The Greek that is translated as “slanderer” or “backbiter” or similar in English is translated as “raised up lies about their fellow people” in Central Mazahua, as “talk ugly about their fellows” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui, as “those who give a vicious twist to what they hear” in Highland Totonac, and as “hunted people’s sin” in Huehuetla Tepehua. (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Language-specific Insights
throne
The Greek that is translated into English versions as “throne” is translated into Naro as ntcõó-q’oo: “he will rule.” The figure of the “throne” cannot be translated in the egalitarian Naro culture, so the idea had to be expressed more explicitly. (Source: Gerrit van Steenbergen)
In other languages it is translated as “stool/seat of the king” (Marathi), “seat of commanding/chieftainship” (Highland Totonac, Kituba), “seat of the Supreme one (lit. of-him-who-has-the umbrella)” (Toraja-Sa’dan — the umbrella being a well-known symbol of power in various parts of South and South-East Asia), “glorious place to sit” (Ekari) (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel), “where God sits and rules” (Estado de México Otomi), “where God reigns” (Central Mazahua) (source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation, March 1965, p. 2ff.), or “bed of kingship” (Kafa) (source: Loren Bliese).
sackcloth
The Hebrew or Greek which are translated into English as “sackcloth” are rendered into Chamula Tzotzil as “sad-heart clothes.” (Source: Robert Bascom)
Pohnpeian and Chuukese translate it as “clothing-of sadness,” Eastern Highland Otomi uses “clothing that hurts,” Central Mazahua “that which is scratchy,” and Tae’ and Zarma “rags.” (Source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
“In Turkana, a woman removes her normal everyday skin clothes and ornaments and wears rather poor skins during the time of mourning. The whole custom is known as ngiboro. It is very difficult to translate putting on sackcloth because even material like sacking is unfamiliar. The Haya, on the other hand, have a mourning cloth made out of the bark of a tree; and the use of this cloth is similar to the Jewish use of sackcloth. It was found that in both the Turkana and Ruhaya common language translations, their traditional mourning ceremonies were used.” (Source: Rachel Konyoro in The Bible Translator 1985, p. 221ff. )
Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing what a sackcloth looked like in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)
See also mourning clothes and you have loosed my sackcloth.
mercy
The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin terms that are typically translated as “mercy” (or “compassion” or “kindness”) in English are translated in various ways. Bratcher / Nida classify them in (1) those based on the quality of heart, or other psychological center, (2) those which introduce the concept of weeping or extreme sorrow, (3) those which involve willingness to look upon and recognize the condition of others, or (4) those which involve a variety of intense feelings.
While the English mercy originates from the Latin merces, originally “price paid,” Romance languages (Italian, Spanish, Corsican, Catalan) and other Germanic languages (German, Swedish, Danish — Barmherzigkeit, barmhärtighet and barmhjertighed, respectively) tend to follow the Latin misericordia, lit. “misery-heart.”
Here are some other (back-) translations:
- Ngäbere: “tender heart”
- Mískito: “white heart”
- Amganad Ifugao: “what arises from a kind heart”
- Vai: “purity of heart”
- Western Kanjobal: “his abdomen weeps”
- Kipsigis: “cry inside”
- Shilluk: “cry continually within”
- Navajo: “feel great sorrow” (“with the connotation of being about to cry”)
- Kpelle: “see misery”
- Toro So Dogon: “know misery”
- Western Highland Purepecha: “be in pain for”
- San Miguel El Grande Mixtec: “be very sorry for”
- Mezquital Otomi: “have increasing love for”
- Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “showing undeserved goodness” (“closely identified with grace”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “pity-love”
- Central Mazahua: “very much pity people”
- Alekano: “help people who are suffering”
- Guhu-Samane: “feeling sorry for men” (source for this and three above: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.)
- Warao: “kobe (= the abdominal region, including the heart) hurts” (source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. )
- Latvian: žēlastība, the same term that is also used for grace (source: Katie Roth)
- Iloko: asi — also means “pity” and is used for a love of the poor and helpless (source: G. Henry Waterman in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 24ff. )
- Bilua: “forgiving love” (source: Carl Gross)
- Luang: “inside goodness” (source: Kathy and Mark Taber in Kroneman [2004], p. 533)
- Mairasi: “have good intestines” (see Seat of the Mind) (source: Lloyd Peckham)
See also steadfast love.
peace (inner peace)
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated into English as “peace” (or “at ease”) is (back-) translated with a variety of idioms and phrases:
- “a song in the body” (Baoulé)
- “heart coolness” (Eastern Maninkakan)
- “sit down in the heart” (South Bolivian Quechua)
- “quietness of heart” (Chol)
- “quiet goodness” (Kekchí)
- “having your hearts feel oneness for one another” (Tzeltal) (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
- “my heart sits down” (Northern Grebo)
- “coolness” (Pular / Kutu) (source for Kutu: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
- “rest within” (Lacandon)
- “have one heart” (Miskito)
- “well-arranged soul” (Mashco Piro)
- “have a quiet mind” (Ngäbere)
- “completeness” (Highland Puebla Nahuatl) (source for this and six above: Nida 1952, p. 128ff.)
- “rest the heart” (Central Mazahua) (source: Nida 1952, p. 40)
- “joy in heart” (Eastern Highland Otomi) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
- momapu laro or “cold/cool-hearted” (as an adjective); mapuhio laro or “make the heart cool” (as a verb) (Moronene) (source: David Andersen)
- “inner coolness” (Binumarien) (source: Oates 1995, p. 249)
- “wait well in your heart” (Yatzachi Zapotec)
- “live quietly” (Central Tarahumara)
- “have security in your heart” (Highland Totonac)
- “heart will lie quietly” (Isthmus Zapotec) (source for this and three above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- “smooth interior” (Bariai) (source: Bariai Back Translation)
- Warao: “kobe (= the abdominal region, including the heart) quiet” (source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. )
- Welsh: tangnefedd — “an internal condition that makes external peace (heddwch) possible” (source: Rosa Hunt in Journal of European Baptist Studies 1/23 (2023), p. 1ff. )
In American Sign Language it is signed with a compound sign consisting of “become” and “silent.” (Source: Yates 2011, p. 52)
“Peace” in American Sign Language (source )
See also peace (absence of strife) and this devotion on YouVersion .
go in peace
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “go in peace” into English is an idiomatic expression of farewell which is translatable in other languages as an idiomatic expression as well: “go with sweet insides” (Shilluk), “rejoice as you go” (Central Mazahua), “go in quietness of heart” (Chol), “go happy” (Highland Puebla Nahuatl), “being happy, go” (Central Tarahumara), or “go and sit down in your heart” (Tzeltal).
justification, justify
The Greek that is translated as “justify” in English is translated into Tzotzil in two different ways. One of those is with Lec xij’ilatotic yu’un Dios ta sventa ti ta xc’ot ta o’ntonal ta xch’unel ti Jesucristoe (“we are seen well by God because of our faith in Jesus Christ”) (source: Aeilts, p. 118) and the other is “God sees as righteous” (source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.).
Other (back-) translations include:
- Bilua: “straigthened” (Rom 3:20: “Nobody can be straightened in God’s presence…”) (source: Carl Gross) (see also: righteous)
- Western Highland Purepecha: “he sees him with the goodness of his Son” (“justification”)
- Highland Puebla Nahuatl: “heart-straightening”
- Western Kanjobal: “having a straight soul” (source for this and two above: Nida 1952, p. 145)
- Central Mazahua: “no longer carrying sin in God’s estimation.”
- Rincón Zapotec: “come out good before God”
- Guhu-Samane: “God called one right” (source for this and two above: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.)
- Mairasi: “already straight: completely clean” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- Uma: “straight in God’s sight” (Source: Uma back-translation)
- Yakan: “be reckoned straight/righteous by God” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Ekari: “maa nigajawii (“deem us right through favor”) (source: Marion Source in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37f. )
- Tzeltal: “exonerated us of our sin in God’s sight” (source: Marianna C. Slocum in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 49f. )
- Kwara’ae: “regard as righteous” (source: Norman Deck in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 34ff. )
- Manikion: “heart sits next to Jesus” (source: Daud Soesilo)
- Obolo: ben itip-oyerebet isan̄a: “take away condemnation” (source: Enene Enene)
- Kui: “to obtain release to become a righteous person” (source: Helen Evans in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. )
- Highland Totonac: “make free”
- Sayula Popoluca: “call righteous”
- Isthmus Zapotec: “clean hearts”
- Central Tarahumara: “make people to be right-doing”
- Tzeltal: “straighten heart” (Source for this and two above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- Warao: “straighten obonja.” Obonja is a term that “includes the concepts of consciousness, will, attitude, attention and a few other miscellaneous notions” (source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. See other occurrences of Obojona in the Warao New Testament.)
deny oneself
The Greek that is translated with “deny himself” or “deny oneself” is according to Bratcher / Nida “without doubt one of the most difficult expressions in all of Mark to translate adequately.” These are many of the (back-) translations:
- Tetelcingo Nahuatl: “not accept self”
- Amganad Ifugao and South Bolivian Quechua: “forget self”
- North Alaskan Inupiatun: “have no regard for oneself”
- Toraja-Sa’dan: “not bother oneself about oneself”
- Huautla Mazatec: “cover up oneself”
- San Miguel El Grande Mixtec: “not worship oneself”
- Tzeltal: “stop doing what one’s own heart wants”
- Yaka: “let go that which he wants to do oneself”
- Cashibo-Cacataibo: “say, I will not do just what I want to do”
- Tzotzil: “say, I do not serve for anything” (in the sense of having no personal value)
- Sapo: “not do what is passing through one’s mind”
- Central Mazahua: “not take constant thought for oneself”
- Tabasco Chontal: “quit what one wants”
- Highland Totonac: “undo one’s own way of thinking”
- Dan: “put one’s own things down”
- Kekchí: “despise oneself”
- Kituba: “refuse oneself”
- Javanese: “turn one’s back on oneself”
- Southern Bobo Madaré: “disobey oneself” (in the sense of denying one’s own wishes)
- Huastec: “leave oneself at the side”
- Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “leave one’s own way”
- Loma: “take one’s mind out of oneself completely”
- Panao Huánuco Quechua: “say, I do not live for myself”
- Mitla Zapotec: “say No to oneself” (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
- Copainalá Zoque: “forgetting self”
- Huallaga Huánuco Quechua: “declare, I do not live for myself” (source: Nida 1952, p. 154)
- Galela: “put self down” (source: Howard Shelden in Kroneman 2004, p. 501)
- Mairasi: “shuffle out of one’s vision (=forget) everything which is one’s own” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- Q’anjob’al: “do not belong to oneself any longer” (source: Newberry and Kittie Cox in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. )
- Achi: “don’t do only what one wants to do”
- Chipaya: “leave one’s own way of living” (source for this and above: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)