neighbor

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The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “neighbor” in English is rendered into Babatana as “different man,” i.e. someone who is not one of your relatives. (Source: David Clark)

In North Alaskan Inupiatun, it is rendered as “a person outside of your building,” in Tzeltal as “your back and side” (implying position of the dwellings), in Indonesian and in Tae’ as “your fellow-man,” in Toraja-Sa’dan it is “your fellow earth-dweller,” in Shona (translation of 1966) as “another person like you,” in Kekchí “younger-brother-older-brother” (a compound which means all one’s neighbors in a community) (sources: Bratcher / Nida and Reiling / Swellengrebel), in Mairasi “your people” (source: Enggavoter 2004), in Mezquital Otomi as “fellow being,” in Tzeltal as “companion,” in Isthmus Zapotec as “another,” in Teutila Cuicatec as “all people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), and in most modern German translations as Mitmensch or “fellow human being” (lit. “with + human being”).

In Matt 19:19, Matt 22:39, Mark 12:31, Mark 12:33, Luke 10:27, Luke 10:29 it is translated into Ixcatlán Mazatec with a term that refers to a person who is socially/physically near. Ixcatlán Mazatec also has a another term for “neighbor” that means “fellow humans-outsiders” which was not chosen for these passages. (Source: Robert Bascom)

In Noongar it is translated as moorta-boordak or “people nearby” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

grain

The Greek and Hebrew that is translated in English as “grain” (or: “corn”) is translated in Kui as “(unthreshed) rice.” Helen Evans (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) explains: “Padddy [unthreshed rice] is the main crop of the country and rice the staple diet of the people, besides which [grain] is unknown and there is no word for it, and it seemed to us that paddy and rice in the mind of the Kui people stood for all that corn meant to the Jews.” “Paddy” is also the translation in Pa’o Karen (source: Gordon Luce in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 153f. ).

Other translations include: “wheat” (Teutila Cuicatec), “corn” (Lalana Chinantec), “things to eat” (Morelos Nahuatl), “grass corn” (wheat) (Chichimeca-Jonaz) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), “millet” (Lambya) (source: project-specific notes in Paratext), “food” (Nyamwezi) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)or ntimumma lujia / “seeds for food” (Lokạạ — “since Lokạạ does not have specific terms for maize and rice that can be described as grains”) (source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )

sickle (illustration)

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “sickle” in English 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.

complete verse (Deuteronomy 23:25)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 23:25:

  • Kupsabiny: “And if you pass through a field of your neighbor with wheat, you may pluck that food in a small amount but do not take a basket and harvest the food of another person.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “If you are going through your neighbor’s field, you may take some grain with your hand, but you may not cut any crop-bearing grain plants with a sickle.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “If you (plur.) go to the field of wheat of your (plur.) fellow (man) Israelinhon, you (plur.) can cut the grain, but you (plur.) do- not -reap/[lit. harvest it with a sickle] it.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “When you walk along a path in someone else’s field of grain, you are allowed to pluck/pick some of the grain and eat it, but you must not cut any grain with a sickle and take it with you.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 23:25

Go into your neighbor’s standing grain: there were paths that led through the grainfields. So Good News Translation has “when you walk along a path in someone else’s grainfield.” Instead of standing grain Good News Translation and New International Version have “grainfield.” The grain could be wheat or barley; Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje gives this information in the text.

Pluck the ears with your hands: that is, pluck and eat them. This is what Jesus’ disciples did (Mark 2.23).

Put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain: they were not to cut the heads of grain and take them home. In cultures where sickles are not known, we may use a general translation as follows: “But don’t cut down the stalks of grain and take them with you” (Contemporary English Version).

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .