The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “neighbor” in English is rendered into Babatana as “different man,” i.e. someone who is not one of your relatives. (Source: David Clark)
In North Alaskan Inupiatun, it is rendered as “a person outside of your building,” in Tzeltal as “your back and side” (implying position of the dwellings), in Indonesian and in Tae’ as “your fellow-man,” in Toraja-Sa’dan it is “your fellow earth-dweller,” in Shona (translation of 1966) as “another person like you,” in Kekchí “younger-brother-older-brother” (a compound which means all one’s neighbors in a community) (sources: Bratcher / Nida and Reiling / Swellengrebel), in Mairasi “your people” (source: Enggavoter 2004), in Mezquital Otomi as “fellow being,” in Tzeltal as “companion,” in Isthmus Zapotec as “another,” in Teutila Cuicatec as “all people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), and in most modern German translations as Mitmensch or “fellow human being” (lit. “with + human being”).
In Matt 19:19, Matt 22:39, Mark 12:31, Mark 12:33, Luke 10:27, Luke 10:29 it is translated into Ixcatlán Mazatec with a term that refers to a person who is socially/physically near. Ixcatlán Mazatec also has a another term for “neighbor” that means “fellow humans-outsiders” which was not chosen for these passages. (Source: Robert Bascom)
In Noongar it is translated as moorta-boordak or “people nearby” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
The Greek that is translated as “log” in English is translated in Gbaya with the ideophone kpíŋgíí, denoting something big or large.
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)
The Greek that is translated in English as “brother” or “brother and sister” (in the sense of fellow believers), is translated with a specifically coined word in Kachin: “There are two terms for brother in Kachin. One is used to refer to a Christian brother. This term combines ‘older and younger brother.’ The other term is used specifically for addressing siblings. When one uses this term, one must specify if the older or younger person is involved. A parallel system exists for ‘sister’ as well. In [these verses], the term for ‘a Christian brother’ is used.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae)
In Matumbi is is translated as alongo aumini or “relative-believer.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
In Martu Wangka it is translated as “relative” (this is also the term that is used for “follower.”) (Source: Carl Gross)
In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) it is often translated as Mitchristen or “fellow Christians.”
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 7:4:
Uma: “How can we (incl.) say to another: ‘Come, I will take out/remove your (sing.) sleep,’ but there is still also a splinter of wood in our (incl.) eye.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “How can you say to your companion, ‘Friend, come here please, I will take the splinter out of your eye,’ if there is a log in your own eye.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And you say yet to him that you will take out of his eye that which has gotten into it, however a log has gotten into your eye and you pay no attention to it.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Why do you (sing.) say to your (sing.) companion, ‘Please kindly-allow-me (strong request) to wipe-away that eye-discharge of yours (sing.),’ while-simultaneously you (sing.) also have a large bit-of-eye-discharge?” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well, how can you say to your companion, ‘Quick/come, I’ll remove that dust particle in your eye,’ when there’s something jambed right across your own eye?” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “So you must not say to your brother: ‘Listen man, wait while I take out the dirt in your eye’ you say. And here you do not even realize that you have a beam in your own eye.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) can be used, as in mi-kao (御顔) or “face (of God)” in the referenced verses.
Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Matthew 7:1-6:
Condemn others, and God will condemn you.
God will be as hard on you, as you are on others.
Do you know someone with a sin the size of a speck?
If your sin is as large as a log, you’d better roll it away first,
before you attempt to wipe away that tiny speck.
Otherwise, you’re a first-class hypocrite.
Don’t share what is sacred with wild dogs!
They’ll turn and attack.
Don’t decorate pigs with earrings of pearls!
They’ll trample those pearls in the mud.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
This verse essentially repeats the content of verse 3. The question may need to be restructured, however. Translators may say “Do you think it is right to say,” “How can you possibly say,” or “By what right can you say.” The sentence may need indirect speech instead of direct, as in “How can you offer to take a speck from your brother’s eye…” or “You shouldn’t ask your brother if you can remove a speck….”
It may be necessary to put the offer to help the brother at the end of the verse, as in “There you are with a whole plank in your eye, and you dare to say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye’ ” or “You have a log in your eye. How can you possibly offer to take the speck out of your brother’s?”
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 .
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