conversion, convert, turn back

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The Greek that is often rendered in English as “to be converted” or “to turn around” is (back-) translated in a number of ways:

  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “change completely”
  • Purepecha: “turn around”
  • Highland Totonac: “have one’s life changed”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “make pass over bounds within”
  • San Blas Kuna: “turn the heart toward God”
  • Chol: “the heart turns itself back”
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl: “self-heart change”
  • Pamona: “turn away from, unlearn something”
  • Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “turn around from the breast”
  • Luvale: “return”
  • Balinese: “put on a new behavior” (compare “repentance“: “to put on a new mind”)
  • Tzeltal: “cause one’s heart to return to God” (compare “repentance”: “to cause one’s heart to return because of one’s sin”)
  • Pedi: “retrace one’s step” (compare “repentance”: “to become untwisted”)
  • Uab Meto: “return” (compare “repentance”: “to turn the heart upside down”)
  • Northwestern Dinka: “turn oneself” (compare “repentance”: “to turn the heart”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Central Mazahua: “change the heart” (compare “repentance”: “turn back the heart”) (source: Nida 1952, p. 40)
  • In Elhomwe, the same term is used for “conversion” and “repentance” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Western Kanjobal: “molt” (like a butterfly) (source: Nida 1952, p. 136)
  • Latvian: atgriezties (verb) / atgriešanās (noun) (“turn around / return”) which is also the same term being used for “repentance” (source: Katie Roth)
  • Isthmus Mixe: “look away from the teaching of one’s ancestors and follow the teachings of God”
  • Highland Popoluca: “leave one’s old beliefs to believe in Jesus” (source for thsi and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • German: bekehren, lit. “turn around”

complete verse (Matthew 13:15)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 13:15:

  • Uma: “Because their hearts are hard, they make themselves deaf and they make themselves blind: they refuse to see with their eyes, they refuse to hear with their ears, they refuse to have their hearts made clear. That’s why they will not return to Me, and I will not give them goodness/salvation.’ ‘” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Because the liver of these people has become hard. They stop their ears and shut their eyes. If they would not do like that, they would see with their eyes, they would hear with their ears, they would understand in their livers and they would return to me, says God, and I would forgive their sins.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For as these people, their thinking has become hard. They have stopped up their ears. They have closed their eyes. Because if they didn’t they would be able to see and they would be able to hear, and they would understand what is right, and they would trust in me and I would set them free.’ ‘” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Because their minds/thoughts have already hardened. They turn-a-deaf-ear-to the truth while they also close-their -eyes lest they be-able-to-see, able-to-hear, and able-to-understand and-then turn-to-face me so that I will heal them.’ ‘” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Really, as for these people, they have become stubborn (lit. made their heads hard). They’re making- their -ears-let-things-go-in-one-side- -and-out-of-the-other and they’re closing their eyes. For if it wasn’t like that, maybe they would indeed be able to see, and be able to hear, and be able to understand, and they would indeed return to me that I would heal them, whereas they won’t.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Because these people have closed their minds. It is as though they stopped their ears, not wanting to see what there is to see. Because they do not want to understand about the word and they do not want to turn their hearts to believe in me that they would have their sins forgiven,’ says God.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

For the Old Testament quote, see Isaiah 6:9 and Isaiah 6:10.

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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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 Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

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

See also pronoun for “God”.