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The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as a form of “save” in English is translated in Shipibo-Conibo with a phrase that means literally “make to live,” which combines the meaning of “to rescue” and “to deliver from danger,” but also the concept of “to heal” or “restore to health.”

Other translations include:

  • San Blas Kuna: “help the heart”
  • Laka: “take by the hand” in the meaning of “rescue” or “deliver”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “lift out on behalf of”
  • Anuak: “have life because of”
  • Central Mazahua: “be healed in the heart”
  • Baoulé: “save one’s head”
  • Guerrero Amuzgo: “come out well”
  • Northwestern Dinka: “be helped as to his breath” (or “life”) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida),
  • Matumbi: “rescue (from danger)” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Noongar: barrang-ngandabat or “hold life” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • South Bolivian Quechua: “make to escape”
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl: “cause people to come out with the aid of the hand” (source for this and one above: Nida 1947, p. 222)
  • Bariai: “retrieve one back” (source: Bariai Back Translation)

See also salvation and save (Japanese honorifics).

complete verse (Matthew 24:22)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 24:22:

  • Uma: “But God will shorten that time of suffering, for if he didn’t shorten it, surely not a single person would be alive. So, since he loves the people whom he has chosen, he will shorten that time of suffering.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “If God would not reduce those days of difficulty, no person would live. But because of his chosen people God will reduce those days.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “But God has already shortened the time of torment, because if he didn’t all mankind would be destroyed then. But because he pities his chosen people, he has shortened the time of torment.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “If God had not decided to shorten that time of hardship, no people would be left on this earth. But (reassurance particle) he has shortened it due to his people that he chose.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “And if that time is long, all people really would be wiped out. But because of those chosen by God, he won’t cause it to be long.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “God has already determined that this calamity will not last many days. If it did last many days, no one would come through it. But he will cause it to pass because God loves the people whom he has chosen.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

survive / escape / save

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “survive,” “escape,” “save,” or similar in English is translated in the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) in these verses with pulumuka, describing someone whose life was in danger but who has freed himself or herself. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Matthew 24:22

And if those days had not been shortened appears as an active construction in the Marcan parallel: “And if the Lord had not shortened the days” (13.20). For Mark “the Lord” is clearly a reference to God the Father rather than to Jesus. But Matthew probably realized how easily Mark’s account could be misunderstood, and so it was a simple matter for him to shift to the passive. For Matthew’s readers with their Jewish heritage, the understood agent of the passive verb would have been God: “But God has already reduced the number of those days.”

Days … shortened may imply for some readers the cutting short of the length of each day. Good News Translation‘s “reduced the number of days” resolves the problem. By shifting from days to “time,” New English Bible (“If that time of troubles were not cut short”) and New Jerusalem Bible (“And if that time had not been shortened”) suggest alternative possibilities of resolving the ambiguity. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is effective: “If God had not cut short the time of terror.”

The sequence of verb tenses in this verse is problematic: if those days had not been shortened (a past tense) is followed by those days will be shortened (a future tense). In other words, the first half of the verse presupposes that what is announced in the second half has already taken place. Mark (13.20) uses the past tense in both halves of the saying. Perhaps what Matthew intends may be stated “If God had not already decided to cut short the number of days, then no one would survive. But God will cut short….”

The elect is translated “his chosen people” by Good News Translation (New English Bible “God’s chosen,” Barclay “God’s chosen ones,” Phillips “God’s people”). The terminology is once again drawn from Jewish apocalyptic sources but here applied to the Christian community. Terrible suffering will be experienced in those times, but God’s grace will see his people safely through. Possible renderings of the verse are “If God had not decided to reduce the number of days of the suffering, no one would be able to survive. But for the sake of his chosen people, he will cut this period short” and “That period of suffering will be so terrible that no one would be able to survive unless God decided to shorten it. But for the sake of his chosen people, God will reduce the number of days of the suffering.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .