Language-specific Insights

complete verse (2 Peter 2:19)

Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Peter 2:19:

  • Uma: “Those teachers say: ‘If you follow our (excl.) teaching, you will be released from law, you can do whatever you want.’ But in fact it is they themselves who live like slaves, for behavior that cause the downfall of mankind control them. For if we have desires that control us, we are enslaved by those desires of ours.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “They promise the people that if they follow them, they can do whatever they want because they have no master. But this is the truth, even they themselves are like slaves to their bad customs. For whoever is addicted to do a certain thing, he is enslaved by that which he is doing.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Those teachers say that we can be saved by means of following them, for they say that any kind of behaviour is permitted to us, however, they are more deeply enslaved by activites which can destroy, for we (incl.) know that a person is a slave of anything which controls him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “They promise that a person will be free if he follows what they teach, but the truth of it is, they themselves are enslaved by the sins which defile (lit. cause-to-be-filthy) and ruin them. Because a person, he becomes a slave of whatever/whoever defeats him.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “They even promise that whoever will follow/obey their teaching, they really are now free, it now being possible/acceptable to do whatever they want to, for they are no longer slaves to the will of another. But well, as for the ones putting out that (idea), they are in fact slaves themselves to destructive/dangerous evil. Because the truth is, we people are slaves to whatever has control of us.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “They tell the people to do whatever they want to do. But they themselves cannot depart from the evil life they live. For every person, the road he takes, he finds that he can’t leave it.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Eastern Arrernte “They say to people, ‘You don’t have to obey God or any man,’ but they themselves continue to obey the devil. Look, the person who obeys his evil desires, for him his evil desires act as boss over him.” (Source: Carl Gross)

complete verse (1 John 4:18)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 John 4:18:

  • Uma: “If we really know God’s love to us, we are no longer afraid of God. His complete love strengthens our heart so that we are no longer afraid. If we fear that God will punish [us], its meaning, we do not yet really know his love for us.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “True love is not mixed with fear because if we (dual) truly love God our (dual) fear disappears. Whoever fears, his love is not yet complete, because he is afraid that perhaps he will be punished by God.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Anyone who loves God, it is not necessary that he be afraid of God, and since God’s love for us has no lack, he has removed already our fear of Him. The reason a person is afraid is because he expects God’s punishment on him, but as for that person who is afraid of God, God’s love for him has not yet been drawn tight in his mind.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “So long as there is love, it not possible that it be added-to with fear, because the love which has no lack, it blocks fear. So the person who is afraid because he is thinking about God’s punishment, that is the evidence that his love is still lacking.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For as long as our holding dear of God and valuing of our fellowman is true, we no longer have fear of punishment. Because, as for complete holding dear, it’s like it can bury/cover up this fear. Because what people really fear is, to be punished. Therefore if we are still afraid of being punished, it’s clear that our holding dear and valuing is still lacking.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The person who loves God from the heart does not then fear that God will be angry with him. How can you go on fearing when from the heart you love? A person fears that God will be angry at him when he doesn’t love from the heart.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “If we love God there is nothing for us to fear. And if we love God as we ought, there is nothing left for us to fear, because it is like a punishment for us when we are afraid. And if we fear anything, we do not love God as we ought.”
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “He who fears the judgment, he fears it because he hasn’t yet known well the love that God does to him. God’s love removes fear. When we fear, we think God will punish us.”
  • Tzotzil: “If we believe that God loves us, therefore we are not afraid. Because if we are afraid, it is because we think that God is going to punish us. If we believe that God really and truly loves us, not thus we think. Therefore if we are afraid it is because we have not believed that God loves us.”
  • Sayula Popoluca: “He who loves God, doesn’t fear. Because he who truly loves God will not fear anything. Because he who fears will suffer. He who fears, he doesn’t truly love God.” (Source for this and three above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.
  • Eastern Arrernte “The person who knows that God loves him does not fear God. But the person who fears that God will punish him, he does not yet know that God loves him very much.” (Source: Carl Gross)