strong.” (Source: Enggavoter 2004)
The Greek, Hebrew, and Ge’ez that is translated in English as “Law” or “law” is translated in Mairasi as oro nasinggiei or “prohibited things” (source: Enggavoter 2004) and in Noongar with a capitalized form of the term for “words” (Warrinya) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
In Yucateco the phrase that is used for “law” is “ordered-word” (for “commandment,” it is “spoken-word”) (source: Nida 1947, p. 198) and in Central Tarahumara it is “writing-command.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
