Fascinating and Rich Translations

Translation is not quite as simple as substituting one word for another. According to Moisés Silva, Rabbi Judah is reported to have said, “If one translates a verse literally, he is a liar; if he adds thereto, he is a blasphemer and a libeler.” 

The Italian translator of Life’s Little Instruction Book, which I published, called me to ask what was meant by the entry, “Forget the Joneses.” She knew what the words meant, but it didn’t make sense because she did not know the expression “to keep up with the Joneses.”

In his book God’s Word in Man’s Language, Eugene Nida says that the message of the Bible must be in words that speak to the heart. Missionary translators, he says, have discovered hundred of rich expressions with which various languages are endowed. 


Anger
“a cut heart” (Mende, Sierra Leone)

Believe
“to cause God’s word to enter one’s heart” (Lacandon Indians, Mexico and Guatemala)

Compassion
“he cries in his soul” (Shilluk, Sudan)

Covetousness
“one who has gone crazy for things” (Shipibo Indians, Peru)

Faith  
“to hear and take into the soul” (Karre, French Equatorial Africa)

Forgive
“to give a person’s sin back to him” [Nida explains, “if the offended party ‘gives his sin back to him,’ then everything is re-established as it 

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was before the sin was ever committed. The sinner is regarded as completely innocent.”] (Navajo, United States)


Justification
“God sees him with the goodness of His son” (Tarascan, Mexico)
Love  
“Pain in the heart” [Nida says that John 3:16 reads, “God so hurt in his heart, that he gave his only Son. . .”] (Miskito, Nicaragua and Honduras)

Peace 
“a song in the body” (Baouli, Côte d'Ivoire)

Reconciliation  
“to rub off the corners” [so that two objects, meant for each other, will fit together] (Black Thai, southeast Asia)

Repentence 
“to put on a new mind” (Balinese, Indonesia)

Savior
“one who takes us by the hand” (Kabba-Laka, Central African Republic)

Thankfulness 
“my head is in the dirt” [Nida explains, “This is derived from the custom of expressing thanks by bowing low before another and actually pressing the head into the dirt, so humbled does one feel because of the graciousness of another. A ‘thankless person,’ on the other hand, is a ‘bill-wiping person.’ This unusual phrase is derived from observing how chickens, after voraciously gobbling down all the food, wipe off their bills in two or three hasty movements, and seem to be as hungry as ever. The thankless person is on the lookout for more benefits while he is still ‘wiping his bill.’”] (Mossi, Burkina Faso, Africa)

Worry  
“my mind is killing me” (Navajo, United States)