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 Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “gnat” or similar in English is translated in Bariai as “sand fly” (source: Bariai Back Translation).
In Matthew 19:28, the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) uses a diminutive form of mosquito (Mücklein).
In Bughotu, Jesus’ distress described in John 11:33 was shown by using the equivalent of “his mind was going up and down.”
In the German Luther translation (2017 edition) it says ergrimmte im Geist und erbebte or “was angry in his spirit and shook” and in the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) it is translated as “his spirit suddenly flared up and he got all shook up (or: was discombobulated)” (er fuhr im Geist jäh auf und geriet durcheinander).
In the Polish Przekład Otwarty it is translated closely along the lines of the Greek text as “he was stirred up in spirit and shook himself.” (Source: Piotr Szuszkiewicz)
The Greek in Mark 10:38 that is translated as “baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with” or similar in English is translated in the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) as “dipped into the baptism in which I will be dipped into.”
See also baptism / baptize.
In choosing a word for the Greek that is typically translated as “gospel” in English, a number of languages construct a phrase meaning “good news,” “joyful report” or “happiness-bringing words.” In some instances such a phrase may be slightly expanded in order to convey the proper meaning, e.g. “new good word” (Tzotzil), or it may involve some special local usage:
“In Rutul, it was only during the most recent consultant checking session that I realized that the Rutul word for Gospel – Incir (from Arabic إنجيل — Injil) — sounds and looks exactly like the word that means ‘fig’ in Rutul. This is a case of homonymy, in which two completely non-related words from differing historical sources have come to sound exactly alike. Most Rutul speakers know that incir means ‘fig’ because they grow this fruit in their yard or buy it at the market every week. However, because the religious sphere of discourse was heavily disparaged during the Soviet era, most people simply never encountered Incir with the meaning of ‘Gospel.’ This meaning of the word, which Rutuls of the pre-Soviet era knew from the Koran, simply fell into disuse and never had much reason for returning into contemporary Rutul since there is no Christian church established among the people. So if the translator continues to use the term Incir as the rendering for ‘Gospel,’ he runs the risk that most readers will, at best, read the word with a smile because they know that it also means ‘fig,’ and, at worst, will completely misunderstand the word. The seemingly ‘easy’ solution in this case is for the translator to use a Rutul neologism meaning ‘Joyful Message’ or ‘Good News,’ [see above] instead of Incir; but in fact it is not all that easy to make this change if the translator himself insists on using the historical word because at least some Rutuls still understand it as meaning ‘Gospel.’ This is a situation in which the translation team has to gradually grow into the understanding that a fully intelligible translation of Scripture is preferable to one that maintains old words at the cost of alienating much of the readership.”
For “good news,” see also Isaiah 52:7.
The Greek that is translated as “touch” in English is translated in the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) as “(touch and) hold on to” (festhalten).
The Greek that is often translated as “speaking with tongues” in English is translated these ways:
In most Protestant Mandarin Chinese translations, the term fāngyán (方言) or “dialect / regional language” is used. The widely-used Catholic Sigao translation uses yǔyán 语言 (語言) or “language” instead. (See also W. Chong in Religions 2024, 15, p. 288ff. )
In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) it is translated as in den Sprachen der Engel reden or “speaking in the language of angels.” The translators explain (p. 104): “According to Jewish understanding, angels primarily spoke Hebrew. The ‘languages’ of angels are specific texts (such as songs). This is not related to a formal knowledge of language.” Note that in the latter part of 1 Corinthians 14 (from verse 26 on) and in Acts 2:4, Berger / Nord use “foreign language” instead.
In the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) it is translated as “speaking with ecstatic tongues” (mit verzückten Zungen reden).
The Greek that is translated as “beginning” in English is translated in the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) as “primordial beginning” (Uranfang).
See also In the beginning and deep (noun).
The Greek that is translated as “overseer” or “bishop” is kalayi in Chokwe. “This is the word for a watchman set in time of danger or war, who is responsible for the welfare of all under his care and will be held accountable for his faithfulness or otherwise.” (Source: D. B. Long in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 87ff. )
In Bacama the translation is adɨ nidə ji-kottə: “person who looks after the followers” (source: David Frank in this blog post ), in Isthmus Mixe as “leader at God’s house,” in Ojitlán Chinantec as “one who will take care of the assemblies, and in Tenango Otomi as “the guardian of the believers” (source for last three: John Beekman & Harwood Hess in Notes on Translation, March 1963, p. 1ff.).
In the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) it is translated as “men with a supervisory office” (Männer mit Übersichtsamt).