desert / wilderness

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The Greek, Hebrew and Latin that is translated as “desert” or “wilderness” in English is translated in a number of ways:

  • Mairasi: “a place where noisiness is cut off (or: stops)” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Muna: pandaso bhalano pr “big barren-field” (source: René van den Berg)
  • Balinese: “barren field” (source: J.L. Swellengrebel in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 75ff. )
  • Wantoat: “uninhabited place” (source: Holzhausen 1991, p. 38)
  • Umiray Dumaget Agta: “where no people dwell” (source: Larson 1998, p. 98)
  • Shipibo-Conibo: “where no house is” (source: James Lauriault in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 32ff. )
  • Amri Karbi: “waterless region/place” (source: Philippova 2021, p. 368)
  • Ocotlán Zapotec: “large empty place” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Pa’o Karen: “jungle” (denoting a place without any towns, villages and tilled fields) (source: Gordon Luce in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 153f. )
  • Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006: “steppe”
  • Yakan: “the lonely place” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a land where no people lived” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “the place with no inhabitants” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Matumbi uses various term: lubele (desert, sandy place without water) — used in John 11:54, lupu’ngu’ti (a place where no people live, can be a scrub land, a forest, or a savanna) — used in Mark 1:3 et al.), and mwitu (a forest, a place where wild animals live) — used in Mark 1:13 et al.) (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Chichewa Contemporary translation (2002/2016): chipululu: a place uninhabited by people with thick forest and bush (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).

See also wilderness and desolate wilderness.

complete verse (Acts 13:18)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 13:18:

  • Uma: “After that, for forty years long, he endured seeing their rejection/rebellion while they were in the empty land.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “For forty years God endured the not obeying/following his teachings by the tribe of Isra’il there in that lonely place.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For forty years while they were still there in the land where no people lived, God put up with their rebellion against him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “When they were then walking through the place with no inhabitants for forty years, he bore-with their sins against him while-simultaneously he took-care of them.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “He put up with their opposing him for the space of forty years, which was the length of their journeying in the wilderness place.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Acts 13:18

As the Good News Translation, 3rd edition, points out in its “Other Readings and Renderings,” some manuscripts have “took care of” (see Jerusalem Bible) in place of endured. Luke is apparently alluding to Deuteronomy 1.31 where the Septuagint has the same two alternative forms. Though the form meaning “took care of” is supported by a slightly stronger diversity of manuscript evidence and seems more suited to the context, the textual evidence is not at all conclusive. In fact the best, and the majority of the Septuagint manuscripts, have “took care of”; hence if the form meaning “endured” were the original reading of Acts, one can readily see why scribes would have tended to make the change to the form meaning “took care of,” so that this reference in Acts would conform to the Septuagint reading. Conversely, it is difficult to see why the change would have been made in the other direction. On the whole, therefore, the form meaning “endured” seems to be the preferred reading in this verse.

The concept of endured is not easy to communicate in some languages. Sometimes there is an idiomatic expression somewhat equivalent to “put up with” or “got along with despite difficulties.” In other instances endured must be expressed by some type of descriptive phrase: “he helped them despite the way they treated him” or “he stayed with them even though they did not show they wanted him.”

Desert is not wholly satisfactory as a translation of the underlying Greek term, since it suggests to many people sandy wastes such as the Sahara. The term “wilderness” is also misleading. The basic meaning is “uninhabited area” and in many languages this is “the bush” or “out where no one was living.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .