The Greek that is translated as “disqualified” or “castaway” in English is translated as chisashili in Chokwe. This refers to a “basket or the like that has broken down or for some reason unfit for the fulfillment of its original purpose. It is then thrown out, though it may be picked off the rubbish heap to serve some other, though always inferior, end. It is rejected as unfit for the job intended by its owner or maker and lies on the refuse pile in shame.”
The Greek terms that are translated into English as “preach” or “proclaim” are regularly rendered into Aari as “speaking the word of salvation.” (Source: Loren Bliese)
Other languages (back-) translate it in the following manner:
Tzeltal: “he explains, they hear” (“the goal of all preachers”)
Copainalá Zoque: “a preacher is ‘one who speaks-scatters'” (a figure based on the scattering of seed in the process of sowing) (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
Shilluk: “declare the word of of God” (source: Nida 1964, p. 237)
In Luang it is translated with different shades of meaning:
For Acts 9:20, 10:42: nakotnohora: “talk about” (“The generic term for preaching.”)
For Acts 8:4, 8:5, 8:25: rodkiota-ralde’etnohora — “bring words, give news about.” (“This term is used when the preacher is moving from place to place to preach.”)
Source: Kathy Taber in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 9-16.
In Kilivila culture, “boxing” is not associated with sport, so to translate the Greek term that is rendered with “boxing” in English in the Kilivila translation, a more generic statement was made: “If I play sport, I should prepare and practice my body so it will be matched for that sport . . ..”
Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Corinthians 9:27:
Uma: “I train my body/self, I control my own desires, lest after I finish spreading the Good News to other people, I end up not getting the prize.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Like a boxer I (put in) difficulties my body so that/and I really don’t indulge the desires of my body, perhaps that/lest I the one preaching to the people, I am yet the one not received by God.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And as for this body of mine, if it has an evil desire, I do everything I can that I might control it, because it might be, otherwise, that I who have taught other people, I might be the one whom God will not reward in the future.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “I control my body so that I don’t follow its evil desires lest I who have been-preaching to others, I will not be approved.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “I am really enduring whatever hardship to my body and am really controlling myself. For maybe after I have taught others how the prize can be theirs, I am the one who won’t be given one.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “The person who wants to win, works hard to study how to win. It is like that for me. I set my heart on how to find how the word by which I walk will win out. Because I want to do like the word I have told the people to do. I do not want that God will tell me that I have done wrongly.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
If in the previous verse the translator used a positive statement for the sentence “I do not run aimlessly,” the word but will not be necessary to begin this verse.
Good News Bible expands pommel to “harden with blows.” One may also say “I hit my body to make it hard (or, tough).”
Body here, as elsewhere, means human nature as a whole, in its weakness, not the literal body. Paul is using a physical metaphor to refer, not only to fasting, scourging, and similar practices, but also to discipline of his complete being.
Lest after (Good News Bible‘s “to keep myself from being”) is literally “in-order-that perhaps not.” Both the Greek and the sentence as a whole show that Paul is speaking about a positive situation that is not yet a reality.
After preaching can be rendered as “after I have preached.” The verb translated preaching may mean “make a public announcement,” as in New Jerusalem Bible‘s “act as a herald” and Good News Bible, or “proclaim the gospel,” as in most translations. Preaching is used by Paul in its normal Christian meaning of “proclaim the gospel.”
Disqualified (compare 2 Cor 13.5-7) clearly refers to athletic competitions. In languages that do not normally use the passive voice it will help to render should be disqualified as “so that God will not disqualify me” or “so that God will not say that I am not allowed to run the race.”
The final sentence of this verse can be translated as “So that God will not disqualify me after I have preached to others” or “So that after I have preached to others, God does not disqualify me.”
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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