The Greek, and Latin that is translated as “creation” in English is translated in Lisu as ꓟꓵ ꓚꓰꓼ ꓟꓲ ꓚꓰꓼ — my tshe mi tshe, verbatim translated as “place — make — earth — make.” This construction follows a traditional four-couplet construct in oral Lisu poetry that is usually in the form ABAC or ABCB. (Source: Arrington 2020, p. 58)
In American Sign Language it is translated with a sign that signifies creating out of nothing. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Creation” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Corinthians 5:17:
Uma: “So, if a person is connected with Kristus, he is a new person/mankind. His/Her former life is past. He/She has gotten new life.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “If a person is already one with Almasi, he is like newly created. All his bad customs and doings that he formerly did have come to an end and now he is really new.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And as for the person who has become one with Christ, he is a new creature. The things that were placed before in his thinking have gone out of existence, and they have been replaced with new things.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Because whoever is united-with Cristo, God has-made-him a new person. His former thoughts have come-to-an-end, for they have been replaced with new.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well, in just the same way, whoever is now really united/tied-together with Cristo, everything about him (lit. his asolutely-everything) will be made-new. What it is likened to is, (he has been) created again, therefore there is no more of that former evil in his life for it has now been made new.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Concerning the person who believes in Christ, now his thoughts have become different. Now he has left off from how he walked before. Concerning how he walks now, all is new.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The Greek Christos (Χρηστός) is typically transliterated when it appears together with Iésous (Ἰησοῦς) (Jesus). In English the transliteration is the Anglicized “Christ,” whereas in many other languages it is based on the Greek or Latin as “Kristus,” “Cristo,” or similar.
When used as a descriptive term in the New Testament — as it’s typically done in the gospels (with the possible exceptions of for instance John 1:17 and 17:3) — Christos is seen as the Greek translation of the Hebrew mashiaḥ (המשיח) (“anointed”). Accordingly, a transliteration of mashiaḥ is used, either as “Messiah” or based on the Greek or Latin as a form of “Messias.”
This transliteration is also used in the two instances where the Greek term Μεσσίας (Messias) is used in John 1:41 and 4:25.
In some languages and some translations, the term “Messiah” is supplemented with an explanation. Such as in the GermanGute Nachricht with “the Messiah, the promised savior” (Wir haben den Messias gefunden, den versprochenen Retter) or in Muna with “Messiah, the Saving King” (Mesias, Omputo Fosalamatino) (source: René van den Berg).
In predominantly Muslim areas or for Bible translations for a Muslim target group, Christos is usually transliterated from the Arabic al-Masih (ٱلْمَسِيحِ) — “Messiah.” In most cases, this practice corresponds with languages that also use a form of the Arabic Isa (عيسى) for Jesus (see Jesus). There are some exceptions, though, including modern translations in Arabic which use Yasua (يَسُوعَ) (coming from the Aramaic Yēšūa’) alongside a transliteration of al-Masih, Hausa which uses Yesu but Almahisu, and some Fula languages (Adamawa Fulfulde, Nigerian Fulfulde, and Central-Eastern Niger Fulfulde) which also use a form of Iésous (Yeesu) but Almasiihu (or Almasiifu) for Christos.
In Indonesian, while most Bible translations had already used Yesus Kristus rather than Isa al Masih, three public holidays used to be described using the term Isa Al Masih. From 2024 on, the government is using Yesus Kristus in those holiday names instead (see this article in Christianity Today ).
Other solutions that are used by a number of languages include these:
Dobel: “The important one that God had appointed to come” (source: Jock Hughes)
Noongar: Keny Mammarap or “The One Man” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Mairasi: “King of not dying for life all mashed out infinitely” (for “mashed out,” see salvation; source: Lloyd Peckham)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “One chosen by God to rule mankind” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Bacama: Ma Pwa a Ngɨltən: “The one God has chosen” (source: David Frank in this blog post )
Binumarien: Anutuna: originally a term that was used for a man that was blessed by elders for a task by the laying on of hands (source: Desmond Oatridges, Holzhausen 1991, p. 49f.)
Noongar: Keny Boolanga-Yira Waangki-Koorliny: “One God is Sending” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uab Meto: Neno Anan: “Son of heaven” P. Middelkoop explains: “The idea of heavenly power bestowed on a Timorese king is rendered in the title Neno Anan. It is based on the historical fact that chiefs in general came from overseas and they who come thence are believed to have come down from heaven, from the land beyond the sea, that means the sphere of God and the ghosts of the dead. The symbolical act of anointing has been made subservient to the revelation of an eternal truth and when the term Neno Anan is used as a translation thereof, it also is made subservient to a new revelation of God in Jesus Christ. The very fact that Jesus came from heaven makes this translation hit the mark.” (Source: P. Middelkoop in The Bible Translator 1953, p. 183ff. )
In Finnish Sign Language both “Christ” and “Messiah” are translated with a sign signifying “king.” (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
“Christ / Messiah” in Finnish Sign Language (source )
Law (2013, p. 97) writes about how the Ancient GreekSeptuagint‘s translation of the Hebrew mashiah was used by the New Testament writers as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments (click or tap here to read more):
“Another important word in the New Testament that comes from the Septuagint is christos, ‘Christ.’ Christ is not part of the name of the man from Nazareth, as if ‘the Christs’ were written above the door of his family home. Rather, ‘Christ’ is an explicitly messianic title used by the writers of the New Testament who have learned this word from the Septuagint’s translation of the Hebrew mashiach, ‘anointed,’ which itself is often rendered in English as ‘Messiah.’ To be sure, one detects a messianic intent on the part of the Septuagint translator in some places. Amos 4:13 may have been one of these. In the Hebrew Bible, God ‘reveals his thoughts to mortals,’ but the Septuagint has ‘announcing his anointed to humans.’ A fine distinction must be made, however, between theology that was intended by the Septuagint translators and that developed by later Christian writers. In Amos 4:13 it is merely possible we have a messianic reading, but it is unquestionably the case that the New Testament writers exploit the Septuagint’s use of christos, in Amos and elsewhere, to messianic ends.”
The precise function of the word Therefore which begins this verse is not clear. Is Paul drawing out the consequences of what he has said in verse 16, or does the word Therefore go back to verses 14 and 15? If, as seems most likely, verses 16 and 17 are parallel in thought, then both verses draw out the consequences of what Paul has written in verses 14 and 15. Some translations such as Good News Translation and Revised English Bible fail to translate the connecting word Therefore and simply leave unexpressed the precise relationship of verse 17 to what precedes.
On the meaning and translation of in Christ, see comments on 1.21; 2.14.
He is a new creation: the pronoun he may have to be made more explicit in some languages, since some readers may think it refers to Christ. In those cases translators may have to say “that person is a new being.” New creation is literally “new ktisis.” The Greek word ktisis nearly always means “creation” in Paul’s letters, rather than “creature”; “creature” would make it refer to an individual person. The Greek has no pronoun and no verb, so the verb phrase that translators supply (“he is” or “there is”) depends in part on the meaning of the noun ktisis. According to Good News Translation and many other versions, the individual person “is a new being.” But according to Moffatt, Anchor Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and New Revised Standard Version, “there is a new creation,” meaning not just that the individual person has been made new but also that a new situation has been created. The majority of English versions, however, seem to prefer the individual interpretation reflected in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. Translators may choose to place the alternative translation in a footnote, as Revised Standard Version does.
The old refers to things that characterized the pre-Christian life. Revised English Bible says “the old order.”
Has passed away: this may be rendered “has disappeared” (Knox), “has come to an end” (Anchor Bible), or “finished and gone” (Phillips). This stands in contrast with has come at the end of the verse.
Behold: this particle is often left untranslated in modern versions (Good News Translation and Revised English Bible) or is represented only by an exclamation mark at the end of the sentence (New American Bible and New International Version). New Revised Standard Version attempts to render it using the less archaic “see…!” If the receptor language has a particle that naturally calls attention to what follows, it may be used here.
Some manuscripts have the word “all” both at the end of verse 17 and at the beginning of verse 18. This reading of 17b is found in older translations such as Segond, Reina-Valera revisada, and King James Version (“all things are become new”), but the editors of the UBS Greek New Testament consider it more likely that a scribe later added the word to the end of verse 17.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellingworth, Paul. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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®).
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