Translating the Bible into Toba...
How do we translate the Scriptures into Toba? Sometimes we need to know things that are not expressed in the original text...
The Greek text of this verse says (with literal translation word for word):
The New International Version translates it as follows:
The New International Version translates it as follows:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
This verse gives us a number of problems in Toba, but let’s take a look at just one. In the second phrase “and the Word was with God”, we have to decide how to translate the word “with”, in the sense of Jesus, the Word, being “with God”.
In Toba, there are two ways you can talk about two people being together: either (1) face to face, or (2) side by side. So which of the two best fits our understanding of Jesus in the presence of God the Father? The text in Greek doesn’t give us this information, and translations in English and Spanish have no need to differentiate between the two possibilities: “with God” is all you need to say. But in Toba we have to choose one or the other of the two options.
José, who translated John’s Gospel, decided that it should be the second option, “side by side”, which implies unity and intimacy.
And so this is how we translated the verse into Toba:
Da'me 'uaechiñe joca'li, joote 'uo ñe'me jo'ne 'naqatac; nataq'aen ñe'me jo'ne 'naqatac joote ne'tajop joñe'me Dios, nataq'aen da'me nach'eñe joñe'me Dios.
Which means: “At the beginning a long time ago, already there is he who is word; and he who is word already is with (side by side) God,
and indeed this one is God.”
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text and graphics © Michael Browne 2006
John 1:1
www.michaelandsilvia.com/john1_1.html text and graphics© 2008 Michael Browne