The Greek chrió that is translated as “anoint” in English is translated in Chol as “choose.” Wilbur Aulie (in The Bible Translator 1957, p. 109ff. ) explains: “Another illustration of translating a figure in a non-figurative manner is the treatment of chrió ‘anoint’. In Luke 4:18, Acts 4:27 and 10:38, and in 2 Corinthians 1:21 it is metaphorical of consecration to office by God. We translated the metaphor ‘choose’.”
Other translations include “place as Savior” in Highland Popoluca, “appoint to rule” in Coatlán Mixe, “give work to do” in Tepeuxila Cuicatec, or “give office to be our Savior” in Chuj (source of this and four above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.).
In Elhomwe it is translated as “anoint to choose and to appoint.” Note that anointing is a common practice in Malawi. (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated as “blind” in English is translated as “(having) eyes dark/night” in Ekari or “having no eyes” in Zarma. (Source: Nida 1964, p. 200)
The Hebrew that is translated as “the poor” in English is translated in Chichewa as “people without power.” In Chichewa context this refers to those who are in the lower class in terms of both social status and political influence in a community. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
In Cherokee it is translated as “those who are not doing well.” “The concept of poverty was unknown to Cherokee prior to European arrival due to the sharing of resources among clan members and the shared and welfare tradition known as gadugi (ᎦᏚᎩ). In contrast, the concepts of rich and poor play a large role in the world and message or the New Testament (…) This phrase (‘those who are not doing well’), still used today for ‘poor,’ speaks to a more general understanding of well-being than the presence of monetary resources.” (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 45)
Some languages have distinctive terms for congenital and non-congenital blindness. The Greek that is translated in Luke 4:18 as “blind” in English is translated with the term for the non-congenital blindness in Yatzachi Zapotec. (Source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
“Only qualified, trained leaders know the dharma (truth) yet Jesus made claims that threatened the establishment. He is being chased out of the temple because his people thought him merely a carpenter. They intended to throw him down the cliff but he just passed by.”
In choosing a word for the Greek that is typically translated as “gospel” in English, a number of languages construct a phrase meaning “good news,” “joyful report” or “happiness-bringing words.” In some instances such a phrase may be slightly expanded in order to convey the proper meaning, e.g. “new good word” (Tzotzil), or it may involve some special local usage:
the Germandas Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022) translates as “all-transformative good news” (alles verändernde gute Botschaft), also “good news,” and the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) as “message of salvation” (Heilsbotschaft)
Vitaly Voinov tells this story about the translation into Rutul (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight):
“In Rutul, it was only during the most recent consultant checking session that I realized that the Rutul word for Gospel – Incir (from Arabic إنجيل — Injil) — sounds and looks exactly like the word that means ‘fig’ in Rutul. This is a case of homonymy, in which two completely non-related words from differing historical sources have come to sound exactly alike. Most Rutul speakers know that incir means ‘fig’ because they grow this fruit in their yard or buy it at the market every week. However, because the religious sphere of discourse was heavily disparaged during the Soviet era, most people simply never encountered Incir with the meaning of ‘Gospel.’ This meaning of the word, which Rutuls of the pre-Soviet era knew from the Koran, simply fell into disuse and never had much reason for returning into contemporary Rutul since there is no Christian church established among the people. So if the translator continues to use the term Incir as the rendering for ‘Gospel,’ he runs the risk that most readers will, at best, read the word with a smile because they know that it also means ‘fig,’ and, at worst, will completely misunderstand the word. The seemingly ‘easy’ solution in this case is for the translator to use a Rutul neologism meaning ‘Joyful Message’ or ‘Good News,’ [see above] instead of Incir; but in fact it is not all that easy to make this change if the translator himself insists on using the historical word because at least some Rutuls still understand it as meaning ‘Gospel.’ This is a situation in which the translation team has to gradually grow into the understanding that a fully intelligible translation of Scripture is preferable to one that maintains old words at the cost of alienating much of the readership.”
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 4:18:
Noongar: “‘God’s Spirit has come inside me because he has called me to bring Good News to poor people. He has sent me preaching freedom to captive people, and giving sight to blind people, and lifting people up who are held down,” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “‘The Spirit of the Lord God landed on Me, because he dedicated me to carry the Good News to people whose lives are pitiful. He sent me to say to the captives: ‘You are free!’ He sent me to say to the blind: ‘See!’ He commanded me to free those who are made-slaves.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “‘I am ruled by God’s Spirit, for I am chosen by him to proclaim the good news to the people who are to be pitied. I am commanded/told by God to come to tell the prisoners that they are now free, the blind that they can now see again and I cause the ones in difficulties to be free.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “‘I am controlled by the Holy Spirit which comes from God, and the Lord has chosen Me so that I might preach the good news to the poor. And He has sent me to the people so that I might tell them that the prisoners of Satan can be released, and the blind can be healed so that they can see, and those who are in difficulty can be helped.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “‘The Spirit of the Lord God is with/in me, because he has chosen me to go preach the good news to the poor. He sent me to go tell the prisoners that they will be freed and to heal (lit. medicine) the blind so-that they will-be-able-to-see and to help those who are being-hardshipped.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “‘The Espiritu Santo of God is indwelling me, for he chose and secured/dedicated me so that I would teach the Good News to the poor. He sent me so that I would make clear to those in captivity that they would be freed/saved, and as for those who are like blind for they are subjects/under-the-jurisdiction of darkness, they would also be enlightened. He sent me so that I would really help as many as are having a hard time,” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
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