fire is never quenched

The Greek that is translated as “fire is never quenched” in English is translated in Shor as “wildfire is never quenched.” Andrei S. Desnitsky explains (in: The Bible Translator 2018, p. 233ff. ): “Hell is described as a place where ‘the fire is never quenched.’ This is easy to render in probably any language but the translators into Shor (a Turkic language spoken in south-western Siberia) noticed that the direct rendering creates a rather positive image: what a nice place it must be, warm and full of light! This connotation disappeared as soon as they replaced the word ot (fire, light) with ört (wildfire).”

addressing Moses and Elijah with a different pronoun than the disciples, use of third party pronouns to mark importance (Luke 9:34)

Balinese uses 4 different 3rd person pronouns: two to indicate important and very important persons (dane and ida), one to speak of a person of lower standing but in a familiar manner, and one to speak of such a person in a polite manner (ia and ipun). In the case of this verse where the Greek (and English) does not give any indication to whom the three instances of the third person plural pronoun refers to, the Balinese has to make a disctinction: jeg wenten mega nyayubin Ida miwah dane sareng sami, tur rikala Ida miwah dane kasayubin antuk megane punika, sisiane makatetiga punika pada karesresan: “a cloud came and overshadowed them (Moses and Elijah — marked as very important); and they (the disciples — marked as important) were terrified as they (Moses and Elijah — marked as very important) entered the cloud.”

Source: J.L. Swellengrebel in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 158ff.

wages

“In Genesis 29:15, the verse speaks of the ‘wages’ Laban should have paid Jacob, but in Bari the ordinary word for wages cannot be used, as there is no question of hire between relatives. The reward for work done is called doket, ‘gift’, or yariet, ‘help’.”

Source: Source: P. Guillebaud in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 189ff.

asleep

The Greek that is translated in English as “asleep” or similar is translated in Burmese as “royally asleep.” In the widely-used translation by Judson an honorific particle is added to every verb that describes an action of Jesus, so here he is “royally asleep.” (source: S.V. Vincent in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 196f. )

See also sound asleep.

deacon

The Greek that is often translated as “deacon” in English is translated as kavumbi in Chokwe, someone “who serves another, not from compulsion or for a wage, but because of vumbi or grace.” (Source: D. B. Long in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 87ff. )

A number of English translations (Revised Standard Version 1952, Phillips 1958, Jerusalem Bible 1966 and its later revisions, Lattimore 1982, Christian Community Bible 1997, The Orthodox New Testament 2004, and New Catholic Bible 2019) use the feminine form deaconess in Romans 16:1. This can also be found in some French translations (La Bible Du Semeur 1992, Louis Segond 1910, La Bible de Communautés Chrétiennes 1994, and Nouvelle Edition de Genève) as well as the majority of Spanish, Italian, and German versions (French: diaconesse, Spanish: diaconisa, Italian: diaconessa, German: Diakonisse).

One French translation (La Bible Du Semeur) and a couple of German translations (BasisBibel 2021 and Gute Nachricht Bibel 1968 / 2018) also use the feminine form of deacon in 1 Timothy 3:11 (for a discussion on this, see Translation commentary on 1 Timothy 3:11).