Start by entering a Bible verse here and select Find Verse
Step into the multitudes of languages of the Bible and join the worldwide conversation!
Source: Stier 1989
Das Neue Testament – Übersetzt von Fridolin Stier. München: Kösel; Düsseldorf: Patmos, 1989.
Translation approach: Translation according to rules and vocabulary of the source text, including largely concordant terminology, employment of neologisms, and uncommon syntactical variations to reflect the Greek text as much as possible. Stier matched many of his translation principles along those of Martin Buber, co-translator of “Die Schrift,” the Hebrew Bible in German.
Translation by committee or single individual: individual
Dates of publication and revision(s): Gospel of Mark 1965, New Testament 1989 (published posthumously)
Confession: Catholic
Publisher: Kösel / Patmos (book out of print)
The different Greek words (agapaō and phileō) that are used in the conversation between Jesus and Peter (the first two times, Jesus asked Peter whether he “agapaōs” him, to which Peter answers that he “phileōs” Jesus, whereas the third time, Jesus’ question and Peter’s answer are both “phileō“) and that are typically all translated “love” in English are differentiated in some translations:
The English translation by Blackwelder (1980) differentiate with love and have affection, Cassirer (1989) with love and hold dear, Pakaluk (2021) has cherish and love, and Ruden (2021) has love and close friend
A number of German translations (Luther 2017, Neue Genfer Übersetzung 2011, Menge 2010, BasisBibel 2021) use lieben (for agapaō) vs. lieb haben for phileō (“love” vs. “be very fond of”); the translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) has “love” and “be a friend”
Likewise, the FrenchBible Segond 21 (publ. 2007) uses aimer vs. avoir l’amour with a similar difference than the former German translations
The BurmeseMyanmar Standard Bible (2017) has hkyit (ချစ်) vs. hkyithkain (ချစ်ခင်), also “love” vs. “love / be fond of.”
Kayaw makes a distinction as well (source: Anonymous)
The Greek in John 5:20 that is translated as “renewal of all things” or similar in English is translated in the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) as “the Father is a friend of the Son.”
The Greek in Matthew 19:28 that is translated as “renewal of all things” or similar in English is translated in the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) as “renewal of the world” (Welterneuerung).
The Greek that is translated in English as “scoffed,” “sneered,” or “ridiculed” is translated in Kafa as “made mouths crooked” (source: Loren Bliese) and in Elhomwe as “squeeze lips.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
In the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) it is translated as “turn up their noses (lit.: “wrinkle their noses”)” (Nase rümpfen).
The term in John 1:14 that is translated as “tabernacle” or “dwell” in English versions is translated in Hakha Chin as “made his village among us,” an expression that shows he was not just a casual visitor. (Source: David Clark)
Huehuetla Tepehua translates it as “came and lived with us here a little while.” (Source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
In the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) it is translates as “he pitched (or: lived in) his tent among us” (Welterneuerung).
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 Greek terms that are used for what is translated as “net” in English are translated in languages like Navajo (Dinė) where fishing with nets is not known as “instruments to catch (or: bring out) the fish.” (Source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
“[People living close to lakes] produced further problems for us over fishing terms when we reached the revision of the Gospels. Fishing is practically unknown in the mountain streams and rivers, so there is hardly any vocabulary for it up-country. In Mat. 4:18 we read that Jesus saw two brethren “casting a net into the sea.” The word we used for net (urusenga) is used all over Rundi for a fishing net, whatever it is like, but when I read this to some people who live by the lake they said it was the wrong word, as from the context this happened during the daytime, and urusenga-fishing is only done at night. It appears that the urusenga is something like a shrimping net, and is used on moonless nights, when the fishermen hold flares over the side of the boat and attract a certain variety of very small fish which swim about in shoals. The net they use for day-time fishing is something like a drag-net and is called urukwabu. On enquiry inland, I never discovered a single person who knew this word. It was obviously the right one, technically speaking, but we felt that the few thousand lake-dwellers could not be weighed against almost the entire population of the country, so we had to employ the up-country word, putting an explanatory note in the margin that by the lake this net is called urukwabu.”
In Matthew 13:47 the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) translates it as “drag net” (Schleppnetz).
Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing net-fishing in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)
The Greek in John 6:46 that is translated as “the one who is from God” in English is translated in the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) as “the one who has his existence from (or: is rooted in) God” (der von Gott her west).
