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 “millstone” in English is illustrated for use in Bible translations in East Africa by Pioneer Bible Translators like this:
Image owned by PBT and Jonathan McDaniel and licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
In the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) is it translated as “donkey millstone” (Eselsmühlstein) and in Cherokee as nvya or “rock” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 16).
See also a mill or an upper millstone.
The Greek in Matthew 23:2 that is translated as “Moses’s seat” or similar in English is translated in the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) as “Moses’s professorial chair” (Lehrstuhl des Moses).
The Greek that is often translated in English as “end of the age” or “end of the world” is translated in Amele as “the end of the world time,” in Dobel as “the end of the world as it is now,” and in Luwo as” Day of God’s judgement” (in Matt. 13:39-40) or “as the end of the present world/earth” (in Matt. 13:49; 24:3 and 28:20). (Sources: Joseph Modesto (Luwo), John Roberts (Amele), Jock Hughes (Dobel))
In the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) it is translated as “the complete end (or: “the very end”) of the world time” (das Voll-Ende der Weltzeit).
See also worries/cares of the world/this age.
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 in the referenced verses that is translated as “pray” or “prayer” in English is translated in the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) as “(offer) supplications” (Flehrufe (abhalten) / flehen).
The Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek terms that are often translated as “worship” (also, “kneel down” or “bow down”) are likewise translated in other languages in certain categories, including those based on physical activity, those which incorporate some element of “speaking” or “declaring,” and those which specify some type of mental activity.
In Luang it is translated with different shades of meaning:
Source: Kathy Taber in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 9-16.
The Greek that is translated in English as the singular “heaven” but is actually a plural form in the original Greek is translated in that plural form in the Greek original (ouranōn or ouranois instead of the singular ouranos) are translated in the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) as the plural form “heavens” ((die) Himmel). Note that this is particularly often used in the Gospel of Matthew (see the referenced verses). The German translation of Walter Jens (publ. 1998) translates likewise.
See also heaven.
The Greek in the referenced verses that is typically translated as “age,” “(for)ever / eternity / eternal / permanent,” “of old / long ago” in English is translated in the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) consistenty as “world (or: “cosmic”) time” (Weltzeit).
Sarah Ruden (2021, p. lxii) explains the complexities of the translation of aiōn: “Trickiest of all [the words relating to time] is aion, most simply an ‘age’ or ‘era’ but sometimes denoting either the whole present world or the whole world to come. The same word can allude to all the limits of material existence (or to dangerous worldly distractions in particular), or to their absence in the eternal age to come. Looking forward, especially to ‘ages of ages’ (in the pattern of ‘King of Kings’), the meaning is ‘eternity.’”