The phrase in Acts 7:51 that is translated into English as “uncircumcised in heart and ears” is translated into Afar as “You are people who have hearts that refuse God, and ears closed saying we didn’t hear God’s message.” (Source: Loren Bliese)
Other translations for “uncircumcised in heart and ears” include:
- Rincón Zapotec: “it doesn’t enter your hearts or your ears. You are like those who don’t even believe”
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “hard are your hearts and not a little bit open are your ears”
- Morelos Nahuatl: “you have your heart as unbelievers, you do not want to hear God’s word”
- Highland Popoluca: “you never wanted to do God’s will, never truly believed”
- Teutila Cuicatec: “you are just the same as those who do not believe God’s word because you do not obey”
- Huichol: “you have not been marked with God’s sign in your hearts or in your ears” (or: “you are unruly and unsubmissive like an untamed, unbranded bronco”)
- Ojitlán Chinantec: “you do not have the word-sign in your hearts. Your ears are clogged”
- Copainalá Zoque: “you just don’t understand”
- Isthmus Mixe: “your hearts and minds are not open” (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
- Kaqchikel: “with your hearts unprepared” (source: Nida 1964, p. 220)
- Elhomwe: “like people who do not know God” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
- Chichewa (interconfessional translation) “hard-headed.” (Source: Wendland 1987, p. 130)
- Bariai: “You aren’t able to receive knowledge, certainly not. You shut your ears always to Deo’s talk.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
- Low German 1975 translation by Rudolf Muuß: “Your hearts and ears are no better than those of the heathen”
- Uma: “No kidding your stubbornness! No kidding your making yourselves deaf to hearing the Word of the Lord God!” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “Your livers are livers not obeying/following God. And how deaf are your ears. You do not listen-to/heed God’s word/message.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
See also uncircumcised and stiff-necked.
The Greek that is translated as “(small) rudder” in English is translated in the following ways:
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “(a small) stick”
- Mezquital Otomi: “a (little) metal”
- Rincón Zapotec: “(little) wooden hand” (source for this and two above: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.)
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “thing that is in the water that steers the boat”
- Teutila Cuicatec: “paddle that steered the ship” (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
- Tetelcingo Nahuatl: “board to steer” (source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.).
See also ship and anchor.
The Greek in Acts 28:22 that is here translated as “sect” in English is translated as “new mind” in Isthmus Mixe, as “new teaching” in Morelos Nahuatl, or “different word” in Lalana Chinantec. (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
See also sect.
The Greek proverb in Acts 26:14 which is translated directly by some English versions as “kick against the goads (=a spiked stick used for driving cattle)” and refers to “pointless fighting” became “throw chaff into the wind” in the Khmer Standard Version translation of 2005 (the translators also considered “spit vertically upwards”). (Source David Clark)
In Lalana Chinantec it is translated as “as a bull which kicks a sharp stick which his owner holds so do you,” in Teutila Cuicatec as “you are doing the same as an ox that is hurting itself, kicking the sharp stick that people drive it with,” in Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac as “like a horse when it kicks the stick with which it is driven” (source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), and in Elhomwe as “because you are against me, you are hurting yourself” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext).
In Russian, the phrase Трудно тебе идти против рожна (Trudno tebe idti protiv rozhna) or “kick against the goads” is widely used as an idiom in every-day life, with the meaning of undertaking a risky action against constraint imposed by tradition or authority. The wording of the quote originated in the Russian Synodal Bible (publ. 1876). (Source: Reznikov 2020, p. 63f.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 10:6:
- Uma: “But there are other words of Musa that say we can become straight in God’s sight because of our faith. They sound like this: ‘Don’t say in your (sing.) heart: ‘Who is able to climb up to heaven? Who can go down to the dwelling of the dead?’ ‘ Its meaning: it is not necessary for us to climb up to heaven to search for goodness [i.e., salvation], because Kristus has already come down here to us. Nor is it necessary for us to go down to the dwelling of the dead to search for goodness, because Kristus, has risen from the dead to give us goodness.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “But just one thing must/ought be done by us (dual) so that we (dual) are considered straight by God, we (dual) must trust Isa Almasi. And about this there is also (something) written in the holy-book, it says, ‘Don’t say (pl.), ‘There should be first someone going to heaven,’ ‘ (that means to get Almasi to bring him here to earth.)” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “However, concerning the regarding people that can be means of faith, there’s also a written word which says, ‘You must not suppose that we (incl.) can only be considered righteous by God if someone goes to Heaven to get Christ.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “But there is also that which God caused-to-be-written which makes-known to us that the righteousness based on faith is not difficult to gain/enjoy. It/He says, ‘Don’t say to yourselves (lit. with your minds) that someone needs to go to heaven to go call Cristo to come-down here.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “But there is the word about how God clears our sins. He clears our sins because we believe in Jesus Christ. Because it is written ‘Therefore let no one say that is necessary to go to heaven to bring back Christ to save him. Because he has already come.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
- Huehuetla Tepehua: “But this is what the word of God says about those who have put their confidence in Christ and because of that they are seen as if their life was straight before God. He said: Don’t say in your heart, Who can go up to heaven so that he could bring Christ here to this world to help us?”
- Teutila Cuicatec: “As for God justifying those who believe, perhaps there are those who scoff and say as follows: ‘Just who has ever gone to heaven and seen if Jesus Christ came from there?'” (Source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
The Greek in Acts 7:38 that is translated as “living oracles” or “living words” or similar in English is translated in the following ways:
The Greek in Romans 12:13 that is translated as “practice hospitality” or similar in English is translated as “treat strangers kindly” in Yatzachi Zapotec, as “be brotherly to those who want to stay a while in your houses” in Huehuetla Tepehua, as “open up your houses that those who come on the road should enter” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui, as “show the goodness of your heart to as many as arrive at your houses” in Tzeltal, and as “give rest to people” in Mezquital Otomi. (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) with Gastfreundschaft sei euer höchstes Ziel or “let hospitality be your most important goal.”
See also hospitality and hospitable.
The Greek in Acts 2:38 that is translated “receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” or similar in English is translated as
- “receive the gift of God which is the Holy Spirit” in Eastern Highland Otomi
- “God will give his Spirit to you” in Chuj
- “God will cause his Holy Spirit to possess you” in Teutila Cuicatec
- “the Holy Spirit will come into your souls with his power” in Desano
- “you will receive the Holy Spirit, Father God will give you that” in San Mateo del Mar Huave
- “God will send the Holy Spirit to live with you” Mezquital Otomi (source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
- “you guys will receive Great Above Ones Spirit as a gift from right where Great Above One lives” in Mairasi (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- “you will receive the Straight Spirit as a gift to you” in Bariai (source: Bariai Back Translation)
See also Receive the Holy Spirit.
