Following is a 1973 painting of the JESUS MAFA project, a response to New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings was selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made, and these were then transcribed to paintings:
From Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. Image retrieved March 23, 2026. Original source: librairie-emmanuel.fr.
The Greek and Ge’ez that is translated as “tax collector” in English is translated in Tagbanwa as “money-grabbing official receivers of payment” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation) and in Noongar as mammarapa boya-barranginy or “people taking money” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation). Likewise, in Cashibo-Cacataibo, it is the “ones who take the money” (source: Bratcher / Nida 1961).
In Mairasi it is translated as “the people who collect money pertaining to head payment.” (Source: Enggavoter 2004)
Click or tap here to see a short video clip about tax collectors in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)
“beg” or “ask,” (full expression: “ask with one’s heart coming out,” which leaves out selfish praying, for asking with the heart out leaves no place for self to hide) (Tzotzil)
“raise up one’s words to God” (implying an element of worship, as well as communication) (Miskito, Lacandon) (source of this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
“speak to God” (Shilluk) (source: Nida 1964, p. 237)
“talk together with Great Above One (=God)” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter, 2004)
“beg” (waan) (Ik). Terrill Schrock (in Wycliffe Bible Translators 2016, p. 93) explains (click or tap here to read more):
What do begging and praying have to do with each other? Do you beg when you pray? Do I?
“The Ik word for ‘visitor’ is waanam, which means ‘begging person.’ Do you beg when you go visiting? The Ik do. Maybe you don’t beg, but maybe when you visit someone, you are looking for something. Maybe it’s just a listening ear.
When the Ik hear that [my wife] Amber and I are planning trip to this or that place for a certain amount of time, the letters and lists start coming. As the days dwindle before our departure, the little stack of guests grows. ‘Please, sir, remember me for the allowing: shoes, jacket (rainproof), watch, box, trousers, pens, and money for the children. Thank you, sir, for your assistance.’
“A few people come by just to greet us or spend bit of time with us. Another precious few will occasionally confide in us about their problems without asking for anything more than a listening ear. I love that.
“The other day I was in our spare bedroom praying my list of requests to God — a nice list covering most areas of my life, certainly all the points of anxiety. Then it hit me: Does God want my list, or does he want my relationship?
“I decided to try something. Instead of reading off my list of requests to God, I just talk to him about my issues without any expectation of how he should respond. I make it more about our relationship than my list, because if our personhood is like God’s personhood, then maybe God prefers our confidence and time to our lists, letters, and enumerations.”
In Luang it is translated with different shades of meaning (click or tap here to read more):
For Acts 1:14, 20:36, 21:5: kola ttieru-yawur nehla — “hold the waist and hug the neck.” (“This is the more general term for prayer and often refers to worship in prayer as opposed to petition. The Luang people spend the majority of their prayers worshiping rather than petitioning, which explains why this term often is used generically for prayer.”)
For Acts 28:9: sumbiani — “pray.” (“This term is also used generically for ‘prayer’. When praying is referred to several times in close proximity, it serves as a variation for kola ttieru-yawur nehla, in keeping with Luang discourse style. It is also used when a prayer is made up of many requests.”)
For Acts 8:15, 12:5: polu-waka — “call-ask.” (“This is a term for petition that is used especially when the need is very intense.”)
Source: Kathy Taber in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 9-16.
In many English translations the Greek terms “hieron” (the whole “temple” in Jerusalem or specifically the outer courts open to worshippers) and “naos” (the inner “shrine” or “sanctuary”) are translated with only one word: “temple” (see also for instance “Tempel” in German [for exception see below] and “tempel” in Dutch, Danish, or Afrikaans).
Other languages make a distinction: (Click or tap here to see more)
Navajo (Dinė): “house in which worship is carried out” (for naos)
Balinese: “inner part of the Great Temple” (“the term ‘inner part’ denoting the hindmost and holiest of the two or three courts that temples on Bali usually possess”) vs. “Great Temple”
Telugu: “womb (i.e. interior)-of-the-abode” vs. “abode”
Thai: a term denoting the main audience hall of a Buddhist temple compound vs. “environs-of-the-main-audience-hall”
Kituba: “place of holiness of house-God Lord” vs. “house-God Lord”
Shipibo-Conibo: “deep in God’s house” vs. “God’s house” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
Germandas Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022): “inner court of the temple” (Tempelinnenhof) vs. “temple”
Languages that, like English, German, Dutch, Danish, or Afrikaans, don’t make that distinction include:
Toraja-Sa’dan: “house that is looked upon as holy, that is sacred, that is taboo and where one may not set foot” (lit. “house where-the-belly-gets-swollen” — because taboo is violated — using a term that is also applied to a Muslim mosque) (source for this and the three above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
Aguaruna: “the house for talking to God” (source for this and above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
Guhu-Samane: “festival longhouse of God” (“The biiri, ‘festival longhouse’, being the religious and social center of the community, is a possible term for ‘temple’. It is not the ‘poro house’ as such. That would be too closely identified with the cult of poro. The physical features of the building, huge and sub-divided, lend it further favor for this consideration. By qualifying it as ‘God’s biiri’ the term has become meaningful and appropriate in the context of the Scriptures.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in The Bible Translator, 1965, p. 81ff. )
Enga: “God’s restricted access house” (source: Adam Boyd on his blog )
Another distinction that tends to be overlooked in translations is that between hieron (“temple” in English) and sunagógé (“synagogue” in English). Euan Fry (in The Bible Translator 1987, p. 213ff. ) reports on this:
“Many older translations have simply used transliterations of ‘temple’ and ‘synagogue’ rather than trying to find equivalent terms or meaningful expressions in their own languages. This approach does keep the two terms separate; but it makes the readers depend on explanations given by pastors or teachers for their understanding of the text.
“Translators who have tried to find meaningful equivalents, for the two terms ‘temple’ and ‘synagogue’ have usually made a distinction between them in one of two ways (which focus on the contrasting components of meaning). One way takes the size and importance of the Temple to make a contrast, so that expressions such as ‘sacred meeting/ worship house of the Jews’ and ‘big sacred meeting/worship house of the Jews’ are used. The other way focuses on the different nature of the religious activity at each of the places, so that expressions such as ‘meeting/worship house of the Jews’ and ‘sacrifice/ceremony place of the Jews’ are used.
“It is not my purpose in this article to discuss how to arrive at the most precise equivalent to cover all the components of meaning of ‘temple’. That is something that each translator really has to work through for himself in the light of the present usage and possibilities in his own language. My chief concern here is that the basic term or terms chosen for ‘temple’ should give the reader of a translation a clear and correct picture of the location referred to in each passage. And I am afraid that in many cases where an equivalent like ‘house of God’ or ‘worship house’ has been chosen, the readers have quite the wrong picture of what going to the Temple or being in the Temple means. (This may be the case for the word ‘temple’ in English too, for many readers.)”
Here are some examples:
Bambara: “house of God” (or: “big house of worship”) vs. “worship house” (or: “small houses of worship”)
Toraja-Sa’dan: “house where-the-belly-gets-swollen” (see above) vs. “meeting house for discussing matters concerning religious customs” (and “church” is “house where one meets on Sunday”)
Navajo (Dinė): “house in which worship is carried out” vs. “house of gathering” (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida)
Click or tap here to see a short video clip about Herod’s temple (source: Bible Lands 2012)Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing synagogues in New Testament times (source: Bible Lands 2012)
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 18:10:
Noongar: “‘One day, two men went up to the Temple to pray, one Pharisee and one tax collector.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “Yesus said: ‘Two people went to the House of God, going to pray. One was a Parisi person, the other a tax collector.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “He said, ‘There were two people going up to the temple to pray. One was a Pariseo and the other a person collecting payment.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus said, ‘There were two people who went to the big church, the house of God, in order to pray. Now one of them was a Pharisee, and the other one was a tax-collector.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “He said, ‘There were two people who went-up to the Temple to go pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “He said, ‘There were two men who went up into the Templo to pray. One was a Pariseo. One was an official receiver of payment to the government.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
The Greek that is a transliteration of the Hebrew Pərūšīm and is typically transliterated into English as “Pharisee” is transliterated in Mandarin Chinese as Fǎlìsài (法利賽 / 法利赛) (Protestant) or Fǎlìsāi (法利塞) (Catholic). In Chinese, transliterations can typically be done with a great number of different and identical-sounding characters. Often the meaning of the characters are not relevant, unless they are chosen carefully as in these cases. The Protestant Fǎlìsài can mean something like “Competition for the profit of the law” and the Catholic Fǎlìsāi “Stuffed by/with the profit of the law.” (Source: Zetzsche 1996, p. 51)
In Finnish Sign Language it is translated with the sign signifying “prayer shawl”. (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023) translates it into English as Observant. He explains (p. 302): “Pharisee has become a public, universal pejorative term for a hypocrite. Pharisees were observant of the interpretation of the Covenant Code called the ‘tradition of the elders.’ They conformed their behaviors to the interpretation. Among the various groups of Jews at the time of Jesus, they were perhaps closest to Jesus in their overall concern to make a radical commitment to the will of God (as they understood it).”
anthrōpoi duo anebēsan eis to hieron proseuxasthai ‘two men went up to the temple to pray.’ anebēsan ‘went up’ from the lower city to the temple mount. For to hieron cf. on 2.27. proseuxasthai final infinitive in the aorist tense, pointing to a punctiliar event.
ho heis Pharisaios kai ho heteros telōnēs ‘one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector,’ apposition to anthrōpoi duo. For Pharisaios cf. on 5.17; for telōnēs on 3.12.
Translation:
The verse must be given the form used to mark the beginning of a narrative, e.g. ‘(once) there were two men who….’
Went up, see on 2.4. Though in this situation a word expressing ‘ascent’ can often be used, some versions are somewhat more generic, e.g. ‘went,’ ‘entered’ (cf. Low Malay, Sranan Tongo).
One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector, or, since the number has already been limited to two, simply a ‘Pharisee and a tax collector.’ The appositional phrase sometimes can better be rendered as a clause, ‘one was … the other/second (was) ….’ For tax collector see on 3.12.
Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.
Two men: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as men is literally “people.” The context shows that they were men. In some languages it may be natural to use a more general term such as “people” here.
went up to the temple: Jewish people spoke of going up when they went to the temple because the temple was on a hill. It may be more natural in some languages to say:
went to the Temple (New Living Translation (2004))
temple: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as temple refers to the temple building and the walls and courtyards that surrounded it. The temple was in Jerusalem and was the most important place where Jews worshiped God.
Some ways to translate the word temple are:
• Use a descriptive phrase. For example:
house/building of God -or-
house/place of sacrifice -or-
house/place of worship -or-
holy/sacred house
• If your language has a word for temple, consider using it. But you may need to modify it by saying:
temple of God
Be sure to use a different term from the one you have chosen for “synagogue.” There was only one temple, but there were many synagogues throughout the land of Israel where the Jews met regularly for worship.
See temple, Meaning 1, in the Glossary for more information about the temple and how to translate it.
In this context the men prayed in the courtyard around the temple, not inside the temple building. In some languages it may be helpful to specify this. For example:
the temple courtyard
to pray: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as pray was also used in 18:1. It is a general word that can refer to different kinds of prayer. In this context two men went to the temple to pray to God. One of the men thanked God that he was better than other people. He did not request anything from God. The other man asked God for mercy. Use a word for prayer that fits this context.
In some languages you may need to say explicitly that they were going to pray to God. For example:
to pray ⌊to God⌋
18:10b
One was a Pharisee: The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as One was a Pharisee is literally “one a Pharisee.” This phrase indicates that one of the two men who went to the temple to pray was a Pharisee. In some languages it is necessary to supply a verb here, as the Berean Standard Bible does. Another way to translate this is:
One of the men was a Pharisee
Pharisee: The word Pharisee refers to a member of a certain Jewish religious group or party. It was very important to the Pharisees to obey all of the Jewish religious laws very carefully and in detail. Here are some ways to translate this word:
• Transliterate the word Pharisee according to the sounds of your language and indicate that it refers to people. For example:
Farisi member -or-
Parise adherent -or-
member of the Farisi people/group
• Transliterate the word Pharisee and indicate that it refers to a person who belonged to a group of people with certain beliefs. For example:
person who belonged to the Farise religious sect/group -or-
member of the religious group called the Farasi
This word occurred in the plural form in 17:20.
and the other a tax collector: The term and the other refers to the other person who went up to the temple to pray. This person was a tax collector.
tax collector: In the New Testament, the term tax collector refers to a Jewish person who received taxes from his own people to give to the government that ruled them. If you do not have a word in your language for tax collector, you may need to use a descriptive phrase. For example:
person who collected taxes for the/another government -or-
person who gathered money from people to pay to a ruler/king
You may want to include a footnote to explain the meaning of this word. You may also want to explain it in a glossary note. Here is an example of such a note:
The Jewish people hated the tax collectors because they were Jewish people who worked for the foreign government that ruled them. These tax collectors often cheated their own people by overcharging them.
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