In Aekyom, years are counted as “turtles” (ambum).
Norm Mundhenk tells this story:
“Recently I was checking some New Testament material in the Aekyom language of western Papua New Guinea. It seemed relatively clear until suddenly we came to a passage that started, ‘When Jesus had 12 turtles, …’ Surely I had misunderstood what they said.
“‘Did you say that Jesus had 12 turtles?’
“‘Let us explain! Around here there is a certain time every year when river turtles come up on the banks and lay their eggs. Because this is so regular, it can be used as a way of counting years. Someone’s age is said to be how many turtles that person has. So when we say that Jesus had 12 turtles, we mean that Jesus was 12 years old.’
“It was of course the familiar story of Jesus’ trip with his parents to Jerusalem. And certainly, as we all know, Jesus did indeed have 12 turtles at that time!”
In Tok Pisin, krismas (derived from “christmas”) is taken as the fixed annual marker, so Jesus had 12 “christmases” (Jisas i gat 12-pela krismas pinis) or Abram (in Gen. 12:4) had 75 (Abram i gat 75 krismas) (source: Norm Mundhenk). In Noongar it is biroka kadak or “summers had” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
The Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Greek that is typically translated as “sin” in English has a wide variety of translations.
The Greek ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō) carries the original verbatim meaning of “miss the mark” and likewise, many translations contain the “connotation of moral responsibility.”
Loma: “leaving the road” (which “implies a definite standard, the transgression of which is sin”)
Navajo (Dinė): “that which is off to the side” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
Toraja-Sa’dan: kasalan, originally meaning “transgression of a religious or moral rule” and in the context of the Bible “transgression of God’s commandments” (source: H. van der Veen in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 21ff. )
Bariai: “bad behavior” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
Sandawe: “miss the mark” (like the original meaning of the Greek term) (source for this and above: Ursula Wiesemann in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 36ff., 43)
Nias: horö, originally a term primarily used for sexual sin. (Source: Hummel / Telaumbanua 2007, p. 256)
In Shipibo-Conibo the term is hocha. Nida (1952, p. 149) tells the story of its choosing: “In some instances a native expression for sin includes many connotations, and its full meaning must be completely understood before one ever attempts to use it. This was true, for example, of the term hocha first proposed by Shipibo-Conibo natives as an equivalent for ‘sin.’ The term seemed quite all right until one day the translator heard a girl say after having broken a little pottery jar that she was guilty of ‘hocha.’ Breaking such a little jar scarcely seemed to be sin. However, the Shipibos insisted that hocha was really sin, and they explained more fully the meaning of the word. It could be used of breaking a jar, but only if the jar belonged to someone else. Hocha was nothing more nor less than destroying the possessions of another, but the meaning did not stop with purely material possessions. In their belief God owns the world and all that is in it. Anyone who destroys the work and plan of God is guilty of hocha. Hence the murderer is of all men most guilty of hocha, for he has destroyed God’s most important possession in the world, namely, man. Any destructive and malevolent spirit is hocha, for it is antagonistic and harmful to God’s creation. Rather than being a feeble word for some accidental event, this word for sin turned out to be exceedingly rich in meaning and laid a foundation for the full presentation of the redemptive act of God.”
Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the DanishBibelen 2020, comments on the translation of this term: “We would explain terms, such that e.g. sin often became ‘doing what God does not want’ or ‘breaking God’s law’, ‘letting God down’, ‘disrespecting God’, ‘doing evil’, ‘acting stupidly’, ‘becoming guilty’. Now why couldn’t we just use the word sin? Well, sin in contemporary Danish, outside of the church, is mostly used about things such as delicious but unhealthy foods. Exquisite cakes and chocolates are what a sin is today.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Isaiah 65:20:
Kupsabiny: “Never shall there be there an infant who only lives for a few days. No old man shall die early there instead of growing old in his life. When a person dies having hundred years he has died like a person who is still young. But the one who dies before hundred years is a person who is cursed.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “There will never be an infant that lives [only] for some days or an old man who does not get to live out his full years. One who dies having lived [only] 100 years will be thought [to have died] young. And one who has not lived 100 years will be thought accursed. ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “There will-be- no -more infant or young-one will-die there. The one-who-dies whose age is 100 years will-be-considered as still young, and the one-who-dies not reaching 100 (years-of-age) will-be-considered whom I punished.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
This verse expands on one of the reasons for the people’s distress. It suggests that at that time premature death was a common problem for children as well as for adults. In the new creation all people will live long (compare Deut 5.33).
No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days: In God’s new world people will not die as infants. In a world where infant mortality was quite high, this was an important promise. It assured the future of the nation. In translation either the idea of dying early or that of not living long can be stressed here. Bible en français courant has “One will no longer find there an infant dying under age,” while Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “There will be no more children who only live for a few days.” Good News Translation translates “Babies will no longer die in infancy.”
Or an old man who does not fill out his days looks at the other end of a human’s life. Living to a ripe old age was important to the ancient Israelites, for it was a sign of God’s blessing and implied that a person had been obedient to the divine law. An old man who does not fill out his days is an idiomatic expression that may be rendered “an old person who does not live out his days/life.” Good News Translation translates this line positively, saying “and all people will live out their life span.” Normally, 70 years was regarded as a standard life span (Psa 90.10), but the following lines mention 100 years! For languages that do not have a technical expression such as “life span,” Bible en français courant provides a possible model with “or adult persons deprived of their old age.”
For the child shall die a hundred years old: If this line is taken literally, it would imply a great contradiction since at a hundred years of age a person is no longer a child. The expression is idiomatic and contains a hyperbole. It means a person who lived to be a hundred would still be considered young (so Good News Translation, New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). New Jerusalem Bible says “for the youngest will die at a hundred.”
And the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed: This line is difficult to explain since long life was a sign of God’s blessing. Why then would a sinner be given a life span of a hundred years, and why would he be accursed? New Revised Standard Version gives a different interpretation, one found in most modern versions: “and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.” The Hebrew participle rendered sinner is better translated “one who fails to achieve the mark” in this context. The Hebrew root for sinner actually means “to miss a mark” or “to not attain a standard that has been set.” Here it refers to someone who fails to reach the mark of a hundred years. Such a person will be accursed, that is, people will consider him condemned by God because he has died young. The context suggests that such a death will be an unusual one in the newly created world.
For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:
• No longer will babies die in infancy,
or old people fail to live out their full life span,
for those who live to be a hundred will be considered young,
and those who fail to reach that age will be considered cursed.
• No longer will children die in infancy,
nor will old people fail to live out their allotted life span,
for any who die at a hundred will be thought of as young yet,
and any who fail to live that long will be thought of as cursed.
Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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