Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 8:23:
Uma: “And it isn’t just the world that groans. We who are God’s children also groan in our hearts. We have received the Holy Spirit as a sign of God’s promise to us. But we still wait for the time God will lift us to become his children and free our bodies from all that is evil.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “It is not only some of God’s creation that suffers but including us (incl.) the ones to whom God gave his Spirit who is his beginning/first gift, we (incl.) also suffer while we (incl.) keep-on-waiting-for the day when God will make our (incl.) bodies new so that/and we (incl.) will no longer be sick and die. When that day arrives it will then be really clear that he has really made us (incl.) his children.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And that’s not all, because as for us (incl.) also who have received the Holy Spirit which is the sign that there is still something which will be given to us by God in the future, drawn very tight is our expectancy of this, because we (incl.) really desire that that time might come when God will finish His making us His sons and He will carry out His making our bodies immortal.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “But it is not only they who are having-a-hard-time but rather even we to whom the Holy Spirit has been given who is the first-thing that God has given us who believe. It is as we are also groaning in our minds in our waiting for the time when God will clearly reveal our status as his children and will transform these bodies of ours into new bodies that never-die.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Now, not only what is in the world suffers, but also we want to have what we suffer pass by, that there will come the day when our bodies will become new. Then it will appear that we are God’s children. Even though we now walk with the Holy Spirit, yet we want to see the good which will be afterwards.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Mezquital Otomi: “And we suffer thirst and hunger, sickness and misfortune, and we sigh, but because God has given us the Holy Spirit as a sign of the joy that will come, therefore we wait for God to show we are his sons, with our bodies made new and glorious without weariness or pain.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 2:29:
Uma: “Jews who are really God’s people, are people who are/become Jews in their hearts, and who are circumcised in their hearts. That means the work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts makes them God’s people, they did not become God’s people from their following written laws. People like that are the ones God praises. Even though men do not praise them, God will still praise them.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “But the real Yahudi, is a person whose liver has been made new by God’s Spirit. His following/obeying the law is not what makes his liver new. This person even if his fellow human beings do not praise him yet God praises him.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “In the same way also the true Jew is the person whose breath has been marked by God by means of the Holy Spirit and not by means of obeying the Law. And a person like this, it may be that he is not praised by his fellow men. However, he by contrast will be praised by God.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Because the true Jew, I mean to say, the true person of God, it is not the person who is like a Jew in appearance and in custom only but rather it is the person whose thoughts are right. The circumcision moreover that is valuable in God’s estimation, it is not the circumcision of part of the body but rather it is the removal of evil from a person’s mind which is the work of the Spirit of God, not the work of the written law. The person who is like this, even though his companions don’t praise him, God praises him nonetheless.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “He who truly is God’s people, is the one who sets his heart on separating from evil. This is the person whom God looks well upon, even though people don’t look well upon that person.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Mezquital Otomi: “But the true Jew is he who obeys God in his heart, and that true sign in that which is inside a clean heart. This true sign is that which God does in one’s life principle, it is not that made in the body as written in the law. People will elevate the honor of the Jews just in appearance, but God is the one who will elevate the honor of those who are truly Jews in their hearts.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of John 17:10:
Chol: “All who belong to you also are mine. All who are mine are yours. My greatness has been shown in the believers.”
Mezquital Otomi: “All mine are yours and all yours are mine. We own them together. My glory appears in them.”
Yatzachi Zapotec: “And all the people who follow me are your children. And thus it is, whoever are your children are also my children. I receive honor because of what they do.”
Central Pame: “. . . It is apparent that I am glorious when the people I rule live righteously.” (Source for this and above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
Uma: “All people who are my portion are your (sing.) portion, Father. And all people who are your (sing.) portion are my portion. They are the ones who show the bigness of my life.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “All that are/is mine are/is yours and all that are/is yours are/is mine. And I am honored/made great by them, because they trust in me.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And as for the people who belong to you, they are mine also, and all that are mine are yours also. And by means of them my power is known.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Because all that-is/who-are mine is/are yours (sing.), and what is/are yours (sing.), is/are likewise also mine. And I am already being-honored/praised by-means-of them.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “All the ones who are mine, these are indeed yours, and all who are yours, they’re mine too. And my glory is apparent in/to them.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “All those who are in my hand are in your hand. Those who are in your hand are in my hand. I will be looked upon favorably because of them.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Eugene Nida wrote the following about the translation of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek terms that are typically translated with “prophet” in English:
“The tendency in many translations is to use ‘to foretell the future’ for ‘prophesy,’ and ‘one who foretells the future’ for ‘prophet.’ This is not always a recommended usage, particularly if such expressions denote certain special native practices of spirit contact and control. It is true, of course, that prophets of the Bible did foretell the future, but this was not always their principal function. One essential significance of the Greek word prophētēs is ‘one who speaks forth,’ principally, of course, as a forth-teller of the Divine will. A translation such as ‘spokesman for God’ may often be employed profitably.” (1947, p. 234f.)
Following is a list of (back-) translations from other languages (click or tap for details):
Ayutla Mixtec: “one who talks as God’s representative”
Isthmus Mixe: “speaker for God” (source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Mezquital Otomi / Paasaal: “God’s messenger” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff. and Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Noongar: Warda Marridjiny or “News Traveling” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Kutu: mtula ndagu or “one who gives the prediction of the past and the future” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
French 1985 translation by Chouraqui: inspiré or “inspired one” (“someone in whom God has breathed [Latin: in + spiro]) (source: Watson 2023, p. 45)
In Ixcatlán Mazatec a term is used that specifically includes women. (Source: Robert Bascom)
“In some instances these spiritual terms result from adaptations reflecting the native life and culture. Among the Northern Grebo people of Liberia, a missionary wanted some adequate term for ‘prophet,’ and she was fully aware that the native word for ‘soothsayer’ or ‘diviner’ was no equivalent for the Biblical prophet who spoke forth for God. Of course, much of what the prophets said referred to the future, and though this was an essential part of much of their ministry, it was by no means all. The right word for the Gbeapo people would have to include something which would not only mean the foretelling of important events but the proclamation of truth as God’s representative among the people. At last the right word came; it was ‘God’s town-crier.’ Every morning and evening the official representative of the chief goes through the village crying out the news, delivering the orders of the chief, and announcing important coming events. ‘God’s town-crier’ would be the official representative of God, announcing to the people God’s doings, His commands, and His pronouncements for their salvation and well-being. For the Northern Grebo people the prophet is no weird person from forgotten times; he is as real as the human, moving message of the plowman Amos, who became God’s town-crier to a calloused people.” (source: Nida 1952, p. 20)
In British Sign Language it is is translated with a sign that depicts a message coming from God to a person (the upright finger) and then being passed on to others. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Prophet” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
The Greek, Hebrew, and Latin terms that are translated in English mostly as “righteous” as an adjective or personified noun or “righteousness” (also as “justice”) are most commonly expressed with concept of “straightness,” though this may be expressed in a number of ways. (Click or tap here to see the details)
Following is a list of (back-) translations of various languages:
Paasaal: “white heart” (source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Nuer: “way of right” (“there is a complex concept of “right” vs. ‘left’ in Nuer where ‘right’ indicates that which is masculine, strong, good, and moral, and ‘left’ denotes what is feminine, weak, and sinful (a strictly masculine viewpoint!) The ‘way of right’ is therefore righteousness, but of course women may also attain this way, for the opposition is more classificatory than descriptive.”) (This and all above from Bratcher / Nida except for Bilua: Carl Gross; Tiv: Rob Koops; Muna: René van den Berg)
Yatzachi Zapotec: “walk straight” (source for this and four previous: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22)
Aari: The Pauline word for “righteous” is generally rendered by “makes one without sin” in the Aari, sometimes “before God” is added for clarity. (Source: Loren Bliese)
Ekari: maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (the same word that is also used for “truth“; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
Guhu-Samane: pobi or “right” (also: “right (side),” “(legal) right,” “straightness,” “correction,” “south,” “possession,” “pertinence,” “kingdom,” “fame,” “information,” or “speech” — “According to [Guhu-Samane] thinking there is a common core of meaning among all these glosses. Even from an English point of view the first five can be seen to be closely related, simply because of their similarity in English. However, from that point the nuances of meaning are not so apparent. They relate in some such a fashion as this: As one faces the morning sun, south lies to the right hand (as north lies to the left); then at one’s right hand are his possessions and whatever pertains to him; thus, a rich man’s many possessions and scope of power and influence is his kingdom; so, the rich and other important people encounter fame; and all of this spreads as information and forms most of the framework of the people’s speech.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in Notes on Translation 1964, p. 11ff.)
