furious, fury

The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “fury” or “furious” or similar in English is translated in Low German with the alliteration and idiom Gift un Gall speeten or “spit poison and bile” (translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1937, republ. 2006).

Fittingly, it is also used in Acts 14:2 to translate the Greek (ἐκάκωσαν τὰς ψυχὰς) that is translated as “poison the mind” in English.

See also very angry and in anger.

gentiles / nations

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).

Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).

In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also nations.

brother (fellow believer)

The Greek that is translated in English as “brother” or “brother and sister” (in the sense of fellow believers), is translated with a specifically coined word in Kachin: “There are two terms for brother in Kachin. One is used to refer to a Christian brother. This term combines ‘older and younger brother.’ The other term is used specifically for addressing siblings. When one uses this term, one must specify if the older or younger person is involved. A parallel system exists for ‘sister’ as well. In [these verses], the term for ‘a Christian brother’ is used.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae)

In Matumbi is is translated as alongo aumini or “relative-believer.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)

In Martu Wangka it is translated as “relative” (this is also the term that is used for “follower.”) (Source: Carl Gross)

In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) it is often translated as Mitchristen or “fellow Christians.”

See also brothers.

complete verse (Acts 14:2)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 14:2:

  • Uma: “But the Yahudi people who did not want to believe incited the people who were not Yahudi people, so that they hated the believers in the Lord Yesus.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But the Yahudi who did not trust, they stirred up the non-Yahudi so that they opposed the ones trusting in Isa.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “But those Jews who did not believe, they made those people who aren’t Jews angry with the believers.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But the Jews who refused to believe, they incited-to-wrongdoing the Gentiles so that their thoughts toward the believers became-bad.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But well, those Jews who didn’t want to believe, they incited some of those who weren’t Jews to hate/get-angry-with those who had believed.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Acts 14:2

Would not believe is literally “disobeyed,” but this word is used throughout Acts and elsewhere in the New Testament as the opposite of “to believe.” The phrase would not believe may be rendered as “refused to believe in Jesus.”

In the Greek sentence structure their feelings (literally “the souls of the Gentiles”) is actually the object of both verbs stirred up and turned … against. The verb translated turned … against literally means “mistreat” or “treat badly” (see 7.6), and when used with “soul” as its object means “stir up feelings (in a negative way).” Some translators render the Greek expression as “poisoned their minds against.” Some commentators believe that the verbs in this verse should be taken in the sense of “began to” inasmuch as the apostles stayed for a long while and did not really have any difficulty until the Jewish and Gentile leaders managed to get together (see v. 5).

The equivalent of turned their feelings against may be in some languages “caused them to be angry with.” In some instances the equivalent is highly idiomatic, for example, “caused their hearts to be hot against” or “caused them to burn against.”

The expression the brothers may be difficult to render in this particular context, since it might suggest that Paul and Barnabas were brothers in a physical sense. The meaning of course is “fellow believers,” and this is the way in which it must sometimes be translated in order to avoid an incorrect implication.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .