eternal life

The Greek that is translated in English as “eternal life” is translated in various ways:

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.”

See also eternity / forever and salvation.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Eternal Life in John .

yoke

The Greek and Hebrew term that is translated into English as “yoke,” the Afar translation uses koyta (poles of camel pack) which refers to two poles in front of the hump and two behind; elsewhere in agricultural Ethiopia the yoke is only in front of the hump.

In Chol it is translated with tajbal, a term for “headband” (for carrying) (source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.). Likewise, in Kele, it is translated with njɛmbɛ, “a carrying strap worn around the head and across the chest or shoulders to support a burden of firewood, garden produce or even a child carried by this on the back or hip” (source: William Ford in The Bible Translator 1957, p. 203ff. ).

In Matumbi it is translated as “rope” and “yoke is easy” is translated as “rope is slack/soft.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)

In Kwasio it is translated with a term that refers to a “bulky piece of wood attached to the neck of a goat, preventing it from roaming freely in the brushy undergrowth.”

Joshua Ham explains: “When checking this verse in Kwasio, I was surprised to find that the Kwasio had a word for yoke. You see, none of the language groups we have worked with have a tradition of using animals to pull carts or plows. Since yokes don’t exist in the culture, there’s no need for a word for that concept in these languages.

“When I asked the Kwasio team about their word for yoke, they said that they don’t use yokes to help animals pull plows; rather, their word for yoke refers to a bulky piece of wood attached to the neck of a goat, preventing it from roaming freely in the brushy undergrowth. So while the exact use of a Kwasio yoke is not the same as a biblical yoke, there are a lot of similarities: in both cases, it’s a piece of wood around an animal’s neck that serves to keep the animal under control. While the overlap isn’t perfect, it’s pretty good — and almost certainly better than trying to squeeze in a distracting explanation of how yokes function in the biblical cultures.”

Adam Boyd (in The PNG Experience ) tells this story about finding the right term in Enga: “Jesus’s words in Matthew 11:29-30 are some of the most difficult to translate into the Enga language. From the time that I became a Christian, I was taught that a yoke is a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the neck of two animals and attached to a plough or cart that they are to pull. This is an easy enough concept to understand for people who come from societies that make use of beasts of burden, but in Papua New Guinea, there are no beasts of burden. Consequently the concept of a yoke placed on animals is completely foreign. Thus, we have struggled greatly in our attempt to translate Matthew 11:29-30.

“Recently, however, I came to learn that a yoke can also refer to a wooden frame that a person places on his neck or shoulders to make it easier to carry a heavy load. Indeed, the Bible often makes figurative use of the word ‘yoke’ as it refers to people and not to beasts of burden (see 1 Kings 12:4-14). As I was pondering that idea, I began to notice that when Engan men carry heavy logs on one shoulder, they often balance the load by supporting it with a small stick placed across the other shoulder. A few weeks ago, it clicked in my mind that the small stick they use to make it easier to carry a heavy log is like a yoke.

“Excited by this realization, I quickly asked my friend Benjamin if the stick that men use to make it easier to carry a heavy log has a name in Enga. Sure enough it does. It is called a pyakende. With great anticipation, I asked the translation team if we could use the word pyakende to translate the word ‘yoke’. After wrestling with the phrasing for a little while, we came up with the following translation: ‘In order to remove the heaviness from your shoulders, take my pyakende. When you have taken it, you will receive rest. As my pyakende helps you, what I give you to carry is not heavy and you will carry it without struggling.’”

“Yoke” 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.

Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing how yokes were used in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)

equality

The Greek that is often translated as “equality” in English is translated in Kele as likelemba, “which denotes the equal and alternate sharing of one’s share of food, wages or ration. When one has none or lacks a fair share, then a friend gives his share so that your abundance may supply their want at the present time, so that their abundance (on another occasion) may supply your need.” (source: William Ford in The Bible Translator 1957, p. 203ff. ).

complete verse (1 John 2:10)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 John 2:10:

  • Uma: “People who love their relatives, they stay in the light, and there isn’t anything that causes-their-downfall.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But the one loving his fellow truster in Isa Almasi, he lives already in the light and there is nothing that causes him to sin.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The person, by contrast, who loves his companion, he is the one whose mind has been illuminated by God, and his behaviour will not cause him to sin.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But the one who loves his fellow-men, that’s the one who remains in the light, so there is no cause-for-sinning in him.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But as for the person who values his sibling in believing, he is the one who is truly living in the light/enlightenment. Really if it’s like that, there’s no longer anything in/with him which can-lead-him-to-fall(fig.) into sin.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “He who loves his brother, then he is living good. There cannot be said of him that he is responsible if another person should sin.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “If we love our fellows we are constantly present where there is light because we are doing good, and no more will we fall doing evil.”
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “He who loves his sibling, habitually lives in God’s light and nowhere will he fall into sin.”
  • Tzotzil: “If we love our Christian brethren, we are in the sunlight. Thus there is nothing now in our hearts to cause us to become evil (to do evil).” (Source for this and two above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)
  • Kele: “He who loves his brother basks in the sunshine and thus is no root in the ground over which his brother might stumble.” (Source: William Ford in The Bible Translator 1957, p. 203ff. )