preach

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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:

  • Mandarin Chinese: chuándào/傳道 or “hand down the Way [or: the Logos]”)
  • Kekchí: “declare the word”
  • Kpelle: “speak God’s word”
  • 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.

complete verse (Acts 8:4)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 8:4:

  • Uma: “So, those followers of Yesus who fled from Yerusalem, wherever they went they kept announcing the Word of the Lord.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “The ones trusting in Isa who were scattered, they went throughout all the places and they proclaimed the good news about Isa.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Those believers who were scattered out when they ran away, they caused the word of God to be understood in the villages.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Those-aforementioned-ones who separated-from-each-other, wherever they went, they preached the word of God concerning Jesus.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well, as for those scattered ones, each place they came to, they were teaching to people the word of God.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

word / command (of God) (Japanese honorifics)

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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.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Acts 8:4

Luke begins this section with a favorite formula (see 1.6) that is not rendered in most translations, though it appears in the Revised Standard Version as “now” and in the King James Version as “therefore.”

“Those who were scattered” has been expanded in the Good News Translation to the believers who were scattered, while went everywhere translates a verb which means “to go from place to place” (see Jerusalem Bible). For the use of “word” in the sense of message see 4.4.

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 .