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.
The name that is transliterated as “Perga” in English is translated in Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) with a sign that combines “columns,” “street,” and “water” (the famous agora was surrounded by columns — see images in the link to Wikipedia below — and there were two aqueducts in the city). (Source: Missão Kophós )
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 14:25:
Uma: “From there they carried the Word of God to the town of Perga, and only then did they descend going to the edge of the sea arriving at the town of Atalia.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “They went to the town Perga and they proclaimed the word/message of God there. Then they went-down to Attaliya.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And they preached the word of God there in the village of Perga, and then they went down to Attalia.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Then they walked-through the province Pisidia, and they went to Perga a town in Pamfilia. When they preached there, then they went to Attalia,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “In Panfilia, they reached the city of Perga and taught the word of God there. From there, they went down to Atalia which was by the sea.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) can be used, as in mi-kotoba (みことば) or “word (of God)” in the referenced verses.
In translating preached the message in Perga, it may be necessary to indicate the persons who received the message—for example, “preached the Good News to people in Perga.”
Attalia was the chief seaport of Pamphylia. One went down to it when coming from inland.
Commended to the care of God’s grace (literally “commended to the grace of God”) is to be taken in the sense of “to be commended to God’s providence and care” (see New English Bible and Moffatt “commended to the grace of God,” which is to be preferred to An American Translation* “commended to God’s favor”). It is not easy to render satisfactorily the expression commended to the care of God’s grace. It is quite easy to talk about “turning people over to God” or “entrusting them to God,” but to “entrust a person to God’s grace” may produce certain complications. Therefore, in many languages it is necessary to break this expression into two phrases: “they entrusted them to God for him to care for” or “they entrusted them to God in order that God would show his goodness to them.”
It is essential that God’s grace be closely related to the work they had now completed, since it is “God’s care for them so that they could do the work which they had finished.”
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 .
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
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